Quoting Kofi Annan, if FIFA were a nation, it would the world's fifth largest, considering the number of football practitioners in the world. And if supporters and spectators were also included, it would be even larger. Soccer is a complex industry, where the economic, sports and social dimensions overlap and can work together synergically.
On the one hand, the game of soccer is a world phenomenon, on the other hand it has a local dimension where the community and local stakeholders can contribute greatly to the team's intangible capital: traditions, territorial identity, social cohesion built around basic values, the intensity of relations between the football club and the people living in its territory, all these create a unique network of social relations. Professional club can strategically leverage such a network, both for international projection and local development.
The Barcellona Football Club is an emblematic case in which the team's social embeddedness is a veritable resource for its global competitive strategy. Its model of governance is highly participatory, giving voice to its Catalan citizen-associates, and to its foreign associates in key markets (such as Japan) as well. The BFC Foundation hands out donations to the Catalan community, manages various solidarity projects inside and outside Catalonia, and significant operations in the non-profit sector. In fact, Barcelona has historically been a symbol of democracy and resistance to the Franco regime. The club has a social division and an institutional relations division, and has developed international partnerships with UNICEF. The brand and social mission of the club have thus been extended to wider contexts than usual.
Few are the professional clubs that can boast such a symbiotic relationship with their host communities as Barcelona does, but all teams can tap into the capital of social and economic relations offered by their territories. In Italy, glocal initiatives and solidarity projects are usually contingent operations, and are rarely part of a long-term strategy.
But the case of Barcelona FC shows that local heritage and community can become powerful competitive assets in the increasingly global sport industry, as well as catalyze positive feedbacks between sport franchises and local stakeholders, thereby creating a welfare model in which professional sports becomes a social enterprise.
by Francesco Bof,
Public Management and Policy Division, SDA Bocconi School of Management