Barca Shirt sponsor

RustySpoon

Details here on Barca's new shirt deal. The first in their history.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/5321380.stm

I think it is a really great gesture and shows Barca to be a club with class to spare.

Mossy Monk

RustySpoon wrote:

Details here on Barca's new shirt deal. The first in their history

not the first. as the article states Spanish channel TV3 has been on the sleeve for a few years

LegacyUser

Mossy Monk wrote:

not the first. as the article states Spanish channel TV3 has been on the sleeve for a few years

First ever on the main part of their shirt though. That TV3 thing is tiny anyway and on the sleeve.

ciaran76

The cynic in me believes its just a good way to start getting people used to shirt sponsorship on the Barca jersey and in a year or 2 a major international firm will come in and start sponsoring them.

But thats just my way of thinking !!!;)

MrJoeSoap

"It's an initiative with soul. Barca can help the children of the world."

Maybe they could start by not having their jerseys made by Nike, a company with a shocking record on Asian sweatshops employing children.

AthAnRi

Are they gonna make any money from this deal? If not then fair play, otherwise is it not a bit hypocritical of them to say oh look how great we are, raising awareness for Unicef while at the same time taking money from a charitable organization?

MrJoeSoap

Its highly unlikely they are making money from it.

The club announced last May that they had agreed to donate 0.7 percent of annual income starting from the 2006/07 season to the United Nations as a contribution to the organisation's Millennium Development Goals campaign.

AthAnRi

Well then Respect is due to those Barca boys.

BlackWizard

They just made a big investment in their own business. The return will come in,
indirectly via revenue but its directly effecting their fan base. Despite doing so
well recently I dont think they have yet surpassed Read Madrid or Man Utd in
terms of world reputation. This might just help them in the long run to reach the
heights of those clubs.

But I still do believe there is good intentions here and Im positive they had other
sponsors available but took a risk knowing if it failed, it was still for a good
cause.

MrJoeSoap is dead right in what he said. If they where 100% for helping children
then they should have to change their kit sponsorship. That might be taking things
a bit too far for the new el presidente. A step in Bono or Geldofs direction might
not suit him just yet

Aquos76

On a similar note, Man Utd's sponsor AIG has agree to donate £1000 per goal scored this season to children's charities across the UK and Ireland

Andrew 83

I'm a member of Barca. Laporta sent around this open letter to fans this evening which gives the details. Barca will pay UNICEF 1.5m on top of the money they're giving to hte UN Millenium Goals so they're definitely not getting paid by UNICEF. Hats off to them though I really hope it doesn't lead to a commercial sponsor 5 or more years down the line.

OPEN LETTER FROM JOAN LAPORTA

On the occasion of the agreement with UNICEF, which will be announced this Thursday in New York, FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta addresses an open letter to all club fans to explain the details.

Here follows the full version of the open letter from Joan Laporta, published in several media this Thursday:

"To all followers of FC Barcelona,

The purpose of this letter is to inform you about the agreement that we will sign with UNICEF in New York today. Under this five-year agreement, the FC Barcelona football team will wear the UNICEF logo on their shirts this season. The first team will unveil the new shirt this coming Tuesday, when we play our first Champions League match against PFC Levski Sofia at Camp Nou.

In August 2003, the General Assembly of members authorised the Club Board to negotiate an agreement to place advertising on the team shirts, as the economic situation the club was in when we took office obliged us to explore all the possibilities for generating income.

Fortunately, thanks to our collective efforts, to good economic management in recent years, to the sporting successes the club has achieved and to the renewed enthusiasm of everyone involved, there no longer exists such a pressing need for the financial benefits that we could obtain from placing advertising on the club shirt.

In view of this fact, several months ago the Board began a process of reflection to decide the best option for branding the shirt. This debate coincided with another aimed at positioning FC Barcelona as "més que un club" - more than a club - worldwide. The conclusion was that we should place our greatest asset, the shirt, at the service of this ambitious project.

FC Barcelona is more than a club in Catalonia. It is our country's most representative sporting institution, and one of its leading ambassadors. For different reasons, too, FC Barcelona is more than a club for many people in the rest of Spain, who saw Barça as a speaker for freedom and democratic rights.

Football today has become global. The FC Barcelona fanbase has spread and grown spectacularly all over the world, as new members from outside Catalonia and Spain join every day. The club cannot but respond to this rising global wave of followers. There is both a need and an obligation to provide such a response, and we feel that the most consistent way of doing so is to take another step towards becoming more than a club worldwide.

The motto "més que un club" is an open definition. It is this flexibility, perhaps, that makes it such an appropriate way of defining the complex identity of FC Barcelona. There has always been a Barça that plays every Sunday and every Wednesday and a Barça whose heart beats constantly, every day, to the rhythm of people's concerns. This Barça is now a global club. Now we want to globalise the Barça that cares about its people too. We want to globalise the civic-minded, caring, humanitarian Barça.

And we believe that the best way of doing this is to enter into an alliance with UNICEF, the fund set up by the United Nations to foster children's welfare. Firstly, we decided to donate 0.7 per cent of club income to the FC Barcelona Foundation and to formally support the United Nations Millennium Goals. Next, we decided to contribute one-and-a-half million euros to the humanitarian work of UNICEF over the next five years, and to display the fund's logo on the club football shirt. We are convinced that this is an excellent agreement, as it positions FC Barcelona in an absolutely unique dimension.

