Rosell close to selling sports company

Spanish business paper Expansíon claims that Barcelona presidential candidate Sandro Rosell is finalizing the sale of his sports marketing agency Bonus Sports Marketing (BSM).

Rosell, who reportedly has explained to his friends and collaborators that a sale is imminent, would have decided to sell the company so that there can't be any insinuations on possible conflicts of interests between his personal businesses and a position as club president.

There would at this moment be three concrete proposals by international groups and a deal would be closed in the coming days. BSM has a turn-over of 5.6 million euros a year and would be sold for a price between 6.3 and 7.2 millions.

BSM, that was founded by Rosell in 2002, is specialized in sports sponsorship and strategic sports marketing consultancy and event organization. The Barcelona based agency is working for local and multinational companies like Audi, Electrolux and McDonalds.

The company's main project is Football Dreams, a football scouting program sponsored by the government of Qatar and Nike aimed at giving children from Africa, Asia and Latin America the opportunity to earn scholarships to study and train at a football academy in Qatar.

Besides BSM, Rosell is reportedly also active in several other businesses, including a few companies of his family, whose assets are estimated at 250 million euros.

Read more:
Rosell plans to quit football business
A biography of Sandro Rosell
Rosell gives first interview ahead of elections

Rosell gives first interview ahead of elections

Barcelona presidential candidate Sandro Rosell gave his first interviews in years. It is published today by Spanish business paper Expansíon. Some excerpts.


1.
Why does a person with so many activities want to be the president of Barça?, he is often asked.

"My father, who was the general director of Barça during the term of Agustí Montal [1969-1977], infected me with the love for football and Barça since childhood," he explains. "I want to be the Barça president because of Barça, not to have more relations or more power," he assures. "I already have the contacts I could get by being the president of Barça."

2.
His family has tried to convince him not to take part in the elections because of the "media pressure" that comes with the post. Although he knows that the campaign "will be very tough", he hopes his life won't change. Rosell, who recalls with particular concern that Barça "put detectives at his home for two months" during the 2008 vote of no confidence against Laporta, doesn't want to discuss his relationship with the current president.

3.
Rosell's passion for marketing and sports led him to found BSM, which takes fifty per cent of his time. The firm, specialized in advising on sports sponsorship, strategic sports marketing consulting and event management, has a turnover of six million euros. Among his clients, there's the Government of Qatar, for whom he has developed the Football Dreams project. "If I become the president of Barça, I will sell BSM", announces Rosell.

4.
An earlier football project opened the doors of Nike for Rosell. "They made me a job offer that included a very specific task: to make a deal with Barcelona or Real Madrid," he says. After negotiating personally with Josep Lluís Núñez (of whom he recalls that he was "very hard and honest"), Rosell signed what "at that time was the best contract in Spain: ten million euros for ten years." Shortly after, Real Madrid got more from Adidas.

5.
He refuses to talk about his personal life but he rebels when he is called 'a rich kid'. "My best friend is Andreu and he has fifty cows in La Seu d'Urgell [a small town in the Catalan Pyrenees]",he replies.

6.
"Florentino Pérez appears that much in public? Josep Lluís Nuñez did?" Sandro Rosell avoids pronouncing the name of Joan Laporta, but it's clear that he is comparing these two models with that of the current president of Barça, who appears a lot in the media.

7.
Rosell did the tests to join the club at the age of six, but he ended up playing with a fans' club. "I was a footballer, but a bad one. I managed to play in the third division, at L'Hospitalet, as a left winger", he says.

8.
Rosell is very discreet about the club model he has in mind. But he reveals he wants a presidency with less visibility, part-time and with a strong man beside him as chief executive. Rosell says that he already knows the person who could fill that position, although he doesn't yet want to disclose the name. In his head, he already has the whole organization of the club and also the plan for Barça to reach a turn-over of 1.000 million euros in the future, when the crisis abates.

Read more:
The Rosell Project
Role Masfurroll in Rosell candidacy unclear
Team member Rosell talking about their project

Internet entrepreneur joins Rosell candidacy

Spanish business paper Expansión claims, based upon souces close to presidential candidate Sandro Rosell, that internet entrepreneur Dídac Lee has joined the candidacy of Barcelona's former sports vice-president.

Asked about the rumours, Lee confirmed contacts with Rosell to the paper: "There have been talks. We both have an enterprising personality. I have given him advice on how to promote the club through the internet and the new technologies. I would in the future help the club to strengthen their presence in social networks and online meeting places."

