FC Barcelona has contracted the services of I3 Ventures, a consulting company in social networks and digital marketing with an international presence, which is dedicated to improving the image of the club and the president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, but also, supposedly, to erode the public profile of players of the entity itself, such as Leo Messi or Gerard Piqué, of entrepreneurs such as Jaume Roures, general director of Mediapro - one of the accounts is dedicated almost exclusively to discredit the figure of the producer -, or Víctor Font, who He ran for president of the club a few months ago. This was reported by the team of the radio program Qué t'hi juges , of SER Catalunya, although Barcelona denied it, through a statement, a few hours later.
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SER Catalunya explained at noon on Monday that it has had access to two of the reports prepared by this company: the first is about monitoring the impact of some of the accounts, six specifically (Més que un club, Alter Sports, Sport Leaks , Justice and dialogue in sports and Jaume, a horror film, all of them from Facebook), through which messages are issued to improve public opinion about Barcelona and its board of directors. They do it with publications in positive tone, but also with negative messages about others who are defamed and attacked to improve the image of the entity.
The second report is a specific action plan against the future candidate for the Barça presidency Víctor Font, with whom he has linked former players Xavi Hernández and Carles Puyol.
In a statement sent to the media around three o'clock in the afternoon, Barcelona admits that it effectively works with I3 Ventures, as well as that it has contracted social network monitoring services to be aware of the positive and negative messages of the That the sports entity is the object.
Although, in its reaction, Barcelona strongly denies being related to any social media account "whose purpose is to spread negative messages or contempt in relation to any person, entity or organization that has or has had a relationship with the club." The aforementioned company, they say, is a provider of the club, but "it has no link to these accounts and, if any relationship is demonstrated, the club would immediately terminate its contractual relationship and take appropriate legal action in defense of its legitimate interests," he says. the note.
Barcelona, reports Ser Catalunya, has invested almost one million euros in this company, through different contracts assigned to different departments of the club. In fact there are six different invoices of amounts less than 200,000 euros, which would prevent these contracts from being audited by the delegated Commission, which avoids internal control and goes against the transparency of the entity.
The objective would be to defame third parties with the mission of sweetening one's own image. It happened even with idols for the Barca fans like Messi, who was attacked when he had not signed the last renewal of his contract. Some messages pointed out that he did not do it because Jaume Roures had bought it. Roures, through the Mediapro group, will invest tens of millions in the construction of a theme park dedicated to Messi in China that supposedly should open its doors this year.
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