Barcelona sealed a massive shirt sponsorship deal on Wednesday with Japanese online retailer Rakuten worth at least €55 million (Dh217m) a year.
One of world football’s most lucrative shirt sponsorship deals sees Japan’s leading e-commerce company replace Qatar Airways, Barcelona’s shirt sponsor since 2013, confirming Asia’s appetite for major investment in European football. The deal, which begins in the 2017/18 season, will last for four years.
With the pulling power of top stars like Lionel Messi and Neymar, Barcelona’s success on the pitch ensures the club exerts a huge draw on advertisers.
“The base contract is €55m per year, with a bonus of €1.5m per year if the club wins La Liga and €5m if it wins the (Uefa) Champions League,” Barcelona’s head of marketing, Manel Arroyo, told a news conference at the club’s Camp Nou stadium.
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Qatar Airways were reported to have paid €35m for the final year of their deal taking them up to the end of the 2016/17 season.
Barcelona boast some of the world’s most recognisable stars — vital marketing assets for the club’s partners — who have millions of followers on social media, promising invaluable exposure to sponsors.
Argentina striker Messi is one of the most popular athletes in the world on social media, with more than 78 million fan followers on Facebook alone.
Barcelona’s new sponsorship deal however falls short of the seven-year deal which Manchester United signed with Chevrolet which will earn the English club $560m (Dh2.05 billion) -- about $80 million per year.
Barcelona, once renowned for never having had a sponsor on their shirts, had been looking to replace their Qatar Airways contract which was seen as below market value for a number of seasons.
It extended its contract last year with the airline for one year while it looked for a new partner.
Rakuten, seeking to boost its global image, is Japan’s biggest e-commerce company with more than 13,000 employees in Japan and turnover of more than two trillion yen (Dh67.4bn) in the first three quarters of the year.
Barcelona took its first step towards ending its tradition of shunning sponsors on its shirts in 2006 when it agreed to bear the logo of Unicef.
In 2011, Qatar Foundation replaced the charity on the club’s shirts under a new deal.
Qatar Airways signed its first sponsorship deal with the club in 2013.
Barcelona’s new sponsorship deal comes as the club is set to begin work in 2018 on an extensive renovation of their Camp Nou stadium.
The refurbishment will see the capacity of Europe’s biggest stadium extended to 105,000 and an open facade to allow views across the city.
A budget of €420m has been estimated for the project that will be financed in large part by proceeds from sponsorship.
Barcelona in May signed a 10-year kit agreement with Nike, which it expects to bring in at least €150m per season when the arrangement takes effect in the 2018/19 season.
The club is expected to post a record turnover of €679m in the 2015-16 season and surpass arch-rival Real Madrid as the world’s richest club in the annual rankings by Deloitte.
* Agence France-Presse
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