Spanish football club Barcelona plans to create its own cryptocurrency as it explores emerging technologies to drive long-term and sustainable business growth, its president said at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.
The 122-year-old team is seeking to leverage blockchain and the metaverse to achieve this goal, and will also launch its first non-fungible token soon, Joan Laporta said in a keynote address. He did not divulge further details on the planned NFT offering.
"Our goal basically is to win titles, to compete for winning and to make our fans happy. But it's true that at the same time, we have to profit," Mr Laporta said.
"The opportunities in the sports industry are very important to us; for us, it's kind of a necessity and a matter of survival, because in football we don't have a corporate or estate behind us that solves financial difficulties."
Barcelona was ranked as the world's most valuable football franchise and fourth overall in all of sports teams with a value of $4.76 billion in 2021, according to Forbes.
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Football is the world's most popular sport, estimated to be followed by about 3.5 billion fans worldwide, according to governing body Fifa. Teams – particularly in Europe – enjoy lucrative sponsorships and rake in significant revenues from ticket and merchandise sales.
However, the industry was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic: the combined revenue of European clubs dropped more than 13 per cent to £22bn ($29.4bn) in the 2019-2020 season, the first decline since the 2008 financial crisis, according to consultancy Deloitte.
Watch as Messi's poster is removed from Camp Nou in Barcelona
Barcelona also closed the 2020-2021 season with a loss of €481 million ($533.42m) and a revenue of €631m, which was 26 per cent less than budgeted, according to its website.
This eventually led to the dramatic departure of Lionel Messi from the team in August last year, because the financially-troubled La Liga club were unable to afford his new contract, despite the Argentine agreeing to a 50 per cent pay cut.
The club's new technological push is taking shape at Camp Nou, its home stadium in downtown Barcelona that is undergoing renovation to integrate new technologies. The National visited the sprawling venue, which offers a virtual and interactive camp tour.
It has already established Barca Studios for the production of its own content and the Barca Innovation Hub to develop new technologies. The club also intends to diversify and integrate e-sports and entertainment businesses into its operations.
The metaverse is an emerging digital space where virtually-enhanced physical and digital reality converge. The industry, which is gaining interest from corporates and organisations across the board, is seen as the future of interaction. It was valued at $47.69bn in 2020 and is projected to hit $828.95bn in 2028, according to Emergen Research.
