THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING

This is what the song of Bob Dylan said, referring to all political and social changes of the 60s. If you look at the world of football, is also applicable. A few years ago, most of the clubs revenue were by membership fees and the sale of players. This has changed. Today the Clubs receive large amounts of television rights, selling T-shirts and other things.

Some of those listed as possible candidates for future elections to the presidency of Barça (it should be 2016) have said, in social networks, that the Club needs a renovation as it relates to marketing strategies and similar. That is needed a renewal of their management structures. It's not me, that I have no idea about these issues, who will tell you about the direction of this kind of stuff. If it is more important 3vminutes on TV or send a player to advertise anywhere in the world. If there must  be 1 General Manager and 25 Working Areas or only 18.

Something very important is the club model. Few weeks, at one of the presentations for the Reform of Camp Nou, Vice-President Javier Faus spoke of hospitality revenue in different clubs around the world. Compared with Madrid, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United in terms of number of seats and revenue. City, United or Arsenal are clubs that have a single owner and are in football for many different reasons. The day they get tired, they will leave. It's that simple. Bayern is a mixed model and Madrid, despite being a club like Barça, operates in a more presidential manner here . But they want to be like them, and to have the same as them , forgetting that we are different. It seems that the economic remedy is hospitality (representing less than 10% of the total budget Club). Hospitality, Marketing, Ticketing, etc. Remember all one thing: the owners of the Club are the "socis", not the Board.

Barça is special. There is no, as we said before, an owner with more or less millions into the pocket. Here there are 130,000 owners. And those who run the Club (The Official we were talking a bit ago), are not professionals. As itself, this is not a problem. The problem is that they have no idea. They speak about "market prices" to refer to those and other questions when the only market they know is the store in the neighborhood where they buy the newspaper and the baguette. And of course, these have fixed prices. They are not debatable. Pay and return home.

This leads to one thing that has not changed for many years and has to. Historically, the club has been a buyer Club. But we have not yet learned to buy. To sell, we still do worse. We pay what it's needed for a player for the simple fact that the seller Club is waiting for us ("it's Barça and, as they like the player, they'll pay what we say"). It has worked in many cases and it appears that still works. To sell, reverse option ("we are not interested, therefore, whoever comes will be able to take him").

It is not, of course, to turn the club into a Corporation and make the Directors professionals. No, although I am sure that is their dream, for many of which there are now. It's about these executives know about football. And they do not know. Today, they like the player scoring three goals; tomorrow the defender that cuts two key plays and, after tomorrow, however the goalie that saves 5 occasions playing against Barça. It seems that, if there are 60M€ to sign, these have to spend, no matter how.

And this is related to the subject of the Technical Secretariat that I have said more than once. A club like Barça can not go around without all the player data, both technical and personal, including salary, hobbies, etc. Today for today, it  seems there is nothing. I spoke in a previous post (It is not that (II)), about the need of having a Scouting system much more useful.

Previously, there was no resources as now. Having footage of players was quite difficult and one should trust what  a friend who was in that country where there was an interesting player or player's agent in turn. And you had to pay what you were told, without knowing for sure if you had bought a Ferrari or a second hand 600 (NA: Spanish equivalent to Fiat 500). Today, it is not. There are images of almost all leagues in the world and, the most important show all the games on TV. When you buy, you know what you're buying and, theoretically, you should know the price. But it does not.

Everything I've said so far, goes around the so spoken as "renewal" at Barça. It seems that it will take I don't know how many players. And, as needed, we will pay what we will be told (or more, if we add Foundations of players, contracts of Scouting and other miscellaneous expenses. Said that is the new model of contracts made ​​in the world. That is, to sign a player, we need to hire, one way or another, all the family and friends). I can understand that there are incentives for this or that player to come. What I don't understand are thee 400k€/year for Scouting as "market price". By the way, have there been reports to justify this amount?

As I can not understand that a reserve player in a team and, which will not go to the World Cup because "competition is very tough (NA: With teammates)" according to what a reporter said today, with only 20 years old and that has not won anything yet, worth 35M€. And in this operation a player of the same nationality, who is a starter at Barça and will go to the World is included. And like this, the examples that you want. And the opposite. Players who go out for 4$ hard "because we will save very high wages".

There is a second part. La Masia. Do you remember this about "La Masia is not to be touched"? Well it seems. Except Masip, no other player will be promoted to the 1st team this year. And I wonder if, with so many people filling their mouth with this about  Barca "B" is 3rd in the 2nd Division, or that the U-19 is the Champion of UEFA Youth Champions League, isn't it strange that no player can go to the 1st team?

But as we have to sell illusion after a bad season where, for the first time in many years we have not won any of the major titles, we will pay whatever. And giving away players "to lighten the wage bill", as I said before, players that the media have been said that they are not useful. All obviously to prevent people stop looking at the pitch and look at the VIP Box. And they will go into discrepancies about if the one that has to sign is this or that one. I explained also in the same mentioned entry, how this part should run.

The times they are a changing, but it seems that many have not seen it yet. Or worse, they have only seen one part: the business. And increasingly, it seems that only the business they can do with the money of others. They have not understood that this is neither the NBA nor the MLS. There, they do sport starting in business. A League is created and franchises are spread. If you lose, you don't go down to 2nd Division. And, if the business fails, the owner sells the Team and it is moved to a different city, looking for business. Leagues here have a different starting point: from sport, they try to do business. Originally, business for the club, to sign players or build new facilities. Now, it seems that business for the pockets of some, whether or not owners.

The times they are a changing. Let's see if we change the ways of proceeding.

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP