Aníbal Mosa

Aníbal Mosa
Mosa in 2024
President of Blanco y Negro S.A.
Incumbent
Assumed office
26 April 2024
Preceded byAlfredo Stohwing
In office
29 April 2019 – 21 April 2021
Preceded byGabriel Ruíz-Tagle
Succeeded byEdmundo Valladares
In office
24 April 2015 – 4 January 2018
Preceded byArturo Salah
Succeeded byGabriel Ruíz-Tagle
Personal details
Born (1967-04-06) 6 April 1967[1]
Qamishli, Syria
PartyClose to Socialist Party[2]
OccupationEntrepreneur, football executive

Yakob Aníbal Mosa Shmes (born 6 April 1967) is a Syrian-born Chilean entrepreneur and football executive who has served, on three separate occasions, as president of Blanco y Negro S.A., the board concessionaire that manages the Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo.[3][4]

Early life

Mosa was born in Qamishli, a city in northeastern Syria near the Turkish border, the son of Aziz Mosa, a taxi driver, and Emel Schmes.[2][5] He and his family—his parents and his two siblings, Jack and Fabiola—immigrated to Chile on 26 September 1973, arriving in the country days after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état.[5] Upon entry, immigration officials misspelled the family's original surnames, Musa and Chemsi, rendering them as Mosa and Shmes, the names the family has used since.[5]

The family briefly stayed in Santiago before travelling to the southern town of Río Negro, where relatives had already settled, and spending about 45 days there learning Spanish.[5] They then settled in Frutillar, where his father purchased a former hay barn and opened a small general store.[6][5] The family later relocated its business to Puerto Montt.[6][7]

Both of Mosa's parents died in separate car accidents during his youth: his mother in 1984, at age 37, and his father in 1986, when Mosa was 19.[5] He and his brother were themselves involved in a car accident on the night their father died, while returning from the hospital where the body had been taken.[5]

Mosa first became acquainted with Colo-Colo in March 1974, watching a broadcast of a match at a neighbor's house in Frutillar, one of only a handful of homes in the town with a television set at the time; he became a supporter of the club after watching forward Carlos Caszely.[5]

Business career

Mosa and his family built a career in retail in southern Chile, later operating a supermarket chain that they sold around 2009.[5] In 2007, he expressed interest in joining the administration of two other Chilean football clubs, Deportes Puerto Montt and Deportes Antofagasta, though these efforts did not prosper.[2]

Mall Paseo Chiloé

In 2008, Mosa and his older brother, Jackob Mosa, as owners of the holding company Grupo Pasmar S.A., undertook a controversial shopping-center development, the Mall Paseo Chiloé, in the city of Castro on Chiloé Island.[8][9][10] The project drew criticism both for the scale of the building and its location within the city's historic center, near a church designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, which characterized the project's impact as negative.[11] The mall was also able to proceed after a change to Castro's zoning plan was made the same year the project was proposed, a change without which it would not have received a building permit; Grupo Pasmar S.A. was separately fined by the Castro local police court for violating a work-stoppage order.[12]

Blanco y Negro presidency

In late 2010, Mosa bought a 12.5% stake in Blanco y Negro after acquiring share dividends auctioned by then newly elected President Sebastián Piñera.[13] By his own account, he pursued the purchase after seeing a televised interview in which Piñera announced plans to sell his shares in the club, prompting Mosa to contact his financial adviser, Paul Fontaine, to negotiate on his behalf.[5]

In 2012, Mosa became the largest individual shareholder in Blanco y Negro after purchasing half of the shares held by Hernán Levy, increasing his stake to 24.5% and giving him the right to appoint three directors to the board.[14]

In 2015, following the company's shareholder meeting, Mosa was elected to succeed Arturo Salah as president of Blanco y Negro.[15]

In 2019, Mosa brought former ANFP president Harold Mayne-Nicholls onto the board as one of the three directors his shareholding entitled him to appoint,[16] and was re-elected president of Blanco y Negro, defeating an opposing faction by a vote of five to four with the support of the two directors representing the Club Social.[17]

In 2020, a dispute over reductions to players' salaries, following public statements from both sides, triggered a wider conflict between the concessionaire and the squad; the episode became the club's most serious institutional crisis in years and nearly resulted in Colo-Colo's relegation for the first time in its history.[18] Mosa has said that Colo-Colo's finances deteriorated sharply in the years before this crisis, with the club's cash reserves falling from roughly 12 billion Chilean pesos to around 500 million pesos between 2010 and 2014 amid heavy spending on player transfers and coaching changes.[5]

Mosa was elected president of Blanco y Negro for a third time on 26 April 2024, succeeding Alfredo Stohwing; his tenure has coincided with Colo-Colo's centenary celebrations in 2025.[5]

Controversies

Caso Licencias driving-licence scandal

In December 2023, the television channel Mega broadcast a report on the irregular obtaining of driver's licenses by Mosa and 21 footballers with a past or present connection to Colo-Colo.[19] The licenses had been issued by the municipality of Nancagua through its then transit director and later mayor, Aníbal Valenzuela, who allegedly received official Colo-Colo merchandise and other benefits in exchange, conduct that prosecutors characterized in their charges against him as bribery.[20] Through the scheme, Mosa and the players obtained authentic licenses without completing the required medical, psychometric, and practical examinations.