We are aware of the challenges that this decision places before us. To be more than a club is something we must all work towards together, every day: players, coaching staff, directors, employees, members, fan clubs and followers - we all have a role to play in this. But we are convinced that we can do it, and we believe, too, that this project will help us to fulfil our ambition of making Barça a truly universal club.

We hope that you will find this project as exciting as we do, and that you will make it your own. It is the greatest challenge we have taken on for the next few years. Many thanks for your support and confidence."

Joan Laporta i Estruch

President of FC Barcelona

Blackjack

A very noble gesture indeed. More of this is whats needed in Football these days.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

cournioni

Aquos76 wrote:

On a similar note, Man Utd's sponsor AIG has agree to donate £1000 per goal scored this season to children's charities across the UK and Ireland

£10000 so far then so.

sofireland

Thats a nice gesture too from AIG

Though Barca's is a massive gesture, fair play to them.

redspider

I think this is a welcome decision and good to see in football.

The cynic in me believes its just a good way to start getting people used to shirt sponsorship on the Barca jersey and in a year or 2 a major international firm will come in and start sponsoring them.

I think it is genuine enough at the moment. However, it will give them an option in the future, along the lines of: "July 2009 - Dear Barcelona FC Member, due to our failure to win La Liga for the 2nd year in succession, we have decided to invest in new players as you have seen (eg: 'Brazil'-iano) and we have to support these investments financially. To that end we have agreed with 'Big Sponsor' to a 5 year deal ...", etc

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Maybe they could start by not having their jerseys made by Nike, a company with a shocking record on Asian sweatshops employing children.

If all businesses in the 'western/rich' countries would do likewise the world would be a better place. I agree with you, many businesses fail to look at their complete supply chain and by their actions they are indirectly maintaining poverty, etc, and forcing child labour. Its a global problem though, not Barca's per se. I'm sure some of the players use iPods and the recent 'news' that Apple's sub-suppliers were using sweatshops didnt make them throw them in the bin in disgust. Do you have an iPod, not implying that you dont care of course.


redspider

fade2black

To go marginally off topic, as some would say I'm sometimes liable...I wonder how many, albeit crap, jobs would be lost over in these countries if Nike did pull out. I'm not condoning Nike at all..but ya know...something to think about maybe...

PHB

I also found it amusing with Nike there, but it's nice to see that Barca are going down a good route. I was very wary when I heard about the Chinese Olympics thing and was happy it fell through, then when I saw this thread title, I was disappointed again.

Barca is an example of how a club should be run

I wonder how many, albeit crap, jobs would be lost over in these countries if Nike did pull out. I'm not condoning Nike at all.

Lots, but since they are essentially slave jobs, although Nike aren't as bad as some companies, are they really worth keeping?

[p.s. the practical economist in me says yes]

Andrew 83

The thing with Nike is that most of the other major kit manufacturers are probably doing similar things with regards to sweat shops. They'd have to go down the road of much smaller producers, which would therefore mean less money. While this is obviosuly preferable I can see why they wouldn't do it. Also while it doesn't make Nike any less guilty when it comes to other products, their soccer jerseys are all (including replicas) made in Portugal not Asia.

MrJoeSoap

redspider wrote:

Do you have an iPod, not implying that you dont care of course.

Don't own an iPod, have something similar made by Archos. Not that I knew of the case you're talking about. I'm highly hypocritical myself, and my wardrobe isn't free of Nike goods, but I do try and make a conscious effort where possible.

Pigman II

That's a pity.

I agree with a previous poster that it's just a kid gloves approach by barca to ease their fanbase in to the reality of shirt sponsorships. They know nobody is gonna say a bad word about Unicef and by the time ACME Evil Corp. step in a couple of years it won't be an unprecidented deal anymore.

I don't wear any football shirts that have sponsors on them cos frankly I'm not a billboard. If I ever start it'll be because the clubs/corporations are paying me for the honour, rather than the other way round. For this reason I had always respected Barca's resistance to sponsorship

Bateman

Pigman II wrote:

That's a pity.

I agree with a previous poster that it's just a kid gloves approach by barca to ease their fanbase in to the reality of shirt sponsorships. They know nobody is gonna say a bad word about Unicef and by the time ACME Evil Corp. step in a couple of years it won't be an unprecidented deal anymore.

I don't wear any football shirts that have sponsors on them cos frankly I'm not a billboard. If I ever start it'll be because the clubs/corporations are paying me for the honour, rather than the other way round. For this reason I had always respected Barca's resistance to sponsorship

Barca had a TV company's name on their shirt last season anyway. Athletic Bilbao are the only true guardians of the clean shirt now.

Andrew 83

Bateman wrote:

Barca had a TV company's name on their shirt last season anyway. Athletic Bilbao are the only true guardians of the clean shirt now.

While the TV3 logo is on the sleeve the players wear, it's not on the version you buy in the shops.

ShiverinEskimo

PORNAPSTER wrote:

£10000 so far then so.

Make that 11k