On opening day of Mobile World Congress on Monday, FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu told audience members he wants his club to “build the future of the sports industry.”
With that statement and main objective in mind, the football organization announced early plans for the Barça Innovation Hub project “to transform the world through sporting excellence, using knowledge and innovation,” according to Bartomeu. An upcoming presentation on March 22 at the Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona, will further detail the Innovation Hub but still, Bartomeu gave MWC attendees an idea of what’s to come as the club strives to positively impact society in a greater capacity.
“The Barça Innovation Hub wants to be the number one center of sporting innovation in the world,” Bartomeu continued in his address to the crowd. “It will create a relevant impact on the sports industry and related industries, creating new products and services, attracting the best international talent and ultimately contributing to the future of sport in the world via innovation and knowledge.”
Get The Latest Soccer Tech News In Your Inbox!
He explained that the Barca Innovation Hub will concentrate around five key areas: medical services and nutrition, sports performance, team sports, technology and social sciences. Through developing research projects, creating new products and services and sharing knowledge and learnings across different sectors, Barca cited that he wants to keep pushing forward the team’s long-time slogan of being “more than a Club.”
In its own research and projects, the club has already developed personalized hydration and nutrition programs for its athletes, physical recovery methods, real estate initiatives that impact the environment and the use of big data for player performance analysis and the fan experience. Bartomeu illustrated that now these insights and learnings can be shared outside the walls of the soccer organization.
“We will only continue to be leaders in the future if we are able to innovate, generate, attract and manage knowledge and, more importantly, if we are able to share it with the world,” Bartomeu said.
“We are not just talking about a project. We are talking about realities that are already being applied in different sectors. All these projects are designed for elite athletes, but also, from now on, for the rest of the population, as a clear example of open innovation and management of the relationship with the sports ecosystem.”