Barcelona’s current sponsorship deal with Japanese company Rakuten is set to finish at the end of this season, and as a result the La Liga giants are on the hunt for a new sponsorship deal. Reports are indicating that two cryptocurrency trading and exchanging companies, Binance and FTX, are ready to offer big money to have their names on Barcelona’s shirt.
The relationship between Barcelona and Rakuten has been rocky at best. The pair commenced their partnership in 2017, when the Japanese company signed a deal with the La Liga side that was worth a reported 55m euros a season, although due to COVID this was reduced to 30m last season – not something that best pleased the Barca hierarchy. The relationship was already strained following the deplorable behaviour of Antoine Greizmann and Ousmane Dembele back in 2019 while the club were on tour in Rakuten's homeland, Japan. Well it looks like those problems are well and truly in the past, with the contract set to expire at the end of the season.
It’s no secret that Barcelona have struggled financially recently, with the main effect of the problems being the loss of their talisman, Lionel Messi. But things look on the up for the Catalan club. The two cryptocurrency trading and exchanging companies that are vying for the sponsorship deal with them, Binance and FTX, are both well established and have net profits of almost a billion dollars. Barcelona’s economic vice president, Eduard Romeu, expects a 1.5 billion turnover within half a decade, however, for that to happen they will need to negotiate a good deal on the shirt branding.
Sure, this would still be a long way from seeing the club over the £430m restructuring loan they had to take out in order to pay their short-term debt and meet payroll obligations and their £1.1bn overall debt, but it’s at least a step in the right direction and a glimmer of light in an otherwise dark period in the history of one of the world’s biggest football clubs. So which looks better suited to the club's look? And more importantly, who's willing to cough up the most cash?
Post time: Jan-09-2022