Barcelona's First Sponsor

shelsfan

I heard that Barca are to sign a deal with a Chinese organisation.
Apparently, its that they wear jersey's promoting the 2006 Olympic games in Beijing and after that the 2010 Asian Games.
Pretty weird deal for Barca to sign, must be very lucrative...

Töpher

£100M over 5 years.

shelsfan

Yeah just got a PM from iregk who can't post in Soccer:

iregk wrote:

Barcelona have broken with tradition and signed a deal to carry a sponsor on their shirts with the Chinese government to promote the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

Camp Nou supremo Joan Laporta travelled to the Chinese captial to thrash out the deal that will see the Catalan side receive at least €19million every year.

The five-year agreement will see the Blaugrana carry the 2008 Olympic Games logo and then switch to promote the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou.

Barcelona have admitted that they have been forced to make the move to stay competitive in the transfer market as well as to fund huge renovation projects at their Camp Nou complex.

Laporta claims that the deal will wipe out all the club's debts and allow Barça to compete on an equal footing with Real Madrid when competing for new players.

According to press reports in Catalunya the shirt will simply carry the word Beijing and the club hope that the fact that the sponsors are not a corporation or a business will win over sceptical fans.

The deal leaves Athletic Bilbao as the only club in Spain to have never carried a shirt sponsor, although the Basque Country club did carry the word Eusakdi on their jerseys to promote the Basque regional government in their Uefa Cup and Copa del Rey games this season.

Slash/ED

That wont go down well with the fans.

LegacyUser

That finance is essential for them to compete.

mayordenis

its not as if they arent currently competing now is it?

Slash/ED

cheesedude wrote:

That finance is essential for them to compete.

I know that and it can only benefit the club but still the fans will not like it one bit.

Makaveli

Slash/ED wrote:

That wont go down well with the fans.

Nope, it's not the most desireable thing. But, if it clears the debts and betters the club then I don't have a problem with it.
Whatever's best for the club.

If it looks shít I just wont by the shirt. Or maybe I'll try peel it off.

dceire

I know that football has become a comercial machine over the past few years but its a sad day when a clubs traditions are pushed asside for purely comercial reasons.

In saying that I can understand the appeal of the offer with barca's debts

David19

When you think of how money driven football is, its really amazing that a top team like Barcelona opted not to have a sponser. Its amazing they turned down that amount of money just for tradition. You have to commend them for that.

LegacyUser

How badly in debt are Barcelona??

David19

They were €160 million in debt when Laporta took over. Their finances are a lot better now. They're making profits and they've slashed their wage bill. I think they expect to be debt free within a few years.

http://www.soccerpulse.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t10008.html

They are a non-profit organisation so they don't follw the same rules as most football clubs.

LegacyUser

thanks man.

~Rebel~

I watched a fly on the wall documentary about 2 months ago following laporta's first season in charge (last year) and have to say he came across fantastically well. Always been a barca fan but that really stepped it up - he was all about the glory of the team, bringing them back to where they were, and so far has done a great job on both the business and football sides of things so i think i trust this to be the right decision, the benefits are probably just too big to pass up and im sure it'll be kept tasteful.

dudara

Still though, can't imagine many fans, except the die-hards, buying those shirts. It's a very odd deal

PHB

Die-hards aren't what make the money, people in Ireland buying Barca strips are what makes the money, and we couldn't care less about sponsors

ianomccabe

do barca not already have a tv3 (spain obviously) logo on their sleeve this season?
surely thats the first shirt sponsor theyve had?

shelsfan

Aertel report that Beijing have denied it:

Aertel wrote:

BARCA SPONSORSHIP DEAL IS DENIED
Beijing Olympic organisers today denied
reports that it was negotiating with
Barcelona for a shirt sponsorship deal.

'The Beijing Olympic organising
committee has never been in contact
with Barcelona Football Club,' the
Beijing Organising Committee for the
Olympic Games (BOCOG) said in a
statement. 'They are rumours about
shirt sponsorship. It does not exist.'

Barcelona chairman Joan Laporta was in
Beijing last week on business and the
Financial Times in London said the 2008
Games organisers were the suitors for a
shirt sponsorship deal.

BolBill

Won't be buying the jersey regardless, dont get me wrong I love Barca but hate Nike clothing.

WhiteWashMan

i would have though the people would have to vote on something like that.
after all, the club dont have a sponser because its run by the supporters.

while i think its a lovely notion that barca are the only team not to have a sponser, and wouldnt we all like to have that, but whoever said something about a clubs traditions beging pushed aside for commerical reasons obviously havent watched any football for the last 15 years.

its a business. its what happens. if a club doesnt adapt it dies. its a shame, but it has to happen. after all, prawn sandwiches got man utd a bunch of trophies

sprinkles

19m a year is surely the largest sponsorship deal ever for a football club. That is an incredible amount of money, and then think of the amount of chinese that will buy the jersey and hense support the team. That is a very good deal for barca. Looks like there'll be no stopping them now, and all without the help of a russian tycoon

Makaveli

Jersey released today, and it has no sponsor for now.
The away looks awful, and from the pictures the home isn't the nicest either.
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/eng/noticias/noticias/n05062706.shtml

eirebhoy

Makaveli wrote:

Jersey released today, and it has no sponsor for now.
The away looks awful, and from the pictures the home isn't the nicest either.
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/eng/noticias/noticias/n05062706.shtml

It seems that Nike are using a similar style for a lot of their jersey's this year. Apparantly this is the Celtic away top:
http://img16.echo.cx/my.php?image=01982051z5ow.jpg

Juve's is similar too.

KdjaCL

Barcas away gear is always awful, dont recall one ever been nice.


kdjac

woodyg

:eek: Ah im blind all that yellow ah.

it looks a lot like the liverpool away kit of a couple of years ago.

i see they have included the catalan emblem for the 1st time,

WhiteWashMan

KdjaC wrote:

Barcas away gear is always awful, dont recall one ever been nice.


kdjac

oh, i used to have a barca shirt when i was about 16 that was really nice.
was mostly sky blue but had purple trimming etc on it.

was actually really really nice.

of course, that was an awful long time ago!

Makaveli

Most of their away jerseys are nice. Apart from that rusty orange one they had and the grey one. Last seasons one was a great looking jersey.

Pepe LeFrits

The colours seem a bit off on the Barca jersey, there's a bit of a clash.

And aren't the Barca shorts supposed to be the blue, not red-purple?

Draupnir

did you read the article?

there is something in there about them wanting to do something new and surprising, so for the first time in the clubs history they are changing the colour of the nicks.

smackbunnybaby

Slash/ED wrote:

That wont go down well with the fans.

too right.the supporters should rebel and set up there own club like barcelona united.....

dudara

I actually like the away jersey, the black shoulder stripes are nice. The only thing is that it looks like Liverpool's jersey from last year.

The change of colour in the shorts isn't too great though. reminds me of arsenals new-old strip.