2023-10-17 07:30:26
BarcelonaBarça has recently updated its executive organizational chart following the departure of Àlex Barbany, who will leave Joan Sentelles and Maribel Meléndez as the main managers of Espai Barça. In this structure there are currently a total of 20 professionals spread over two levels. On the one hand, there is what reports to the treasurer, Ferran Olivé, who will take the reins of the relationship with the League after the friendly resignation of Mateu Alemany. And, on the other hand, the one who reports directly to the executive president, Joan Laporta, who is still “closed in a band”, according to those around him, to hire a CEO or general manager to fill the void left by Ferran Reverter will do two years
Among the 10 department heads who don’t need filters to talk to the ruling plenipotentiary, there is a key survivor. He is 67 years old, has worked at Barça since the end of the 90s – under Josep Lluís Núñez -, is the only top executive that Laporta has not signed expressly for his second term and is taken for granted when someone shouts “Messi” in the corridors and offices of the offices. It is Josep Maria Meseguer, the head of Barça Licensing & Merchandising (BLM), the mercantile company that manages the sale of official products with the Barca crest: from game or training shirts to everyday items such as mugs , pins or pens, passing through limited collections of casual clothing.
Laporta has changed almost all positions of trust since the 2021 elections, but with BLM he has found stability in a club man after kicking out Joan Carles Raventós and a very brief period with Jordi Balsells, who jumped in of Reverter’s resignation, at the head of this department. The president knew Meseguer from his first term, but unlike Toni Ruiz, a communication historian whom he fired for seeing him too closely related to the presidencies of Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, he not only kept him in the staff, rather, he promoted him to a very sensitive position in a context of lack of income in the entity. His association with the works council helped, too.
“Jan understood that he needed an old cat in BLM, someone who knew the house, who had a lot of negotiating ability and who wouldn’t bow to Nike. That’s why he turned to Messi”, they explain to this newspaper from the Camp Nou, where it is remembered that Meseguer was responsible for the stadium store and that he worked for a few years in the purchasing area. A former manager also emphasizes his sense of smell to promote the Barça Legends: “Until this happened, the veterans did business on their own and the club did not see a single duro. Now, luckily, ex-players do not negotiate the friendlies they do around the world. They just charge them.” Without going any further, the box of the Legends in the friendly a few weeks ago in Kyrgyzstan ranged between 8,000 and 12,000 euros per head for the footballers who were not Ronaldinho, Rivaldo and Puyol, who received more money. Barça also kept a piece of the pie.
The white shirt of Barça is a success
Be that as it may, Laporta’s bet for an old rocker like Meseguer is a reason for Barça to celebrate BLM’s formidable health despite the first team’s exile. “The club has not noticed the rise in Montjuïc thanks to the expansion carried out in the last year”, says a statement released this Monday. The end of the financial year 22-23 collects 100 million euros in revenue from merchandising sales with two indicators that explain the aforementioned “expansion”: a 54% increase in distribution in physical stores and a 47% through digital commerce, with a strong rise of 275% in women’s clothing. Of this 100 million, approximately half was generated by the Camp Nou store, which will see its activity reduced while the stadium works.
The team of Messi this difficulty has been overcome by opening new sales points in recent months (one of them in Madrid) and boosting both online sales and clothing collections vintage, which have more business margin than the official kits. In addition, the organization congratulates itself on the reception that this year’s controversial second kit has had. 50% of the shirts sold in the store are white. The bet works.
Barça has proclaimed optimism at a time when it needs to consolidate its own way of life ordinary The target between sponsorships and commercial income is very ambitious: €378 million in the 23-24 season, 8% more than last year. It is the most ambitious item in an unleveraged budget. In fact, BLM was one of the possible avenues to generate cash with asset sales, but Meseguer has convinced Laporta that the business has a long way to go and that it is worth preserving full ownership. In fact, there are those at the club who believe that the other Messi, who will also be key to redefining the agreement with Nike, will retire if BLM happens to be participated by external partners. “If he’s entertained, he still has rope for a while,” a co-worker says of him.
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