The times. They are a-changin'.
Bob Dylan's 1964 folk track will be low down on the list of a go-to song for most Barcelona fans who will soon probably be taking advantage of a sweet Spotify premium deal to celebrate a much-needed cash injection.
The Catalan giants had long prided themselves on being sponsorless, but to quote Dylan: "The slow one now, will later be fast. As the present now, will later be past."
But renaming the historic old Camp Nou? That's akin to giving the Sagrada Familia a "brought to you by" tagline - or Parc Guell having an elongated prefix. It's seeping Americanisation in football and it's not on.
However, it does answer a lingering question - particularly for native English speakers.
Camp Nou or Nou Camp?
Naming it the Spotify Camp Nou - officially - means that most football fans in England can end their obsession with calling it the Nou Camp.
A little historical look on Google Trends shows the majority of the world calls it Camp Nou with notable exceptions in Turkey, the UK, Vietnam, Slovakia and Ireland.
But there is hope on the horizon. In the past day, search conventions around Camp Nou/Nou Camp are changing. In Ireland, 64 per cent of users typed in Camp Nou. In the UK that split was 66-34 per cent. In Turkey, the split is 70-30 per cent.
Will fans adopt the Spotify name change?
There are certainly some breakout searches on Google Trends but in the long run it is not likely.
Unlike Americans who love to attend basketball fixtures at the Smoothie King Center, adopting branded stadium names in parlance has worked well mainly in new-builds. Arsenal's The Emirates Stadium is so strong you have to Google what the ground's formal name was (Ashburton Grove).
Sometimes they work too well when the eventual naming rights expire. Coventry City fans still call their now two-decade-old stadium the Ricoh, despite it now being The Coventry Building Society Stadium. Bolton Wanderers' stadium is still pretty much "The Reebok".
Why have Barcelona gone all-in with Spotify?
Up until 1982, their famous blaugrana shirt didn't even have a supplier let alone a shirt sponsor front and centre. But that changed with an altruistic deal with the UN children's agency Unicef in 2006. Unicef remains a secondary shirt sponsor to this day.
Another non-financial sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation followed for a couple of seasons. Then, in 2013, Barca received their first monetary sponsor with Qatar Airways - a deal estimated to be worth about €170 million over four years. Since 2017 Barca have been sponsored by Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten for about €55m a year. The club also has a secondary shirt sponsor by Turkish appliance maker Beko.
Barca have not confirmed how much the Spotify sponsorship deal is worth although reports suggest the club could earn up to €300 million ($328.6 million) over the four years. A tidy amount.
But this pales in comparison with English clubs such as Manchester United who enjoyed a $559m deal with Chevrolet over seven years - and they didn't have to prefix Old Trafford.
“This partnership will allow us to continue to bring the club closer to its fans and make them feel, even more, part of the Barca family," says President Joan Laporta.
Perhaps. But recently at the Catalan club Money's Too Tight (To Mention).
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
