Global Fútbol

Spanish clubs and LaLiga, like they also did one year ago, met for the ‘II Boost LaLiga Conference’ in mid-February. On this occasion, more than 18 months after the start of the project, the focus was on evaluating the development achieved by the clubs and on immersing them in key areas such as technology, digitalisation and branding, among other topics.

As part of this, other entities from the world of sport, finance and new technologies also attended and participated alongside the clubs. In addition, a group of national and international journalists sat in on the talks to learn first-hand about this project and the many others that the clubs are implementing in different areas.

These working sessions, which took place at the PortAventura World facilities, served to demonstrate, above all, how Boost LaLiga is encouraging the professionalisation of LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank clubs.

Over these two days, 40 LaLiga clubs took part in the various working sessions. The sessions were also attended by clubs who were in LaLiga SmartBank last year but who then suffered relegation out of that division, demonstrating that this is a project with a truly collective vision and a project where everyone coming together will push Spanish professional football even further forward.

The importance of collectiveness

Discussing what has been achieved so far since the start of Boost LaLiga, the LaLiga president Javier Tebas highlighted the concept of collectiveness. He explained: “You are part of a club, but you are part of a competition too. Until now, less importance was placed on the idea of being a member of the wider competition and there was no shared idea of making the competition grow as a group. While each club can grow individually, the collective idea of growing the competition is important. Now, different projects are starting up because of this change, for example with digitalisation. With this, if one fails, or if one or two do it badly, we lose the overall effect. I think that’s the most important thing. The Boost LaLiga project is about developing the whole group.”

He continued: “I remember that, when I finished my speech last year, I spoke about how I wanted to have more people involved in the clubs, from presidents and CEOs to as many staff as possible, and we have already grown. The fact that there are 450 people here today says a lot about the importance of Boost LaLiga for LaLiga and the clubs. Everybody is working on the various verticals and everybody is very aware that work is required to grow and that we have to be patient.”

Jaime Blanco, of the president’s office, also evaluated how Boost LaLiga has gone since its inception and assessed the upcoming challenges, stating: “It has been a year of construction and of laying the foundations for growth. Everything is in order to continue growing. Up to this point, the clubs have worked hard, are reinforcing their structures and have set the paths to follow. What comes next is to execute all those initiatives and projects that the clubs have developed, to continue strengthening the structures and to change the way of working, something that is already happening.”

During Blanco’s presentation, there was a general review of how the Boost LaLiga objectives are being met. He highlighted the work that most of the clubs are doing in each of the different verticals. He explained that, at the halfway point of this season, clubs such as Valencia CF and Sevilla FC are standing out for their high level of performance in Group 2, while CA Osasuna is the most outstanding club in Group 3. Over the final stretch of the season, clubs will continue to work to complete their objectives, which will bring them, and therefore the competition, direct and indirect growth.

The sessions, which were also attended by representatives of LaLiga F, such as president Beatriz Álvarez, involved partners and institutions with which LaLiga is working closely to maximise the potential of the clubs at both the national and international level. For example, the session ‘How to make our digital strategy profitable’, featured contributions from directors at Meta, Fever and Dorna, while the talk titled ‘Investments in the sports industry’ was given by CVC.

There was also a look at the various projects that are currently being developed by LaLiga with the support of the clubs, such as ‘Legends - The Home of football, powered by LaLiga’, the museum space that will bring together the largest collection in the history of football and which will have an area for club treasures.

Building a new era through collectiveness and excellence

The talks and everything else that took place across these days had the same common denominator, which was the demonstration that LaLiga and the clubs are building a new era together thanks to Boost LaLiga.

This was made clear by the progress that has been achieved by all the clubs during these months. Every club had to present development plans prior to receiving the funds, as well as initiatives for developing internal structures that, in many cases, have allowed the clubs to hire professionals with different skillsets and that have led to these clubs becoming more competitive in terms of digital strategy, internationalisation and business.

Juan Arbide, Senior Managing Director of CVC Capital, reflected: “Between the last event held at PortAventura and now, I have noticed a very important change. Firstly, we have seen how involved so many people have been, which has been a great change, and we are very satisfied with the large number of people that the clubs have brought with them. Then, in terms of the conversations, you can see that there really is a good understanding of what needs to be done, of why things are happening and of the effort that goes into it.”

Improvement to infrastructure has been another key focus of investment by the clubs, who are looking for ways to improve the fan experience while finding other alternatives to increase revenues through catering, shops or even academies that can house young people coming from all over the world to train. In this field, there has been progress at all levels, meaning the clubs and the Spanish professional football industry in general will be able to position themselves at the forefront internationally, which is another example of building a better future through collectiveness.

As Arbide concluded: “Progress is being made and things are being done very well, but we have to stay very ambitious because only excellence is going to be enough for us. We have to maintain a high level of ambition so that what has started in a very good way ends up materialising into what we want, which is the continued growth of the clubs and of LaLiga.”