Jean-Claude Blanc
Man Utd’s next CEO?
After the departure of current CEO Richard Arnold was announced yesterday (yay 🥳), reports suggest that new part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe plans to bring in Jean-Claude Blanc as Arnold’s successor.
Blanc is one of the longest-serving CEOs in football. His success is incomparable and has been a major part in the achievements of PSG and rebuild of Juventus after the Calciopoli scandal.
But who is Jean-Claude Blanc?
He is a Frenchman (if you didn’t know) who has an MBA from Harvard Business School 😳! I feel that that tells one everything about this guy when it comes to business.
Harvard Business School. Bloody hell.
Blanc has worked in other sports as well such as Roland-Garros, the Olympic Games and the Tour de France.
Past Experience
While Jean-Claude will be the CEO of United, he is someone who focuses more on the business side of things as well as all things brand. That will be music to the Glazer’s ears as we know just how much they like brands and business.
He’s also worked closely with Sir Dave Brailsford whom we know was the former British Cycling chief at INEOS and big time pal of Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
As I mentioned, Blanc had a role at PSG before leaving Paris towards the end of 2022 to operate at Sir Jim’s owned OGC Nice.
While in Paris though, he became the General Manager of PSG and was one of the key figures that oversaw the success of the French Champions as powerhouses in the football scene.
Let’s be honest, nobody really heard of PSG until that takeover in 2011 by Qatar and it was because of someone like Blanc that they became this global brand.
Blanc oversaw collaborations with the likes of the Jordan brand to make PSG that much more eye-catching. This is where he truly resides as Jean-Claude focuses on all things off the field.
Before his stint in Paris though, his most high profile job was at Juventus when he was brought in as a board member after the club were relegated to Serie B in 2006.
Blanc was then elevated to Chairman in 2009 and was pivotal to the rebuild of the Old Lady to bring them back to Serie A. The Frenchman started to rebuild the squad, technical staff and improved the club’s finances.
This saw Juve get back into Italy’s top flight straightaway in 2007 and once they got back in the groove, ended up becoming the dominant team in Italy over the past decade.
The Harvard MBA also played a major role in moving to Juventus’ current home ground the Allianz Stadium.
Final Thoughts
This guy has quite the reputation, certainly a lot better than the now soon to be departing Richard Arnold.
To be the man responsible for making PSG the household name they are today and after having had a huge influence in bringing Juventus back to life, are two incredible feats.
This is alongside the stuff he’s done for the other sports as well. The fact that he has an MBA from Harvard Business School is probably the thing that standouts to me the most.
For some reason, I don’t associtae anyone in football to have such a degree, even if they are executives and CEOs.
But Blanc is definitely more than capable of handling the role at United and helping with the rebuild.
As someone who was Qatar in, I do like the type of people Sir Jim is looking to bring in when looking at Jean-Claude Blanc and Paul Mitchell.
If only he got rid of the Glazers as well. He could’ve been a great owner for that.
What do you think of the potential employment of Jean-Claude Blanc as new MUFC CEO?
#MUFC #GGMU #SIRJIMRATCLIFFE #JEANCLAUDEBLANC #GLAZERSOUT
