Rosell sees growth before 2013

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Sandro Rosell highlighted the importance of club members in the day-to-day running of the club and how he intends to achieve the main challenges of the new board's strategic plan by 2013 when addressing the general assembly on Saturday.

The FC Barcelona president spoke to delegates for the first time since he took over at camp Nou and outline his vision for the coming years and the role that he believes that everyone connected to the club will play. Rosell was keen to state that the starting point he has found is not good and neither is the economic situation in the short term.

Strategic plan
Focussing on the strategic plan laid out by his board of directors, Rosell explained that it would be "based around growth" and that would be achieve during the first phase of his plan for 2013. On the economic state of the club he assured that the turnover would be able to rise to €500 million with some positive exploitation "of around 10 per cent" with nearly €50 million in profit per season. That would then allow the level of bank debt to be reduced to "sustainable amounts".

International role
To reach an income of €500 million Rosell highlighted the internationalisation of the club and detailed a plan that will support with capitalisation of key sports and the emotional value of the Barça brand. Also, the business will look for new way to exploit and improve contracts with sponsors.

On the sporting front the president looked ahead to 2013 and stated that he wants the new Masía at the Ciutat Esportiva to be "consolidated" and work like a model that would work across the club. The aim is to reach "sporting excellence" together with the hard work of all along with "a programme of internationalisation, both formative and professional".

Member participation
Socially, again looking ahead to 2013, Rosell wanted to "implement an host of initiatives and resources that will allow the level of member participation and the relationship with the club to grow". For that he believes that the implementation of the Espai Barça and in the approval of more technological resources would help.

First acts
Apart from the challenges of the future, Rosell also summarised some of his first acts at the helm as the club centred on austerity and transparency of management. He insisted on being sensitive to things that affect members and the change of orientation of the club Fundació while wanting to remain centred on the area of Catalunya. He also detailed the patrimonial turnaround happening at the club, looking at stopping the reclassification of the Miniestadi, as well as clarifying that the economic situation will oblige the club to extend the time limit of the Espai Barça project. Rosell also insisted on spending on other sports and has set aside a budget of €49 million.

UEFA and Barça say no to racism

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UEFA are continuing the fight against racism this season and there will be a series of activities before FC Barcelona's game against FC Copenhagen on Wednesday evening in Camp Nou.

European football's governing body aim to eliminate the problem from the game and are highlighting the seriousness of it before each of the 16 matches in the Champions League this week. Working with partners Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), the campaign will be given high-profile coverage as part of activities marking the Action Week.

Video message
Before Barça's game against Copenhagen a message will be shown on the giant screens in Camp Nou and matchday announcer, Manel Vich, will read a statement supporting the cause. Both sets of players will take to the field before kick off sporting t-shirts with the anti-racism message while both captains will wear special wristbands.

Blaugrana campaign
FC Barcelona are helping the anti-racism initiative as one more aspect of their alliance with UNESCO through the Blaurgana's Fundació. The Fundació have helped to take the subject to the European Parliament with a programme called 'the voice of the young against racism'. The outcome of the project led members of the European Clubs Association to include anti-racist clauses in the contracts of their players. Now the Fundació is planning a new venture with UNESCO for this season.

New Audi cars handed out

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The first team squad received new cars on Thursday lunchtime from club sponsors Audi, who distribute the vehicles at the start of every season.

The players were able to enjoy the sporty, dynamic new Audi A1 in an event held this lunchtime at the Castellolí circuit, when they picked up the keys to their new cars. The players also received a sporting drivers course where they were able to experience the manoeuvrability and ease of use of the new Audis, as well as the elegance of the new Audi A7 Sportback.

Audi A7 for Xavi and Piqué
The undoubted star of the new cars was the Audi A7 Sportback, Audi’s new coupé, which Xavi, Piqué, Pedro and Sergio Busquets all chose as their car for this season.

“It’s a pleasure to work with these players ”
Club President Sandro Rosell, the Director of Audi Espanya, Manuel Caballero, Audi AG Marketing Director Lothar Korn and Volkswagen-Audi Espanya President Ludger Fretzen were amongst other club and Audi representatives at the event and Sr Caballero explained that for his company: “it is a pleasure to have players from the most successful club in recent years as ambassadors for our cars”.

Clarification

In recent weeks a number of invented interviews with the club’s players have appeared in the Daily Star and the Daily Star Sunday. FC Barcelona wish to make it known that none of these interviews are attributable to the players therein cited and also to explain to our supporters throughout the world that the information and declarations made in these articles are totally and absolutely false.

FC Barcelona has officially sent the media outlets concerned a formal complaint and warned them that it will not allow any further situations like this to be repeated. Should this happen, the club will not hesitate to act in defence of its own image and the honour of its players.

This club has worked closely with the media and will continue to do so, as we believe it to be a very important part of the spreading of information about sport and in particular about football.

The willingness to work openly and with transparency forms part of our basic working philosophy. To this end, the club has its own official channels of communications which every day provide news of the club’s activities and also provide ideal communication channels whereby the players and other club staff can make contact with the members and fans and get their messages across.

We remind you that our official channels are:

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Barça TV
Youtube.com/fcbarcelona
Twitter.com/fcbarcelona
Facebook.com/fcbarcelona
The newspaper 'Barça Camp Nou'
The magazine 'Barça'

Squad commits to fill Nou Camp

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“We Give Everything” is the slogan that fronts the latest campaign by the club for ticket sales for the 2010/11 campaign, which is being launched this Thursday. The players are the front men for the campaign.

With the start of the new season, the players are again fully committed to give their all for the team on the pitch and that commitment is echoed in the campaign slogan, “We Give Everything”.
Commitment on both sides
The aim is to get the fans to join the players in their dedication and the “We Give Everything” slogan, as used last season, aims to stress the implication of the team. This season, the players won’t be wearing the tattoos they did in last year’s campaign – the images this year are of the players faces and shirts full of sweat.

The players show their commitment through a number of scenes of them working and training to show the effort behind every game.

First three players
Pedro, Iniesta and Messi are the first group of players to feature in the campaign. All three of them express their commitment to defending the club and ask for the same support from the fans. The following players will soon be taking over from those three, with Xavi, Puyol, Villa, Alves, Piqué and Valdés all to appear.

Wide distribution
The success of the campaign will be based on the players’ ability to convince the fans to fill the stadium for every game and will be shown on BarcaTV, the club website, general and sports newspapers ,TV, radio, advertising hoardings and the advertising space around the stadium.