With more than 30 years of experience in the finance and media industry, this passion driven Spaniard took the Barça brand global in less than two years. ADOI’s Andrea Mathew caught up with cool cat Joan Oliver i Fontanet, ex-CEO of FC Barcelona when he came to speak at the ‘International Herald Tribune, Alternative Investments in Asia’ conference in Kuala Lumpur.

BREAKING THE TRADITION
Change is good while staying true to your identity

The defeat in the European Cup final in Athens in 1994 marked the end of a cycle for FC Barcelona or Barça. Then the controversial departure of Johan Cruyff’s in 1996 opened up a deep division amongst the fans and members which in turn had a great effect on the life of the Club. The sporting failures of the 1999 to 2000 season intensified the crisis.

After many years of trouble, the newly elected president of the Club in 2003, Joan Laporta, started the up trend to what will culminate into being ranked by UEFA the number one football Club of 2010/2011.

Under the leadership of Joan Laporta, Barça quickly gained global recognition when they rejected some €30 million worth of sponsorship and decided to adopt UNICEF as their main “sponsor” and pay them instead. The sporting Club unveiled its 2006 to 2007 jersey featuring the UNICEF logo on the front, the first time in the club’s 107 year history that a logo has been featured.

In addition to the UNICEF-branded jersey, Barça had also agreed to donate at least €1.5 million per year to UNICEF over the next five years to support UNICEF programmes for children all over the world. Breaking the trend, they proved Barça was not just another club. “Signing the UNICEF agreement in 2006 was a crucial element in growing the brand. It helped to preserve and explain the identity and soul of the Club and make us more appealing to fans and sponsors. Revenue is important but more pivotal is the message you send to the world. Money will follow once you become a powerful entity with thousands and millions of fans around the world.

“The thing about marketing is you have to be authentic. The problem today is many company’s CSR initiatives seem pretentious but the UNICEF sponsor proved our motto, ‘More than a Club’ because we represent many things and not just another money-making football club,” prides Joan Oliver.

AT THE HEART OF THE MATTER
They built their future from their past

Prior to Joan Oliver’s election as the CEO of FC Barcelona, the Club had already made a few good moves such as the UNICEF “sponsor” and the relaunch and renewed involvement of the fans and membership under the slogan “More than a Club”.

Joan Oliver and his team brought a new dimension to running the Club. They decided the crucial element to turn the Club into a winner was to preserve the Club’s heritage while commercialising the team. “The secret is three pronged. We have to be consistent in defending our identity, increase our resources which will subsequently increase our revenue and most importantly, manage the Club like a business. The combination of being coherent with our identity and managing the Club like a business is the key to success.” Entrenched in 110 years of history and tradition, the Club has no sole owner. It is the property of its 167,000 members and operates on a democratic system where elections are held to determine the board and president every term. But there was one essential element of the Barça identity, which brought the Club back to its feet. Re-discovering the Barça playing style was the first step in re-building the Spanish football legacy.

“When we re-visited our roots, we found the Barça style of playing was very unique and key to our past success. The Barça style originates in the mid-70s and comes from Netherlands. The style follows a ‘total football’ game strategy. This influential tactical theory of association football allows any outfield player to take over the role of any other player in a team. The only player fixed in a nominal position is the goalkeeper. It arrived in Barcelona in 1973 when Barça bought Johan Cruyff, one of the greatest players from Netherlands. The Barça style has been the star of their success story. “After more than 30 years we produced a great generation of players. In the finals of the European Champions league 2009 against Manchester United, seven out of 11 players were from our academy. This helps players to be united by one style and one philosophy. Manchester on the other hand, played with zero players from their academy.

“During the finals of the FIFA World Cup 2010, Spain defeated Netherlands with a 1-0 score. The goal scored for the Spanish team during the finals was by a Barça player. In fact the Spanish team used the Barça style as a framework.”

THE BUSINESS OF FOOTBALL
A football club should be treated like a real estate investment

To achieve success in terms of revenue, the challenge was to transform Barça, from a local brand into a global one. As Joan Oliver explained, they needed to become internationally competitive because in football, like many other industries, the competition exists at an international level.
“To compete against international clubs, we needed more resources. Barça has no sole owner as compared to Manchester which is owned by a very rich person with big pockets or Milan, owned by the Prime Minister of Italy. To obtain resources, we had to become global which in turn attracted sponsors and fans. Today, FC Barcelona has the most number of fans for an international sports club.”

The Club is also free from political interference and as a result gets no financial support from the government. As Joan Oliver explains, a football club is not a high capital business. “You don’t need lots of money to run a club but in order to grow a healthy revenue, you need to consistently follow a policy. The most expensive thing in managing a football club is the mistakes. Minimising percentage of mistakes is the secret.

“When I first came in, we built a business plan and obtained a syndicated loan. The power and leverage of a football club is really impressive. It is the most stable business in the world because the Club has links with the community and the community won’t allow the Club to fail. The community includes the banks. If a bank does not support the football Club, hundreds of thousands of people will be against the bank.”

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Source: ADOIMagazine.com

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