Barça completes the changing of the guard in its communication department

BarcelonaAlthough Joan Laporta will not begin his presidential term until July 1, Barça is functioning under his parameters and trusted individuals. In this context, this Friday the club has internally formalized significant changes in the communication department. Two professionals who had considerable influence on the team in recent years are leaving. On one hand, Ignasi Castelló, who leaves the Barça club after more than three years as head of the corporate branch. He was a choice of Laporta's second term's first communications director, Àlex Santos, who also left Camp Nou a few months ago. The other name disappearing from the organizational chart is Ricard Franco, who in recent months had lost responsibilities in the sports division. He had been working at the entity since 2017.

Both decisions are supported by the new communications director of the blaugrana, Gabriel Martínez, a veteran of the profession with decades of experience at Banco Sabadell and very well connected with Alejandro Echevarría, Laporta's ex-brother-in-law who constitutes the great power in the shadow of Barça. Martínez has been working at the club since last summer and was promoted to communications director after Santos' departure. Freed up during the pre-campaign and campaign weeks, he has now returned to the Camp Nou offices and has strengthened his team with Víctor Palacio, who joins the institution from the communications consultancy Roman. During his short leave of absence for electoral reasons, he delegated his duties to Marina Yeves, who has become his right-hand woman in both corporate matters and the management of Barça women's team.

In the men's first team, the figures of Jordi Nomdedéu and Pol Martínez remain, who a few months ago covered Xavi Guarte and Sergi Nogueras, two professionals relocated to other positions within the club after decades of experience in the locker room of the Joan Gamper Sports City with Frank Rijkaard, Pep Guardiola, Tito Vilanova, Luis Enrique, Ernesto Valverde, Ronald Koeman and Xavi Hernández. Guarte is in the women's team, while Nogueras has moved to a secondary role despite maintaining his position in the communications department. The changes in the first football team must also be framed within Echevarría's growing influence in one of the entity's most sensitive management areas.