Man United are going to appoint a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) after it was confirmed that Richard Arnold would be stepping down from his role.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has reportedly earmarked Frenchman Jean-Claude Blanc to take over the role once his 25% stake acquisition goes through.
Here’s all we know about the prospective Man United CEO.
Juventus rebuild
Blanc is a highly experienced individual in the field of sports management, having worked for the likes of Juventus and PSG in the past.
The 60-year-old took over his first role in football by becoming the CEO of Juventus in 2006 when the club were in disarray after being relegated to Serie B as a punishment for bribing referees.
Blanc played a key role in getting major players like Gianluigi Buffon and Alessandro Del Piero to stay on and improve the state of the club. He helped rebuild the team and coaching staf while also working hard behind the scenes to renegotiate commercial deals to improve the financial health of the club.
The Frenchman's efforts helped Juventus bounce back into Serie A immediately and set the foundation for nine successive league titles. As a reward for his work, he became Juve’s president in 2009.
A major achievement of Blanc was also closing the financing and finalizing the building of the Allianz Stadium. The arena, opened in 2011 and became the first major football stadium created in Italy since 1990.
In 2011, Blanc was roped in by PSG as their CEO. He spent 11 years at the club, working hard to get them lucrative commercial deals and improving the structure of PSG.
He helped them earn more revenue through sponsors and worked closely with Leonardo, their sporting director. Blanc’s departure from PSG was claimed to one that ripped the ‘soul’ of the club out.
Tour de France, French Open & Paris Dakar
The Frenchman is well educated as well and has an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. Before he moved into the world of football, Jean-Claude Blanc developed his reputation with his smart work in the other sports management field.
After getting his business degree, he worked in France with a company responsible for managing and organizing many major sporting events like the Tour de France, Paris Marathon and Paris Dakar race. In 2001, he became the CEO of the French Tennis Association and under his guidance, the popularity of the French Open soared.
One of Blanc’s innovations was to add an extra weekend to the French Open by starting the tournament on a Sunday rather than the traditional Monday. He helped elevate the tournament’s commercial success and helped it garner more revenue during his five years.
‘Messi of Sports Business’
The 60-year-old is a reputed individual, who is now working for INEOS and looking after their various sports franchises. He has earned a lot of praise for his impressive work in the world of sports business.
OGC Nice CEO Fabrice Boquet had some big words for him, describing him 'as a bit like the Lionel Messi of Sports Business’.
Sir Jim also lavished praise for Blanc in February 2023, after roping him to be part of INEOS’ sports division: “We have high ambitions for all our sports teams with a particular ambition to raise our standards in football and Jean Claude will bring an entrepreneurial and innovative flair to all our teams.”
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