Over the past decade, FC Barcelona has established itself as one of the world’s most powerful football clubs. Their success on the pitch, domestically and internationally, remains unmatched. Yet despite an unprecedented number of trophies in recent years, the club is not satisfied.

Today, they have officially unveiled the ‘Barca Innovation Hub’, as the club continues to flex its muscles not just on the pitch, but off it as well.

For Barcelona, winning alone is not enough. Their Innovation Hub embodies the club’s drive to be at the forefront of everything they do. They are looking to the Hub to provide a collaborative and open environment, bringing visionaries from across the globe together to generate value not just for the football club, but for society in general. Barcelona’s credo, “more than a club,” demonstrates the awareness it has for its community beyond just football.

In today’s global economy, the world of sport has become interconnected with various industries and sectors. FC Barcelona continues to place itself at the forefront of the sporting world and remains the benchmark for sports knowledge and innovation. Yet the Spanish club is not alone in its movement to innovate through sporting excellence and knowledge. Manchester City recently partnered with UBTECH robotics. This integration of sport and technological development is a perfect example of innovative ideas driving the world of sport forward.

Innovation is a hot topic at the crossroads of digital and sport. As the world becomes more global and technology becomes more powerful, we consume sport in different ways. Next week, the first Digital Sport event of 2017 will take place in Manchester’s Hotel Football, with a wide variety of speakers from a range of different fields. These events always provide ideas from new points of view as a diverse collection of voices from throughout the industry discuss the issues facing us all.

Barcelona and Manchester City stand as perfect examples of what sporting organisations that understand these topics are capable of achieving, and the ‘Barca innovation Hub’ seems to be yet another nod to the importance of strategizing for the future of a rapidly-changing sector.