Barcelona Sign €150m Shirt Sponsorship Deal With Qatar Foundation – Noooooo!

Ollie Irish

10th, December 2010

26 Comments

By Ollie Irish

Barcelona’s famous shirt, sans sponsor’s logo until now

Barcelona have signed the most lucrative shirt sponsorship deal in football history, with the Qatar Foundation (a non-profiit organisation founded by the Emir of Qatar in 1995). It’s worth €150m to the Catalan club.

For the past five years, Barca have paid international children’s charity Unicef to sport their logo, having previously shunned any shirt sponsorship deal at all. It’s a shame the club has been forced to bow to market forces, but Barca’s substantial debt (€442m) means they are not in any sort of position to turn down such a lucrative deal.

“With this agreement, Barca have become the undisputed brand leader in world football, far ahead of international rivals,” said Javier Faus, who is one of Barca’s vice-presidents.

A little piece of football just died.

Posted in Barcelona, Kits & fashion, La Liga

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26 Comments

  1. George says:

    Maybe I’m misunderstanding the term ‘Non-profit’ here, but isn’t that similar to a charity? Where does a charity, or a ‘non-profit’ business find 150 million to sponsor football teams?

  2. tapioca says:

    Thank you George, I’m hugely confused too! Although I’m also experiencing a warm feeling of schaudenfreude that after all their postulating, Barca are clearly shameless capitalists like every other football club.

    And doesn’t Gary have such a lovely tan in that pic?

  3. Ash says:

    They need the cash don’t they. Kinda sad, but doesn’t really diminish the club in any way

  4. ric says:

    this is pretty low for barca, even lowwer than attacking opposing players and the sprinklers. they whored themselves out to the dirty petrol dollars that got qatar a wc. Americans ans Australians who are fans of barcelona should hang their heads in shame. The club you loved supported the qatari’s in exchange for gas money. Talk about human rights too, they are now sponsored by the worst human rights group of all, islam.

  5. simone says:

    i guess they are tired of only being known as the club who plays he best football in the world and wins all the prices.Unlike Real madrid who suck and still manage to be the richest club in the world.

  6. simone says:

    I knew they had a flaw.

  7. phil says:

    Ahem, I’m sure there is no connection whatsoever to Qatar getting the 2022 cup. The Qatar Foundation may be a non-profit, but the country sure isn’t.

  8. Miguel - NYC says:

    Again, the hatred towards Barca.
    Chelsea, owned by Ruski “petrol dollars” (Great human rights record there as well).
    Arsenal sports the “emirates” logo and the stadium is also called that. I wonder where that money comes from!
    Man U used to sport AIG, which then changed to “IOU”.
    Man City is owned by “dirty petrol dollars”.

    The Qatar Foundation (http://www.qf.org.qa/output/page3.asp) is a non-profit, but it is an organization owned by the country itself, hence the ability to pay such amount of money.
    Barca went from giving 1.5 million a year to Unicef (that has not changed), to having the most lucrative football shirt deal in the world…and when you tied that to 2 consecutive golden ball awards, the best youth system in the world, 8 Trophies in 2 years, the best (home grown) coach in the wold, the best player in the world, and displaying the most beautiful football played around (some say in history), it is no wonder one can see the senseless comments you see here and around other sites.
    What a bunch of haters…

    Barca, more than a club!

  9. Rainia M says:

    i agree with phil…The Qatar foundation is a charity foundation sponsored by the goverment…the goverment payed the 150 mill not the foundation…i dont really see what’s bad about that, i mean it’s a charity foundation they’re not sponsoring burger king or something…
    #

    “Talk about human rights too, they are now sponsored by the worst human rights group of all, islam.”-that is just very ignorant and offensive

  10. Rich says:

    look they still stand for pure football that primarily focuses itself on youth and have a pure vision of how football should be played, if they have to sell themselves for a while to make sure that they continue to be then that’s not too bad

    they’re still head and shoulders above any other top club

  11. dc says:

    http://www.qf.org.qa/output/page3.asp

    Still not sure how I feel about the change: It’s Laporta’s fault for putting us in debt, but it’s Rosell’s fault for not coming up with a creative way of making Barca profitable. To be honest I’d rather have foreign influence in the club’s ownership than foreign influence on the jerseys. Hopefully in 5 years time, with the Cantera system producing world beaters and a good run of management bringing the club out of debt, we can drop the Qataris and look back on it all as a necessary evil of the world financial crisis.

