Barça will sign a new sponsor of its shirt

BARCELONA – Barcelona is in “advanced negotiations” with a company interested in advertising in its shirt from next season and that would occupy the space of Rakuten, which has occupied this place since 2017 and whose contract, which ends on June 30, 2022, no renewal is expected. Sources from the Barça club revealed to ESPN Digital that the talks began “months ago” and that the agreement, which is estimated to be close, will significantly improve the current conditions with the Japanese company, which pays a fixed amount of 30 million euros.

The signing with the new sponsor, which the club hopes to announce before the end of the year, would show the strength of the Barça brand despite the departure of Lionel messi, denying the information regarding the decline in its popularity and interest in the face of large companies due to the loss of the Argentine star, which was calculated at 137 million euros, and reinforcing its position among the great clubs in the world.

The board of directors of Joan Laporta, one of whose priorities when reaching the presidency of the club was “to go from 29 sponsors to 49”, maintained since the electoral campaign, as announced before the elections, conversations with various companies, two of them from technology sector to which at least one of ‘crypto exchanges’ would have joined in recent months, dedicated to the sale of cryptocurrencies and which would become the first of this branch to advertise on the shirt of a football club … Although it has opposing opinions in the offices as it is considered an unethical sector and whose agreement would only be considered in the case of supposing an exorbitant offer.

However, Barcelona, ​​despite the current limitations in the world of sports sponsorship due to the coronavirus pandemic, estimates that it will achieve income “much higher” than the 30 million it currently obtains from the Japanese company specialized in electronic commerce and content. by streaming and to this he adds the option to sponsor the left sleeve of the shirt, which was left free after the resignation of the Beko appliance company to continue paying 19 million per year to do so together with the training shirt, which it maintains until the end of the course for 10 millions.

HISTORICAL
This Tuesday marks the 15th anniversary of the signing between Barça and UNICEF, revolutionary at the time, in September 2006, and which led the United Nations Children’s Organization to be the first to announce itself on the first team’s shirt. Barça, who debuted it five days later in a Champions League match against Levski settled with a 5-0 victory.

Presented as a promotional instrument for solidarity purposes, that agreement caused the club to pay the agency dedicated to guaranteeing the fulfillment of children’s rights 0.7 percent of its annual income, approximately 1.5 million euros per season, and abandon the various options that it handled in the previous months, such as the 2008 Beijing Olympic bid or the Betandwin betting house and for which it was speculated with an income exceeding, at that time, 12 million euros.

UNICEF remained in the Barça shirt until June 2011, six months after Sandro Rosell, who replaced Joan Laporta as president in 2010, signed a five-year contract with the Qatar Foundation, which brought him an income 30 million euros per year until 2016, being presented by the then economic vice president Javier Faus as an “extraordinary milestone” by making the Barça club the best paid for showing advertising on his shirt.

OVERCOME
After ten years and after at the end of 2016 Josep Maria Bartomeu, who succeeded Rosell in command, did not renew the relationship with Qatar and signed with Rakuten, the Barcelona shirt has been greatly displaced in terms of the best paid in world football, ranking in a discreet tenth position (also affected by the coronavirus), with an income of 30 million euros, far from the 70 that Fly Emirates pays to Real Madrid and which makes it the market leader .

Barça, through the intermediation of Gerard piqué signed a four-season contract with Rakuten for which the Japanese multinational paid a fixed amount of 55 million euros per year between the 2017-18 and 2020-21 seasons, an amount that could increase to 61.5 million per year depending on the results. These bonuses established a prize of 5 million for the conquest of the Champions League (which was not achieved) and of 1.5 million for winning the League (he added two titles that meant extra income of 3 million), there being no other compensation for achieve other titles such as the Copa del Rey, the Spanish and European Super Cups or the Club World Cup.

The contract signed in November 2016 established a one-season extension clause, which had to be agreed upon by both parties in a reasonable period before completion and which was extended by the previous Barça president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, in recent weeks. prior to his resignation in October 2020.

This extension, however, was marked by the health situation, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and lowered the conditions to a fixed 30 million, more variable to a maximum of 35 million and valid until June 2022.

RELEASED
The signing of the new sponsor of the shirt will mean an “important relaunch” for Barça, which is pointed out by the club, adding to the 105 million per season that Nike comes in for sportswear and that lasts until June 2026.

With the leadership of these two main sponsors, the Barça club maintains the intention of maintaining during the first two years of Laporta’s presidency the nearly 200 million euros for sponsorships, with the aim, from there, of increasing them with the activation of other categories not exploited so far.

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Includes shirt sponsorship and stadium name

First division of Spain