Dídac Lee, a 35-years old Catalan-born business man of Chinese-Taiwanese descent, is the CEO of the Inspirit holding that includes several new technologies and software developing companies. On his personal webpage, Lee says that he's a Barcelona fan and that he hopes to become a board member one day.

Read more:
Who could be on Rosell's board?
Rosell organizing press dinners
Candidates compete for future board members

Introducing Benedito (4) : The affair too much (2)

Earlier this month, Catalan businessman Agustí Benedito announced his intention to take part in next year's elections for president of FC Barcelona. This blog will this week give an introduction on the pre-candidate.


Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday 18 February 2009, Barcelona president Joan Laporta talked about his involvement in an attempt to sell Spanish footbal club Mallorca, which was revealed one day earlier by Spanish newspaper El Mundo:

"It's a professional matter. The company Binipuntiró, the main shareholder of Real Mallorca, has financial problems and they contacted my office to help them with the sale. We looked around and found a client who was interested and who made an offer on the condition of an audit of the entity.

It became clear that what the seller asked for the shares was a price that, according to our client, wasn't correct, so the deal didn't go through. Since this was a professional assignment, it's normal that my office receives a fee for the legal services that were provided.

Our law firm always examines if the cases we are offered don't interfere with my function as president of FC Barcelona but in this case it was decided that there was no incompatibility at all, so the conduct of my office was lawful, legal and professional.

The way the report was published suggests that my firm has tried to hide its involvement but there are legal and public documents about this since the seller had insolvency problems. We haven't tried to hide anything. But some state media are particularly fond of me.

I just try to do my job and I don't care about others trying to prevent me from doing that. I want to make a living out of my job, in an honest and responsible way, which is what I did in this case."

Two weeks later, Laporta repeated his defense in an interview with Spanish business paper Expansión: "Being the president of Barça, gives you a lot of possibilities to mix with people but not to do business.

But where's the line? In my case, I have a law firm and I assist companies, like Mallorca, that had financial problems and asked me to look for a buyer. I found one in Uzbekistan but the operation didn't go through."


Despite the explanations of Laporta, the involvement of Laporta was the reason that led Agustí Benedito to resign as member of the club's social commission on Thursday 26 February.

In a letter to the president, quoted by former Barcelona's head of communication Jordi Badia on his blog, Benedito explained the reasons for his decision: "This news has been the biggest disappointment in my life. Over the years, I have maintained my beliefs and they now prevent me from continuing with you. Despite the fact that this wasn't easy, I have been loyal until the end."

Speaking to Spanish news agency EFE, Benedito said: "What has happened is against the spirit with which 'El Elefant Blau' was founded (read more here). I belonged to the core of this movement that fought for a different Barça.

I've always stood by the side of Joan Laporta, even at the time of the vote of no confidence last summer, and I've defended him with everything I had. But now I feel that this attempt of trying to obtain a fee for the sale of Mallorca has nothing to do with the Laporta from a few years ago."

EFE claimed that Benedito had been close to be appointed as director of the club around the time of his exit but that the appointment didn't went through in the end. Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo had already reported in September 2008 that Benedito was rumoured to be a candidate to join the board soon.

Club sources were quoted by EFE as saying that they thought this had been the main reason for his decision, something that Benedito denied to the agency and in an interview with Catalan newspaper Avuí one week later:

"Everybody who knows me, knows that this is ridiculous. This just indicates they have no arguments to defend what cannot be defended. I've voluntarily worked for the club for many years.

I know that I have been rumoured to become a director, several board members told me they wanted me to join, but the president never spoke about it with me. And I thank him for not having made me a director because this would otherwise have been an even more difficult situation for me.

I have resigned because I think that the president of Barça has mislead the club members when he said last summer that he and no one from his board did business in the world of football.

And by doing that he didn't only betray a leading principle of the 'Elefant Blau' but also of our way of acting for many years. In my view, it's not ethical for a president to enrich himself in such a way. It's clear he betrayed those principles and that he lied. That's why I resign."

this is the fourth part of a five-parts series. the next part will be the video in which benedito presents himself as presidential candidate. you can read the whole series here.


Read the previous parts of this series:
Introducing Benedito (1): The candidate
Introducing Benedito (2): The man, the culé
Introducing Benedito (3) : The affair too much


picture: germán rodríguez rosas