BARCELONA – Barcelona is holding “advanced negotiations” with a company interested in announcing itself on its beach from next season and which would occupy the space of Rakuten, which occupies this position since 2017 and the contract, which ends on June 30, 2022, is not expected to renew. 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 ostensibly improve current conditions with the Japanese company, which pays a fixed rate 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 fall in its popularity and interest in front of the big companies by the loss of the Argentine star that came to calculate in 137 million euros, and reinforcing his position between the big clubs of the world.
Joan Laporta’s management, one of the priorities in reaching the presidency of the club was “to go from 29 sponsors to 49”, maintained since the election campaign, as announced before the election, talks with several companies, two of them from the technology sector to which at least one of ‘crypto Exchanges’ has been added in recent months, dedicated to the sale and purchase of digital currency and which would become the first in this branch to be announced -be on the beach of a football club … Although it has conflicting opinions in the offices to be considered an unethical sector and the agreement would only be considered in the case of an exorbitant offer.
However, Barcelona, despite the current limitations in the world of sports sponsorship due to the coronavirus pandemic, estimates to achieve revenues “much higher” than the 30 million currently obtained from the company Japanese company specializing in e-commerce and streaming content and to this is added the option of sponsoring the left sleeve of the beach, which was released after resigning the home appliance company Beko to continue paying 19 million annually to do so in conjunction with the training t-shirt, which he holds until the end of the year for $ 10 million.
HISTORICAL
This Tuesday marks the 15th anniversary of the signing between Barça and UNICEF, a revolutionary at the time, in September 2006, which led the United Nations Children’s Organization to be the first to be announced. on the beach of Barça’s first team, which debuted five days later in a Champions League match against Levski with a 5-0 victory.
Presented as an instrument of promotion for charity, that agreement caused the club to pay the agency dedicated to ensuring compliance with children’s rights 0.7 percent of its annual income, approximately 1.5 million euros per season , and abandoned the various options he handled in previous months, such as the Beijing 2008 Olympic bid or the Betandwin bookmaker and for which it was speculated with revenues in excess of 12 million at the time. euros.
UNICEF remained on Barça beach 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. It meant an annual income of 30 million euros until 2016, being presented by the then vice-president of economics Javier Faus as an “extraordinary milestone” in making the Barça club the highest paid to advertise on its beach.
SUPERAT
Ten years later and after Josep Maria Bartomeu, who succeeded Rosell in command at the end of 2016, did not renew his relationship with Qatar and signed with Rakuten, Barcelona’s beach has become very displaced in terms of the best paid in world football, placing in a decent tenth position (also harmed by the coronavirus), with an income of 30 million euros, far from the 70 that Fly Emirates pays Real Madrid and make it the market leader.
Barça, through the mediation of Gerard Piqué, signed a four-season contract with Rakuten for which the Japanese multinational paid a fixed fee of 55 million euros per course between the 2017-18 and 2020-21 seasons, an amount that could increase to 61,500,000 annually depending on the results. These bonuses established a prize of 5 million for the conquest of the Champions League (which was not achieved) and 1.5 million to win the League (he added two titles that meant an extra income of 3 million), there is no has no other compensation to win 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 an extension clause for one season, which had to be agreed by both parties in a reasonable period before the end and which was extended by the previous Barça president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, in the last weeks before his resignation in October 2020.
This extension, however, was marked by the health situation, in the midst of a pandemic by coronavirus, and reduced conditions to 30 million fixed, more variable to a maximum of 35 million and valid until June 2022.
relaunched
The signing of the new sponsor of the beach will be a “major relaunch” for Barça, according to the club, adding to the 105 million per season that Nike enters for sportswear and that lasts until June 2026 .
With the leadership of these two main sponsors, the azulgrana club maintains the purpose of maintaining during the two first years of the presidency of Laporta near 200 million Euros by sponsorships, with the aim, as of here, to increase it with the activation of other categories not exploited so far.
Includes beach sponsorship and stadium nameSource