Under Sandro Rosell, Barcelona has won titles in La Liga, Cope del Rey, Champions League and the Club World Cup.

Luca Bruno/AP

This is the third installment of Inside the SuperClubs: Barcelona. This week's Sports Illustrated features an in-depth look at the club and its global appeal.

BARCELONA, Spain -- You never know who you might meet on the road. Sam Lardner is (among other things) a Dartmouth alum, a descendant of sportswriting legend Ring Lardner, a professional musician, a former FC Barcelona ice hockey player and a one-time board member of the foundation started by Bara soccer deity Johan Cruyff.

A full-time resident of Barcelona since 1997, Lardner is in an ideal spot to observe the bustling political scene at FC Barcelona, which is "owned" by its 180,000 members who vote in elections for the club president every four years. Lardner took his son to London last year for the Arsenal-Barcelona Champions League game, and on the way back, they saw Bara president Sandro Rosell, the man in charge of the storied club with the most successful soccer team of this era.

"Rosell flew back on easyJet," said Lardner, mentioning the European budget-airline equivalent of Southwest Airlines. "I was very impressed by that. Rosell to me is doing a discreet and serious job. I know what's going on in his mind. He's got to clean up a big old mess."

When Rosell was elected as Bara's 39th president in 2010 with more than 60 percent of the vote, the club had a net debt of $558 million, owing in part to bank loans to help pay for transfers. That figure may not be quite as scary as it looks, in part because Bara is such a big revenue generator (as noted in this excellent Swiss Ramble piece), but the debt was still out of whack compared to what it should be.

"When we won the election, the biggest criticism was the financial aspect of the club," said Rosell, leaning forward in a chair in his office at the club. "We had an enormous debt with the banks outside of the financial ratios that Bara needs. It was a priority getting the debt under control and in relation to revenue. We've worked hard to cut costs and increase revenue in order to repay the bank debt -- and without being less competitive, while still winning trophies, we've reduced our debt by 15.5 percent. In one season we went from being 430 million [$558 million] in the red to a 364 million [$472 million] net debt."

In addition to cutting costs, Rosell worked out a deal with the Qatar Foundation, which became Bara's first paid shirt sponsor in a $225 million transaction.

Rosell, 48, has the air of a big-time politician, which is exactly what you have to be as the Bara president. But he also has a connection to the club that goes back to childhood. Rosell's father, Jaume, was club secretary of Bara in the early 1970s, and young Sandro was a diehard fan who became a club social member at age 4.

Read the original post:
Grant Wahl: Inside Barcelona: Rosell's success as president