Bartomeu: At Harvard they are very surprised that we share our knowledge World Cup 2018 Wants to turn the city into the Silicon Valley of sports research

The club president of Barcelona, Josep Maria Bartomeu, has told a conference at Harvard University that attendees are surprised because the Catalan team wants to share their knowledge with other teams and agencies.

Bartomeu has participated in a round of lectures on sport, promoted by the Union of Catalan Federations (UFEC) at the headquarters of the publishing house RBA in Barcelona, in which he presented the paper 'Barça, beyond football'.

"Barcelona has to be the accelerator of knowledge", Bartomeu assured the conference.

He is in favour of the Financial Fair Play in Europe to stop the economic dominance of 'team-countries', referring to those clubs with owners linked to oil rich states, such as Paris Saint-Germain.

"Just as VAR is being seen to be an element that helps the referees, FFP must also do it to make it a fairer competition," he said.

"[The main] research work on sport is done in Barcelona and for this reason, we will push for that to happen."

This relates to the idea that Barcelona is the Silicon Valley of sport research, with the club also having the Barcelona Innovation Hub project which focuses on scientific research and innovation projects.

In this regard, Bartomeu explained that the Catalan club is carrying out research with a refreshment company regarding a personalised hydration project that will then be used by other clubs.

"At Harvard the attendees were very surprised that we want to share our knowledge," Bartomeu recalled.

In his talk Bartomeu returned to discussing the Espai Barça project and recalled that after closing the last administrative procedures with the Barcelona City Council and in the Catalan government, the works for the reordering of the land where the Camp Nou is located, as well as its profound remodelling, will be launched in 2019 with a duration of four summers.

He has again emphasised that the team's main strategic markets are the United States and Canada, and then China.

Bartomeu also stated that the strong investment of the club in these areas must culminate in the future, among other aspirations, and that they are searching for the best players from these areas.