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Emilio Maurer Espinosa' (Born October 20, 1938) is a Mexican entrepreneur, politician, and former football executive. In the late 1980s and early 1990s was sports director of the Mexican first division club Puebla FC and president of the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (FMF).

Maurer is often credited for propelling Mexico's football to a competitive global scale.

Early life
Maurer was born on October 20, 1938 in Puebla. As a child, Maurer was a massive fan of Club Puebla.

Puebla ownership
Under the ownership of Maurer, Puebla managed to win two championships.

FMF Presidency
During his tenure as president of the FMF, Maurer appointed a commission to reorganize the television broadcasting rights for the matches of the Primera División and the National Team. Whereas the media giant Televisa had previously been the sole broadcaster of all matches, and at an extremely low price at that, Maurer's plan was to put the matches out to tender in the future and obtain a fair market price for the broadcast. He had a supporter of this idea in Francisco Ibarra, who shared the FMF presidency with Maurer and presided over league rival CF Atlas. But Televisa, which was linked to Club América, did not think of paying a higher price for broadcasting rights in the future or having to share them with other media, and boycotted the negotiations. Instead, at least it is alleged, they set the strings in motion behind the scenes and operated to oust Maurer and Ibarra. According to the story, their powerful arm reached all the way to Puebla, where the Puebla City Magistrate closed the Estadio Cuauhtémoc used by Puebla FC as its home venue after the 1991/92 season because of alleged black market ticket sales in the final home game against Club León, and the main sponsor Volkswagen de México withdrew. As a result, Puebla FC was forced to play its first home games at different and frequently changing venues during the 1992/93 season. During this period, the team had to travel long distances (once even as far as Hermosillo in northern Mexico) because many clubs were unwilling to make their stadium available. Amazingly, the Estadio Cuauhtémoc was released immediately after Maurer's retirement on October 20, 1992 (his 54th birthday).

Resignation
After Maurer resigned from the presidency of the FMF, the television broadcasting rights were again awarded to Televisa. In addition, Maurer had to stand trial in 1993 for alleged embezzlement of funds, was sentenced to imprisonment and declared persona non grata.

Nevertheless, at no time did Maurer regret his actions at the time: "The only time we broke free from the shackles of Televisa was in my time, when Paco Ibarra was president and I was vice president. They locked me up for it, but it was worth it because it was the only time that the power of the FMF was exercised in their offices and not in the rooms of Avenida Chapultepec 18." .

Football ban
Maurer, along with Roberto Ruiz Esparza, was banned for life from Mexican football in September 2007. Maurer at this time was acting president of the club. Despite the fact Maurer did not make part of Club Puebla's management, an investigation alleged Maurer and Esparza fixed Puebla's promotional win against Dorados in the 2007 Primera A promotional final. Excerpts of an alleged telephone conversation between Maurer and Ruiz Esparza in where they discussed convincing Dorados' coach, Hugo Fernández, to modify his tactics for the match were published. Although the match fixing had not been proven, the alleged conspiracy was enough for the FMF to issue the ban.

Fernández denied the allegations, stating neither Maurer nor Esparza had contacted him or his players.

Politics
Maurer was elected in 2018.

Individual references
Category:Entrepreneur (Mexico)]] Category:Soccer official (Mexico)]] Category:Mexican]] Category:Born 1938]] Category:Man]]