Prosecutors regarded Mosa's position as more serious than that of the other defendants, as he had also listed a false address in Nancagua and presented a falsified primary-school completion certificate to obtain his license.[21] While prosecutors reached agreements with several of the players involved, approved by the Santa Cruz Juzgado de Garantía (court of guarantee), Mosa was placed under a cautionary measure requiring monthly reporting to authorities pending discussion of a possible alternative resolution.[22]

Political views

Mosa is openly progressivist and identifies with Chile's political left.[23][24][25][26] His parents were members of the Baath Arab Socialist Party before the family left Syria.[2] In August 2019, he declared his admiration for former President Michelle Bachelet, whom he described as a "heritage of Chilean democracy".[27]

References

  1. ↑ González L., Carlos (10 August 2019). "Aníbal Mosa: "Se me ocurrió lo de Harold haciendo bikram yoga"". La Tercera. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Los vínculos con la izquierda de Aníbal Mosa, el presidente de Blanco y Negro". Radio Bío-Bío. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  3. ↑ González L., Carlos (30 April 2019). "Los nuevos caciques". La Tercera. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  4. ↑ Olea, Nicolás (30 April 2019). "El agridulce registro de Aníbal Mosa al mando de Colo Colo: dos estrellas, una Copa Chile y fracaso internacional". Redgol. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Podcast Centenario | Capítulo 3: Aníbal Mosa (video interview) (in Spanish). Colo-Colo. 7 February 2025 – via YouTube.
  6. 1 2 "EyN: Las mil y una vidas de Aníbal Mosa". www.economiaynegocios.cl. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
  7. ↑ Ovalle, Christian (2019-01-12). "La desconocida historia de Aníbal Mosa: pobreza, problemas familiares y constante reinvención". BioBioChile - La Red de Prensa Más Grande de Chile (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-12-25.
  8. ↑ Gonzalez, Alberto (18 April 2013). "El vínculo del principal accionista de Colo Colo con el polémico Mall de Castro". BioBioChile (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-03-14.
  9. ↑ "La conflictiva historia de los millonarios hermanos Mosa abarca desde el mall de Castro hasta Colo Colo". El Mostrador (in Spanish). 25 April 2015. Retrieved 2025-03-14.
  10. ↑ "La pugna que desató el mall de Chiloé". La Tercera (in Spanish). 9 March 2012. Retrieved 2025-03-14.
  11. ↑ "Duro informe de la UNESCO contra el mall de Castro". CIPER Chile (in Spanish).
  12. ↑ Herman, Patricio (13 June 2013). "Autoridades hacen trampa para posibilitar el polémico mall de Castro". CIPER Chile (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-03-14.
  13. ↑ Baquedano, Juan Pablo (16 April 2013). "Aníbal Mosa, el "impulsivo" y "trabajólico" que quiere ser presidente de Colo-Colo". La Segunda. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  14. ↑ "Aníbal Mosa fue el comprador de la mitad de las acciones de Hernán Levy en ByN". La Tercera (in Spanish). 5 July 2012. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  15. ↑ "Aníbal Mosa es oficializado como nuevo presidente de Colo Colo". Emol (in Spanish). 24 April 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  16. ↑ González, Christian; González, Carlos (28 April 2019). "Aníbal Mosa se lleva a Harold Mayne-Nicholls a Colo Colo". La Tercera (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  17. ↑ Harz, Matías (29 April 2019). "Aníbal Mosa es otra vez presidente de Colo Colo y será acompañado por Harold Mayne-Nicholls en la vicepresidencia". Emol (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  18. ↑ Vega, Diego (29 October 2020). "¿Renunciar? La puerta que abrió Mosa con el caos de Colo Colo". Diario AS (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-04-15.
  19. ↑ "Investigan a 22 jugadores de Colo Colo por posibles irregularidades en licencias de conducir". AlAireLibre.cl (in Spanish). 21 December 2023. Retrieved 2025-03-15.
  20. ↑ "Prisión preventiva para alcalde de Nancagua por licencias indebidas y cohecho". Tirant Prime Chile (in Spanish). 11 March 2025. Retrieved 2025-03-15.
  21. ↑ S.A.P., El Mercurio (30 August 2024). "Por qué Aníbal Mosa es el más complicado de Colo Colo por el "Caso Licencias" falsas y el riesgo que corre". Emol (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-03-15.
  22. ↑ "Juzgado de Garantía de Santa Cruz decreta la suspensión condicional del procedimiento por obtención indebida de licencias de conducir". Poder Judicial de Chile (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-03-15.
  23. ↑ "Compañero Mosa: "No le daré Colo Colo a la derecha económica. Yo soy de izquierda y el hincha también"". El Mostrador. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  24. ↑ Baquedano, Juan Pablo (16 April 2013). "Aníbal Mosa: "Colo Colo es de izquierda y debe ser administrado por el pueblo"". 24 Horas. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  25. ↑ "CNN Prime: "Colo Colo es de izquierda"". CNN Chile. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  26. ↑ "La lucha de ideologías en Colo Colo que destapó Aníbal Mosa". Radio Universidad de Chile. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  27. ↑ "Aníbal Mosa: "Lo que me pida la presidenta Bachelet, lo haría"". Soy Chile. 31 August 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
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