BarcelonaOne of the usual complaints from Barça executives is that it becomes very difficult to build in the long run when senior positions are continually replaced. Each president wants to put his people in trust and this means that when there is a change of president the organization charts of the club live a radical replacement of faces. As ARA has learned, some 80 people have joined the club’s executive structure since Joan Laporta took over the presidency in March 2021, and another 80 have left, mostly due to redundancies. This restructuring, not counting that of the sports plot, has cost approximately 5 million euros for the club, as advanced by theSport and has been able to ascertain this diary.
The victory in the elections of Joan Laporta, who has proclaimed himself executive president, led to the entry into Barça of people of his utmost confidence, such as those who joined the presidency: Manana Giorgadze, Jordi Finestres and Enric Masip. Although this department is headed by Giorgadze, the highest salary is that of Finestres, followed by that of the director herself and that of Masip. In any case, all three salaries are lower than those received by Jaume Masferrer, the director of the presidency area during the term of Josep Maria Bartomeu -investigated for possible unfair administration and corruption among individuals in the Barçagate case-, which was around 300,000 euros per year.
In addition, Laporta also added a new football director, Mateu Alemany; a new sports director, Xavier Budó; a new communications director, Alex Santos (who was its campaign manager); a new revenue manager, Alex Barbany; a new human resources director, Carles Cendrós; a new director of Espai Barça, Ramon Ramírez, signed by the company IDOM, which has played an important role in the restructuring of the project by the new board; and a new head for the Hong Kong office, Bryan Bachner, from CSSB Limited, a company controlled by Joan Oliver, Barça’s general manager during Laporta’s first term. Among the eighty people incorporated under Laporta’s mandate are also Pere Mellado in the legal services, Joan Sentelles in the area of operations and purchases (he managed Reus Deportiu under the ownership of Joan Oliver after having been at Barça for the first term of Laporta), Maribel Meléndez in the corporate and Sergi Ricart, current director of the restructured commercial area.
In addition, Laporta has hired his sister, Maite Laporta, to lead the new area of inclusion and diversity in the department of compliance, which led to a change in the club’s code of ethics, which until then did not allow the hiring of relatives. In addition, Marta Segú, the president’s cousin, joined as director of the Foundation; Jordi Portabella, a member of Laporta’s party at Barcelona City Council, was added to lead another new area of the club, that of sustainability; and Holger Bittner, signed to be in charge of new business development, came from Equipa Ibérica, a company founded by sports vice president Rafa Yuste.
Goodbye to Reverter’s trusted charges
But the most famous addition was Ferran Reverter as the club’s general manager. His arrival was accompanied by other names that he recommended, including Xavier Mas to lead the area of compliance, Jordi Balsells to head Barça Licensing & Merchandising and Juan Manuel Tabero to be the director of technology. Precisely, Reverter’s resignation this February caused Balsells (replaced by Josep Maria Meseguer), Tabero (replaced by Joan Moya) and Mas to also leave the club. In the latter case, his replacement has been Sergi Atienza, who has his consultation as a lawyer in the same building on Avinguda Diagonal from where the Barça president runs the law firm Laporta & Arbós, for which Atienza had done services in the past. Another worker who was fired by Laporta, who has already been fired, is the security director, Ferran López, who has been replaced by Lluís Miquel Venteo. On the other hand, Barbany has gone from being the director of new income to leading the Espai Barça area after Ramírez’s resignation in March. Thus, the only head of department who has not been appointed is Anna Aznar in the social area, who was promoted.
Since the arrival of Laporta, all the names that had been key during the term of Josep Maria Bartomeu have left the club: the general director, Òscar Grau, and the director of legal services, Román Gómez-Ponti (both investigated in the Barçagate case); the director of professional sports, Albert Soler (the three of them assumed the highest salaries in the executive structure); spokesman Josep Vives; brand director Guillem Graell; the director of Barça Studios, Paco Latorre; the director of strategy, Javier Sobrino; the director of La Masia, Xavier Martín; the director of the social area, Pere Jansà; marketing director Alessio Sarina; the corporate director, Jordi Joly, and the head of institutional relations, Guillermo Amor, among others.
The last major restructuring of Barça’s executive area took place in 2010 after Sandro Rosell became the club’s president after Laporta’s first term. About forty people then entered the club. The most important change was that of the general manager: Antoni Rossich replaced Joan Oliver, who was fired a few days before Laporta left the post with a compensation of 852,787 euros. Other important additions were Román Gómez-Ponti to direct the legal services, Laurent Colette to lead the marketing area and Emili Sabadell to head operations and operations.
Both the eighty people who have joined the club and the eighty who have left do not include those belonging to the sports structure, in which for various reasons, among others, Ramon is no longer there. Canal, the head of medical services; Ramon Planes, the technical secretary; and Albert Benaiges, coordinator of grassroots football, from whom ARA uncovered the sexual abuse of minors he had committed as a teacher at the Barcelona School. The players, coaches and coaching staff are also not included.
