Beyond Barcagate

In the last twenty four hours the Spanish police have raided the headquarters of FC Barcelona and detained four past and current executives. Many of the facts are unconfirmed but the action has been linked to an alleged social media campaign funded by the Club and carried out by an external agency which targeted high profile opponents of the Board of the Club.

If the allegations are true, one of the targets of the campaign was Barcelona legend Lionel Messi which, in itself, beggars belief and seems absolutely at odds with the notion of club solidarity and will surely have horrified the vast number of supporters who have made Barcelona the highest earning club in the world.

The bigger issue, however, is the apparent lack of internal controls that would have prevented these actions. Money was apparently spent in a manner to avoid oversight from the club’s financial overseers, the money was used to attack an employee of the company among others and the contract to the PR company was allegedly at well above market rates. All of this, at a time when the club, despite its earnings, was facing crippling debt.

There is a simple lesson here; no matter whether it is a sporting giant, a supervising body like FIFA or a mainstream business organization, it is imperative that a code of conduct and rigid compliance program is in place. Alongside the scandal of the police action, there is the question of how such a successful revenue generating business can lose so much money. Having internal integrity does not only ensure the protection of the club and its people, it puts in place the structures to ensure that hubris and personalities do not impact the business imperative of making money.