Blanc has only been CEO of INEOS’ sporting division for a year.
Berrada has been the chief footballing officer of the best performing sporting group in football. He might need to learn a bit more about the sponsorship side, but he fully knows in depth how to run the footballing side of a club. The most important part. What more do you want?
Berrada has more experience with the nitty-gritty of sponsorships and the commercial side of club football than the sporting side, to be fair. Prior to his departure to Manchester City, he worked as the Head of sponsorship and media development at Barcelona. In his first half-decade at Manchester City he was a sales, commercial or partnerships director at various points. And while he added to his repertoire in terms of becoming a bit more involved in the footballing sector from 2016 onwards (for the entirety of City Football Group), he was still a financial and operations-coordination guy first and foremost (i.e., greater exposure to budgeting, negotiations and staffing than the minutiae of player assessment, defining the club's footballing philosophy and whatnot).
Here's an article from 2017, for reference...
His team was made of expert managers, sharing Soriano’s business experiences both professionally and educationally (ESADE business school), ready to lead the key areas of club organisation:
- The Marketing area was led by Marc Ingla, Soriano’s former partner in Cluster (now executive director of Lille OSC) and Esteve Calzada, the former Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser (Senior Advisor for Man City FC);
- The Sponsorship area was led by Omar Berrada, the former project manager of telco Italian company Tiscali (current COO of Man City FC);
- The Sport area was led by Txiki Begiristain, the former FC Barcelona player (current Director of Football of Man City FC).
- The Finance area was led by Francisco López, the former Citigroup (current Business Director of City Football Group subsidiary City Football Service);
Soriano’s blueprint basic principle is to see the club as a global entertainment company and rule applying business strategies. Entertainment (on and off the pitch) is the product and “fair” winning, it is the only thing to measure success. The appointment of expert managers in key areas of the club is pivotal.
CalcioeFinanza: Ferran Soriano’s management style
Would add a layer to the institutional-level footballing acumen of Manchester United though, particularly in the upper echelons (which has deteriorated under Glazer ownership), after working in close quarters with the likes of Begiristain with regard to strategic planning, and just learning from diverse experiences at some of the most successful clubs of the modern era as a cog in the machine. Seemingly a half-decent first roll of the dice by Ratcliffe, but then again, Raúl Sanllehí and Sven Mislintat had built up half-decent resumés from their days at Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund, only to disappoint at Arsenal — you never know how individual components will fare when taken out of an optimized apparatus and thrown in at the deep end. Anyhow, hoping for the best, and that announcements relating to the Sporting director, Head of recruitment, et cetera will follow soon to give us a clearer idea of the rest of the decision-making infrastructure.
