Ahead of Sergio Ramos’ press conference (at 17:00pm CET), Sevilla’s shareholders have denounced the former defender in scathing terms.

Ramos was set to purchase his first ever club, fronting a takeover bid having been granted exclusivity at the start of the year.

However, that period has now run out, and a deal will not go forward as Sevilla allege Ramos changed the terms of the deal at the last moment.

In a statement, the club’s main shareholders take aim at Ramos and the Five Eleven group he fronted.

They confirm media reports that a letter of intent was signed for the club’s purchase on January 26th for 85% of shares.

They deal was then confirmed on May 11th, but on May 27th, Ramos informed the club he wanted to change the terms of the deal, in what they call an act of ‘deception’.

They end in damning fashion, accusing Ramos of ‘malicious and fraudulent conduct’ and announce that they have demanded payment of penalty fees.

Full statement from Sevilla shareholders

The undersigned shareholders of Sevilla FC SAD (Guijarro, Castro, Carrión, Alés and Del Benavente families), in a scenario with recent proposals for the purchase of significant blocks of shares in the share capital, believe it is appropriate to communicate:

For months, various investment groups interested in Sevilla FC have approached the main shareholders of the entity. Their proposals have been carefully analysed on the basis that they would be beneficial for the Club, as well as for its legitimate owners, and would also allow for accelerating the recovery of the current sporting and economic situation of the entity.
On January 26, 2026, an agreement was signed by two of the main shareholder groups, which was subsequently joined by the other two main groups, for the sale of up to 85% of the share capital, for a price per share that would be paid in cash and with the obligation to subsequently carry out a capital increase of 80 million euros, based on the formalization of a binding letter of intent with the Five Eleven Capital group and Sergio Ramos.
This letter of intent was drawn up with the conviction that the active participation of the former Sevilla FC player constituted his personal guarantee, as he vehemently assured us, for the success of the future transaction; both in terms of fulfilling the agreement and for the future of the club. Among the investors who supported and backed the aforementioned binding offer, from whom we received letters of commitment, were three reputable international groups, none of which was DMI, a group that did not appear until the penultimate meeting.
This agreement was ratified on May 11, 2026, at a meeting between the parties, after the shareholders agreed to new requests from the potential buyers, such as a payment deferral and a reduction in the transaction price. The shareholders assumed most of the season’s losses , even though this adjustment was already implicit in the previous proposal. According to Messrs. Ramos and Ink, these requests came from a “new investor,” the Mexican DMI Group.
On May 27, 2026, just days before the agreement was due to expire, Mr. Ramos and his advisors declared their express intention not to honour the agreement. They revealed that the DMI Group was indeed their sole investor, with all others, including FIVE ELEVEN itself, having disappeared. They changed their contacts and presented a completely different proposal, both in form and substance, to the terms already agreed upon. This radical change in investor profile, very different from the previous investors who had vanished, even raised doubts about the future of the entity’s real estate assets. The buyer clearly knew this breach of contract would jeopardize the transaction, as the agreement had been finalized months earlier and publicly endorsed by Mr. Ramos himself on May 11. This deception, in which Mr. Ramos and his entourage kept us until that very day, as everyone who had any contact with him knows, was not something that happened suddenly, as he absurdly claims now; it had been prepared for months, months of deception to the detriment of Sevilla FC, with machinations that have been revealed.
We consider everything that has happened a clear lack of respect for the shareholders and the Club, with only five days remaining before the exclusivity period from January to May 31, 2026, which the alleged buyer had enjoyed as a privileged party. Furthermore, we consider it unbecoming of such a respected and influential figure in the world of football as Mr. Ramos , who, in theory, was a guarantee for the future of Sevilla FC.
Throughout the process, the Club has proactively collaborated, as approved by its Board of Directors, and has made all relevant information available to interested parties to facilitate due diligence. This process, commissioned by the interested parties, began on February 9, 2026, and lasted 45 days . The shareholders granted the prospective buyers an additional two weeks to prepare their report, which was completed on April 13 , by which time they possessed all the necessary information and their conclusions . These transactional due diligence audits of the Club resulted in satisfactory reports, as even publicly stated by the interested parties themselves. At the meeting on May 11, 2026, with DMI officially involved, the prospective buyers reaffirmed their satisfaction with the results of the due diligence process, a fact they communicated to all media outlets, as confirmed by various reports citing the prospective buyers.
The Club’s financial situation is, in any case, completely transparent and public, and its annual accounts, properly and truthfully audited, are publicly available on the Sevilla FC website. Furthermore, they do not at all coincide with the information being disseminated by Mr. Ramos’s associates, which is damaging to the Club’s reputation and constitutes a blatant breach of the confidentiality agreements signed with the Club and its shareholders to protect their information. Aware of the current circumstances, we also wish to make it clear that this alleged delicate financial situation would never be a valid argument for any interested party in Sevilla FC to exploit it or use it as a bargaining chip to surreptitiously alter previously agreed-upon conditions, as has been the case here. This is further aggravated by the fact that the information has also been used to damage the Club’s reputation.
It is important to clarify that all groups, individuals, or investment funds interested in acquiring a majority stake in the Club are required from the outset to carry out a capital increase immediately following the transfer of shares, in order to accelerate the club’s recovery. This is not the buyers’ choice, but a requirement of the sellers, and from the very beginning of negotiations, they were obligated to raise €80 million.
We are already working on reviving certain proposals from solid, reliable groups to take over Sevilla FC, which had been put on hold due to the exclusivity agreement we had with Mr. Ramos. These other offers have remained pending during this time. Contacts have resumed this Monday.
In this transition period towards a possible future sale, we are aware that the Board of Directors of the entity will continue to undertake the necessary measures to maintain its roadmap for restructuring, bearing in mind that some will be difficult in the short term but will help to consolidate a better and more sustainable situation in the medium and long term.
Obviously, as a result of this situation, we are aware of the difficulty of this process, but also that it is the path of recovery that we must take to achieve sporting, corporate and institutional continuity of the Club.
We understand that Sevilla FC’s current economic and sporting situation is neither the best nor in keeping with the Club’s history. Just as we have led the club to historic heights of excellence in the past, we are self-critical about what has happened in recent seasons, which has led to the club’s current overall situation, and we are extremely sensitive to this reality and share the understandable disappointment of recent seasons.
It is also wish to inform you that this morning a direct communication was sent to Mr. Ramos and FIVE ELEVEN , denouncing his breach, demanding payment of the penalty clause, warning him that his malicious and fraudulent conduct will entail the claim for other damages, not included in the penalty claimed, and requiring him to immediately cease breaching his duty to maintain absolute confidentiality in connection with the Club information that he has learned thanks to access to the documentation disclosed so that he could carry out the Due Diligence, for which express confidentiality agreements were signed.