FC Barcelona will plough investment into women’s sport and its own university as part of its plans to become the first football club in the world with a €1bn (US$1.1bn, £727m) turnover.
The Spanish club, widely recognised as one of the most iconic football brands in the world, has a number of women's teams in football, basketball, volleyball, athletics, skating and roller-hockey. Only football is professional, and the club's female team is one of the most successful in Spain winning the last four championships (a joint record).
In an interview with the
Financial Times in which he claimed that he wanted FC Barcelona to “be the first club to reach €1bn in revenues”, president Josep Maria Bartomeu highlighted a renewed push into women’s sport as one of the club’s focuses.
Indeed, women’s football is one of the strategic projects of FC Barcelona’s board of directors for the current mandate. “Become the first club in the world to make such a determined global commitment to women’s sport” was one of the eight points referenced by Bartomeu when he delivered his six-year plan in October, following his election in July.
Additionally, the club hopes to launch its university – named Barca Universitas – which will be divided into five areas of knowledge: sports health and medicine; sporting performance; technology and innovation; management and marketing; social sciences.
For the university project, which is in its embryonic stage of planning, FC Barcelona has established contacts with the University of Barcelona, Esade Business School and Harvard University, and is working to create further links with the University of Victoria (Uvic), Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The institution will build on the club’s burgeoning academic activity. Its Medical Centre of Excellence has been certified by Fifa, and has formulated a plan for continuous education which consists of clinical sessions, PhD theses and a team sports physiotherapy course.
However, the bulk of FC Barcelona’s revenue growth is likely to come from its proposed development of the Nou Camp, which will see its capacity rise from 97,000 to 105,000, cementing its place as the largest stadium in Europe.
The €600m (US$650.7m, £436.2m)
revamp of the stadium will incorporate the development of the surrounding area. AECOM, Populous and BIG are among the companies vying for the architecture contract, with the club due to announce the companies that have won the tenders for both the stadium and surrounding area at the beginning of 2016.
In Deloitte’s most recent
Football Money League report, published in January 2015, Barcelona came fourth in terms of revenues (US$525.6m, €484.6m, £352.3m) behind La Liga rival Real Madrid (US$596m, €549.5m, £399.5m), Manchester United (US$561.8m, €518m, £376.6m) and Bayern Munich (US$528.8m, €487.5m, £354.5m).
