Barcelona star Lionel Messi poses with children at Camp Nou Stadium on March 11 on the occasion of being appointed UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

FC Barcelona's strategy since 2003 has helped them become commercially successful while remaining co-operatively owned and socially committed – with a little help from a Finn.

THERE aren't many Finns involved in top-level European football, and so it's unsurprising to discover that Pasi Lankinen, FC Barcelona's Marketing and Business Development Manager, has a slightly more complicated identity.

“In my heart I am a Finn, but culturally I feel Catalan,” explains Lankinen. “My parents are from Lahti, and I was born there, but we already lived in Lisbon at that time. I spent my childhood in Lisbon, Madrid and then Barcelona where I lived from the age of 6 until I was 12 years old. Then we moved to Finland.” After that, Lankinen returned to Barcelona to study business at ESADE, completed his Finnish military service and spent five years as a management consultant in the Telecoms sector, before joining FC Barcelona in 2003.

“I spent my formative years in Barcelona, and so I already was a Barcelona fan,” continues Lankinen. Lankinen's arrival at Barcelona coincided with big changes in wake of Joan Laporta's election as president. Discontent with the previous regime of Josep Lluís Núñez had grown, and the club was seen as distant from the fans and members. Laporta eventually won the presidency in 2003.

Success through responsibility

“For many football clubs, there are two goals: to make a nice spectacle and to win trophies, and to provide cash for shareholders to extract,” Lankinen states. “We do not have that pressure, and our only goal is to make a nice spectacle and win trophies for our fans and community. This makes it easier for us to make decisions that may have long-term benefit, but don't provide immediate commercial gains. In that sense, it makes my job easier.”

To correct the communication difficulties, a new Customer Service centre or Supporter's Office was established. As a result, membership has more than doubled to 170,000, an average of 20,000 more tickets are sold for every game as a result of the season ticket returns, and the club has won two Champions Leagues and a host of domestic honours. All while the club has retained its ideals.

The club's first ever shirt sponsor is UNICEF, a co-operation that cost the organisation millions of euros in lost fees that a commercial sponsor would have paid. “Everything came together in this [UNICEF] equation,” Lankinen maintains. “The General Assembly permitted a sponsor, but it would have been difficult to go straight to a commercial brand. This was a chance to retain our brand as a 'social club', and bring value to UNICEF, who we already helped to use football as a tool around the world.”

Cross-cultural backgrounds

The Barcelona Foundation is the hub of many of the social projects Barcelona is involved in. One aspect of their work is in the integration of migrants, something Lankinen has a feeling for with his cross-cultural background, and something that is fundamental to sport in general and football in particular.

“We do have specific integration projects, but I think that if you support the same team that is already a very integrating thing, no?” muses Lankinen. “I think that Catalonia has a very welcoming culture. You will probably end up with the same number of really close friends here as in Finland, but it's much easier to make a looser connection with a wide circle of people here.”

Is there any chance this culturally Catalan Finn might return to use his ideas and experience with some Finnish club? “I would not rule it out, but there are no plans,” deadpans Lankinen. In a year when Finnish football looks set to welcome back many players from spells abroad, it may be that the most significant potential returnee is set to stay abroad for a few years yet.

EGAN RICHARDSON - HT
Lehtikuva - AFP - Josep Lago