    Besides, there is already enough sponsorship from Estrella Damm, Vichy Catalan, La Caixa, etc, as secondary sponsors, and I find it hard to believe that Barca would resort to a non-Catalunya based company, let alone a foreign one, to deface the jersey.

    Regardless, Sweet Jesus God Almighty please do not let that green tree logo appear on the jersey. I swear, if I see any green on top of blue and red come next year…

  12. swandive19 says:

    fuck you ric

  13. Santi says:

    “we can drop the Qataris and look back on it all as a necessary evil of the world financial crisis”

    Oh come on! Typical Barcelona and its fans, always try to make themselves out to be holier than thou, like this is in no way your fault. Blame it on someone else.

  14. V says:

    Well, Zlatan’s debt had to be paid somehow.

  15. Eliot Prince says:

    Can’t believe this! very disappointing :( Qataris are taking over!!!!!

  16. Miguel - NYC says:

    LOL! I think you need to blame someone for not winning, and especially for not winning with home grown players.
    At least Barca is own by its members and not by A russian, a US Business man (2 if you count liverpool)…or the Emirates.
    And how is a non for profit from Qatar worse than AIG or Barclays?
    And whether they logo is there or not, the team will be practically the same…as well as the schools and projects that barca supports all over the world. The message is the same.
    More than a team.

  17. Miguel - NYC says:

    @V, you are 100% right.

  18. dc says:

    Santi,

    First off, you took the one comment in my whole paragraph that was supposed to be funny and took it seriously.

    Secondly, NO ONE in Barcelona is happy with how the club has been run, and everyone agrees that it is “our fault” or at least the fault of the people who have been running it, aka Joan Laporta/Sandro Rosell and everyone else who has contributed to the debt. Laporta, for one, has even sued the club after leaving.

    All you have to do to see the furor over this is take a look at discussions on Barcelona based websites, like:
    http://sport.es/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=44&idioma=CAS&idtipusrecurs_PK=7&idnoticia_PK=732377

    No one here wants a shirt sponsor. However, at this point it IS a necessary evil because of the state of the club. All I was saying was that there is always hope for the future.

  19. Hill says:

    Gutted for UNICEF who will now miss out of the 3 million Euro’s per season for their good work with children

  20. Tuncay says:

    Yea but who the fuck likes children anyway. They’re shit.

  21. Montesquieu says:

    Arsene Wenger likes children.

  22. V says:

    Thanks Miguel.

    But, if what I read is true, it’s important to point out that they will SHARE the shirt surface, thus KEEPING the UNICEF “sponsorship”.

  23. Tom Jones says:

    Who really gives a shit if a dago club gets a new shirt sponsor?

  24. johnny says:

    Dudes, this “we need the money” bull is just what was expected of Rossell. How many of you remember he tried as VP to bring a sponsor to Barca’s shirt in 2003?

    It’s money. And no, “if 2015 && debt ==0” the sponsorship will prolly not be dropped. Too bad a history of 111 years “sans” sponsor is lost.

  25. […] According to El Mundo, this is what the next Barcelona home shirt will look like, complete with Qatar Foundation logo on the chest – tis the first commercial shirt sponsor Barca have agreed to. Looks like the Unicef logo is relegated to the back. A shame but you can’t blame the Catalan club for bowing to market forces, not when they are heavily in debt. […]

  26. […] at Barcelona’s next away shirt (source: El Mundo Deportivo), made by Nike and complete with Qatar Foundation sponsor’s logo on the chest. You might think it’s for goalkeeper Victor Valdes, who has been the man in the […]

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