Barça also prioritized Birladeanu over the Catalan Hablemos

BarcelonaThe business dealings between Barça and Ruslan Birladeanu have opened a can of worms. According to what has been revealed The Newspaper and can confirm the ARA, the main business of the Moldovan businessman, Barça Mobile, would have part of its origin in a meeting between the Catalan company Parlem and the Barça club in February 2024. Sources close to the negotiations assure that the Barcelona-based company presented the idea of jointly creating an operator that would provide mobile connectivity and 5G under the Barça brand.

Although the meeting had theoretically gone "well" and they had urged to continue discussing it, on November 21 the club announced that Barça Mobile would be a reality through New Era Visionary Group, a company based in the United Arab Emirates owned by Birladeanu that opened Barcelona 2024. At the time of creation, however, they set the start date of activity a little earlier, on February 27.

In the meeting with Hablemos, the company presented a precedent: in Turkey, Fenerbahce had launched years ago Fenercell, a club operator. It was a success and, in fact, this led them to export the same idea in Germany, a country with a significant Turkish immigration profile. Sources close to the negotiations between Barça and Parlem explain that the Catalan telecommunications company brought one of the driving forces behind the Fenerbahce project to Barcelona to discuss the business model in depth during the meeting. But after they left the office, the talks froze, and the project was left hanging. The meetings never resumed.

And that's not all: three employees from the Catalan company have signed with Birladeanu's company. One of them was previously present at the meeting between Parlem and Barça. Sources at the company explain that, should New Era use points from its business plan for Barça Mobile, they reserve the option to file a lawsuit for intellectual property infringement.

In this way, Barça chose New Era Visionary Group, whom they named as their new "official telecommunications operator," ahead of Parlem, which had presented them with the idea. Barça defined the newly created company as a "world leader in connectivity and infrastructure integration." But the truth is that the Blaugrana are New Era's only client worldwide and its owner has no previous experience in the world of telecommunications. Birladeanu, by the way, was involved in a alleged real estate fraud in Moldova while he was vice president of the pro-Russian Moldovan party PSD.

While awaiting the launch of Barça Mobile, New Era has already reached an agreement with MasOrange to operate through its mobile network. While waiting for the launch, Birladeanu's team is not sitting idly by and has already launched its first marketing campaign: the company, through the Barça Mobile brand, has organized a reggaeton music festival.Energy Fest– on April 29 at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. The lineup includes artists such as Luis Fonsi, Nicky Jam, and Arcángel, and tickets range from €80 to €220. Last week, they also launched a new Instagram account for the brand.

The antennas of the future Camp Nou

On the other hand, the same November press release also announced that New Era would be involved in the construction of the new Camp Nou. In a parallel operation, which should not be involved in Barça Mobile, Birladeanu's company was chosen by Limak to coordinate the 5G connectivity of the new stadium. However, since New Era does not have the necessary resources to install the antennas on the site, the final manager of the work is also Orange. So, what will the company's role be? According to Barça, it will act as "master systems integrator, overseeing the design and implementation."

ARA already explained that the New Era project with Orange had won ahead of the other companies such as Cellnex or Telefónica, who were left with a mere handful of dollars, even though they had sufficient resources to install the entire required network without needing a third party. Sources close to the process claim that the installation cost around €12 million.

Olmo and Víctor's lifeline

Outside of telecommunications, Birladeanu was also instrumental in the operation that allowed Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor to be quickly signed this winter. The versatile businessman pledged to contribute 70 million of the 100 million euros that Barça will earn from the operation of 475 seats. VIP of the future Camp Nou. Of those 70 million, 40% (28 million) were already paid in the famous transfer that arrived three days after the deadline. The other 30 million were provided by a newly created Qatari company.

Initially, Barça decided not to make the names of these two companies public. However, La Liga, which did have access to the details, doubted the origin of this money. In fact, the president of the employers' association, Javier Tebas, assured The Objective It was found that "the company (New Era Visionary Group) had a capital of only 3,000 euros." For this reason, the League initially rejected the company's commitment to pay the remaining 60%. The precautionary measure granted by the Higher Sports Council (CSD) was ultimately what allowed the two players to return to their playing days.

Luxury watches, coffee, and wine

But Birladeanu isn't the only family member who has done business with Barça. His son Andrei is the founder and CEO of New Era Licesing & Merchandising, registered in Estonia in August 2023. The youngest member of the family's company is based on the exploitation of products under the Barça brand. Among the products, a collection of luxury watches stands out, commemorating the club's 125th anniversary, produced by the exclusive firm Jacob&Co.

Aside from the watches, New Era Licesing & Merchandising had also announced a line of wines and specialty coffee on Instagram in recent weeks, but both posts have since been deleted, although its collaborators continue to publish their ads.