“Did the Ward Really Not Know?” Inside the Opaque Business Transfer at FC Barcelona’s Official Academy
Was the business transferred by using the priority usage rights of a ward-operated facility as a selling point?
Spain’s FC Barcelona, known as the world’s greatest soccer club and producer of countless superstar players, has its own official soccer school, the Barça Academy, where one can learn its unique training methods based on the club’s football philosophy. The academy operates in 13 countries worldwide, and in Japan, Amazing Sports Lab Japan (hereafter, Amazing Co.) serves as the operator, running six schools including the Yokohama, Nara, and Fukuoka campuses.
At one of them, the Barça Academy Katsushika (Katsushika Ward, Tokyo; hereafter, Barça Katsushika), opaque management practices by its former operating body have come to light, causing ripples of controversy. The issue has escalated to the point where Katsushika Ward has established a third-party committee to investigate the causes. What exactly has happened at this FC Barcelona–authorized academy?
Barça Katsushika opened in April 2015. Although it is now operated by Amazing Co., at the time of its founding, it was run by a different organization. Katsushika Ward Assembly member Hitoshi Kobayashi, who has pursued the issue since its discovery, explains:
“The group engaged in the problematic ‘opaque management’ was the former operating body, General Incorporated Association Kids Challenge Mirai (hereafter, Kids Mirai), which was set up by local residents who had invited the school to the ward. While the official operator at the time was indeed Kids Mirai, from the very beginning they outsourced football operations to the private company Amazing Co. Even then, many assembly members questioned, ‘Why isn’t Amazing Co. the operator from the start?’”
The problem surfaced in September last year. When the ward assembly requested financial statements from Kids Mirai, the documents submitted in November revealed a shocking fact: in April 2023, Kids Mirai had transferred the business to Amazing Co. for 49 million yen.
If both parties had agreed to the transfer, it might seem unproblematic. However, Assemblyman Kobayashi fumes: “It was precisely because the organization was run by local residents that the ward permitted priority use of its facilities. If the operator is a private company, it’s an entirely different matter.”
“The ward granted Barça Katsushika priority use of the publicly owned Higashikanamachi Sports Ground as its training field and invested as much as 460 million yen of taxpayer money to improve the facilities, including night lighting and artificial turf. A ward-owned ground is, needless to say, a public facility. It seems clear that Kids Mirai used those usage rights as a ‘selling point’ to transfer the business to a third party for profit. Why was such a deal allowed? When pressed by the assembly, Katsushika Ward claimed, ‘We only learned of the transfer in November last year and had not known before then.’”
Because the transfer came to light in November, Katsushika Ward terminated its agreement with Kids Mirai at the end of March this year. Although Amazing Co. continues to operate the school alone, no agreement has been concluded with the ward for priority ground use. To avoid disruption for the 400 elementary and junior high school students enrolled at Barça Katsushika, the ward has granted temporary priority use until September this year. However, from October onward, the school will be treated the same as ordinary residents.
If the academy loses access to the grounds, there will be no guarantee that the children can continue receiving world-class soccer education. Among parents, strong voices of protest have arisen, such as: “How did it come to this? We believed priority access to the grounds would continue. This is outrageous.”
Resigned to run for office former deputy ward mayor
Just looking at the facts, it may seem as though a few individuals within Kids Mirai were blinded by money and, without informing Katsushika Ward, unilaterally pushed through the transfer of business. However, the reason this issue is referred to as “opaque management” lies elsewhere as well. Another ward assembly member, who disclosed details on condition of anonymity, explained:
“In fact, there’s a possibility that Katsushika Ward already knew about the business transfer in advance. Nobutaka Kobayashi, who resigned as Deputy Ward Mayor this May, was head of the Policy Planning Division at the time of the academy’s opening and played a leading role in the project. After the issue came to light, he declared in the assembly, ‘I had no knowledge whatsoever of the transfer,’ yet he ultimately resigned citing ‘personal reasons.’ In practice, this was a resignation to take responsibility, but many assembly members see it as him having ‘run away.’ There’s speculation that once the scandal blew up, he claimed ignorance for self-preservation and then went into hiding.”
Amazing Co. President and CEO Mitsuru Hamada also refused to stay silent. In late June, he sent a written “opinion statement” on the issue to several ward assembly members. Our magazine obtained a copy of this document, titled “Opinion on the Problems Concerning Barça Academy Katsushika.” It explicitly named the representative director of Kids Mirai, stating:
“With regard to the business transfer, he testified that from 2019 onward he had consulted multiple times with then–Deputy Ward Mayor Nobutaka Kobayashi.”
Pressed into a corner, the ward, as mentioned earlier, decided to set up a third-party investigative committee to pursue the matter. On August 19, the ward assembly plans to hold a general council meeting with all members present, summoning key figures involved—including former Deputy Mayor Kobayashi and President Hamada.
“Amazing Co. likely cannot allow the Barça Academy brand, a golden nameplate, to be tarnished. I believe they will argue, just as they did in the opinion statement, that the business transfer was conducted with the ward’s knowledge. Moreover, financial statements revealed that Kids Mirai had been continuously in the red, while at the same time booking more than 10 million yen annually in entertainment and hospitality expenses. We will press them on whether Deputy Mayor Kobayashi and others were among those entertained,” said the assembly member.
Assemblyman Kobayashi, who has continued pursuing the issue, added:
“Parents whose children attend the school have told me, ‘We moved to Katsushika Ward just so our kids could enroll here,’ and, ‘Our children just want to play soccer with pure intentions. We’re worried whether the program can continue safely.’ The ward’s responsibility in allowing this situation to arise is enormous. We will not let it be brushed aside ambiguously.”
FRIDAY Digital submitted written questions to Katsushika Ward regarding when it learned of the business transfer, the reasons behind former Deputy Mayor Kobayashi’s resignation, and the suspicion that he had been entertained by Kids Mirai. The ward responded:
“Regarding this matter, we have decided to conduct an investigation through a third-party investigative committee, in accordance with the ‘Third-Party Committee Guidelines for Corporate Misconduct’ published by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, as well as the ‘Guidelines for Third-Party Investigative Committees in Local Governments.’ The ward will observe the process and await the committee’s findings. As for the resignation of former Deputy Mayor Nobutaka Kobayashi, he submitted a request to resign citing personal reasons, and the ward accepted this.”
Attempts were also made to contact Kids Mirai directly, but its website has already been deleted, and its social media has been inactive since October 2022. According to the assembly member cited earlier, “Since the business transfer scandal came to light, they have been unreachable.”
For the 400 children who chase the ball every day to learn FC Barcelona’s renowned training methods, the question remains: Can Barça Academy Katsushika continue to protect these children’s pure love of soccer?