In this interview with Johan Cruyff Institute, Jaime Rioperez, Assistant to the President of Club Deportivo Leganés, explains how the club operates and how it is adopting new technologies
Founded in 1928, Club Deportivo Leganés has a long history in Spanish football. In the 2024–2025 season, the club competed in the first division of LALIGA and reached the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey. Jaime Rioperez, Assistant to the Club President, was one of the participants in the first SPORTS BUSINESS Employment Fair. In the panel titled “Talent Management in Football Clubs: Profiles, Challenges and Opportunities”, Jaime Rioperez spoke about how clubs manage talent and what they are looking for in new professional profiles.
In this context, Jaime Rioperez reflected on the importance of new technologies in sports clubs. The challenge for Club Deportivo Leganés, he explains, is to innovate in its procedures: “Right now we are starting to work on a data-driven project where we put the fan at the center, so we can learn everything we can about them and fully leverage that data to eventually increase monetization.”
Can you give a brief introduction to Club Deportivo Leganés?
Club Deportivo Leganés is a club with 96 years of history, but it really started gaining relevance in professional Spanish football around the 1990s. Three years ago, the club underwent a change of ownership when it was acquired by Blue Crown Sports Group, an American investment fund I also work for. One of the major levers for growth identified by the club is the expansion of its human resources.
In terms of human resources, what do your employees value most about working at your organization?
Well, when I joined in November 2022, the club’s corporate area—not the sporting side—consisted of 15 employees. Right now, we’re at around 46 employees.
“I believe people want to come work at Club Deportivo Leganés because they see a clear career path, because they see growth not just in their department, but also in their overall career. I also think people, in general, feel comfortable working here.”
We’re focused on specialization. Beyond the original 15 employees I mentioned—who, with the best intentions and dedication, did a bit of everything—we are now very focused on having each person specialize in their area and grow from there.
What changes are you seeing in the labor market in your sector?
There are a lot of changes, especially in football. They’re not necessarily changes that haven’t already happened in other industries, but they tend to take a bit longer to reach football because it’s a very closed and insular world.
“The biggest change in the football industry is digitalization and the adoption of new technologies. That’s where we’re really focusing our growth efforts.”
It’s true that other sectors have already undergone these changes over the past 20 years, and I think we need to try and attract talent from those areas—people who can apply what they’ve done elsewhere to our world as well.
Another key vertical is everything related to being data-driven. In football—at least in Club Deportivo Leganés, which is what I know best—everything used to be based on people’s instincts, which are often correct, but not always reliable. So when you carry out data analysis across all areas—I’m thinking about ticketing, about sponsorships—you can identify where to improve.
Often, 80% is already understood through instinct, but there’s that 20% that might make the difference in terms of significant extra revenue. That’s where I believe we’re seeing real intangible growth.
What profiles are most in demand at Club Deportivo Leganés right now?
In our organization, the most in-demand profiles are very closely linked to technology and data-driven roles—basically anything related to digital strategy.
The club started from a low baseline, and now we’re just starting to work on a data-driven project with the fan at the center, trying to learn everything we can about them and maximize that data to eventually boost monetization.
But also the entire business area. The marketing and communications teams at Club Deportivo Leganés have done a wonderful job under the leadership of our department head. However, their main focus had been everything that happened on the pitch, and not as much on what all of this ultimately leads to, which is monetization.
We thought that focus was valid and should continue, but we also needed to hire profiles that could help us monetize. That’s where we came in.
“We hired a business team: from just two people, that area has now grown to over fourteen, and we’re still expanding in that direction.”
What other areas of Club Deportivo Leganés have grown in recent years?
A while ago, we had only two people managing sponsorships. Now we’ve expanded that division, and currently there are five people. We’ve also split that team between local/national sponsorships and international ones.
We’ve also hired a retail expert just for the club store. On top of that, we have staff dedicated to data analysis across all business areas. We wanted to professionalize that area, which barely existed before. Today I think we’re growing a lot in that space. We still need more people, but I believe we’re on the right track.
