The Fans Football Blog3

Marcelo Claure, CEO of telecommunication company Brightstar and partner of Barcelona in the Miami-MLS Project (read more here), gave an interview to Spanish football weekly paper Don Balón.





How did the whole idea about Barcelona having a team in the US begin?
Everything started eight months ago when we signed a cooperation agreement between Bolívar, my club in Bolivia, and Barcelona, the first agreement of that kind that Barcelona signed with a latin-american team. We agreed to send Spanish coaches to Bolivia to talk with our technical staff and to send Bolivian players to Barcelona to have specific training.

And that's when the idea of a new club came to life...
Well, I got to know Joan Laporta, who I consider to be a real leader, a very creative and persistent man. We immediately had a connection and that's when we started to have the idea about a Barcelona team in Miami.

How much money is needed for this Barça-USA project?
My company will invest 40 million dollar, which is the fee that is asked by the MLS for a team to be accepted to take part in the professional American league. Besides that, we're trying to collect another 10 million dollar through an investment fund, which should help us through the first year in the league.

You're not afraid you could lose all that money in a risky adventure?
Why? We shouldn't be so pessimistic! And we shouldn't focus on the history either, with some clubs in Florida having disappeared due to a lack of success. They disappeared because a lot of mistakes were made. Miami Fusion, for example, didn't play in Miami but in Fort Lauderdale, where you have more Americans than latinos.

So you think that football in the US has potential?
Nowadays, football in the United States has matured a lot. The country had the most television viewers during the World Cup in 2006. And the most important thing: Barcelona is a registered trademark that has proven to be succesfull all around the world.

You mean that the name 'Barça' will fill the stadiums...
Of course. We'll have a nice stadium at the FIU, the international university of Florida, in Miami, with a capacity af around 20 000 people.

You're very optimistic...
There's a lot of interest for football in Miami, because now we have more residents from Latin America, and not only from Cuba. Barça-USA will be a team of argentinians, uruguayans, colombians, hondurans, brazilians, peruvians, bolivians... The team of everyone who loves spectacular football.

When will the MLS take its decision?
In the third or the last week of November. I'm quite optimistic because it would be a mistake if the MLS would let the chance go by to link a team with such a great history to its professional league. Barça-USA isn't the same thing as a team called 'United Latinos USA'.

When will Barça-USA start if the MLS accepts the bid?
The francise starts in 2011, but the next objective will be to convince the MLS that we're already ready to start in 2010.

You think that this project will stimulate other European teams to get involved in the MLS?
I've heard that many European clubs, amongst which Italian and German clubs, are waiting to see what happens with Barça-USA. If it will be a success, and it will be, there's no doubt that we will have an AC Milan or a Bayern Munich in the MLS in 2012 or 2013.

In an interview with The New York Times, Thierry Henry said that he would like to go and live in the US, and maybe even in Miami. Will he be one of the star players of Barça-USA?
That could well be the case, but there's nothing official yet. But I can confirm that he's not the only key player of Barcelona who dreams about playing in the MLS. There are several players on the list, although I can't give you any names.

Is it true that you also would like to buy a club in Spain?
Let's go step by step. I'm analyzing two or three teams, not only in Spain but also in other European countries. I already own Bolívar in Bolivia, soon we'll have the team with Barcelona and after that, I'll come to Europe.

Football is a business like is selling mobile phones?
If it wasn't a business, I would stay quiet in my office and watch the games on the television.


Read more:
Barcelona wants to be part of American league
Henry could leave for Miami in 2010
FCB Miami: Weighing the seven bids