Barca seal record shirt deal with Qatar Foundation

The biggest deal for any football club will net them a record Dh803million for five seasons after the Catalan side thwarted any corporate logo thus far.

Barcelona's €30million deal surpasses Manchester United and Liverpool's €23.6m a season.

MADRID // Barcelona have agreed a record shirt sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation worth €30 million euros (Dh146 million) a season through to the end of the 2015-16 campaign, the La Liga champions said on Friday.

The deal is the biggest for any soccer club, Barca said on their website, and will net the Catalan side about 165 million in total, including €15 million for the remainder of the current season.

The Qatar Foundation - founded by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in 1995 - has projects focusing on education, scientific research and community development. It is also engaged in several corporate joint ventures.

Last week the tiny Gulf state was chosen by the governing body Fifa to host the World Cup in 2022 as the first Arab country to stage the finals.

Barca are one of the few clubs not to have a corporate logo on their first-team shirts, instead displaying the name of the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, for which they pay the organisation €1.5m a year.

Under the agreement announced on Friday, marketing experts will seek to find a way for both logos to be displayed, although if that was not possible the UNICEF name would take priority, a club spokesman said.

"With this accord, Barca becomes the undisputed brand leader in world football, far ahead of international rivals," Javier Faus, a club vice president, told a news conference.

A study by consulting firm Sport+Markt published in October showed new deals for English Premier League clubs Manchester United and Liverpool were the two most valuable contracts in 2010/11 at €23.6m each.

Real Madrid's €23m deal with Internet bookmaker bwin was the next biggest.