Tag: Explained

Barcelona announced last weekend a new multi-year partnership with kit supplier Nike, extending and updating a deal which had been set to end in 2028.

In recent months Barca president Joan Laporta has regularly boasted that he would secure a deal which would be “the biggest in all of world football”, and the extended contract could now be worth €1.7billion (£1.4bn;$1.8bn) over the next 14 seasons to 2038, bringing a major boost to the club’s troubled and complex financial situation.

Confirmation of the new arrangement ends a year-long saga which hurt relations between the Catalan club and the American sportswear giant. Yet it remains to be seen whether the deal will bring immediate relief to the team’s issues with La Liga’s salary limits — including most pressingly whether last summer’s signings Dani Olmo and Pau Victor can be registered to play for the team over the second half of this season.

The Athletic spoke to figures inside and outside Camp Nou, all of whom wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, about whether this is a good deal for Barcelona.

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What did Barcelona say?

Announcing the contract on Saturday, Barca said in a statement: “This new partnership consolidates Nike as a main partner of the club and official technical partner across all professional and amateur teams, bringing a unique model that strengthens the brand association and fuels the global retail and licensing business growth.”

What are the financial details?

Barca officially told The Athletic that the details of the deal were confidential, but club sources stated a total figure of €1.7bn over the next 14 years.

The new contract will have two phases. The first is from 2024 to 2028, the latter year being when the previous agreement was to expire. Club sources say that for each of the next four years, the income will now be around €108million (£90m;$115m), close to doubling what the club had been earning in recent seasons.

From 2028, that figure will increase to around €120m each campaign over the following decade, according to the club sources.

These sources said that Barcelona would also receive a ‘signing bonus’ of €158m which will be divided over the 14 years of the deal, including the current season’s accounts.

Barca consider it to be a big victory for Barca following tough negotiations, guaranteeing that most of the promised annual income will be received, regardless of the team’s performances on the pitch.

When previous president Josep Maria Bartomeu’s board signed the previous deal in 2016, a headline figure of €105m a year was trumpeted. However, under that deal, when the team were not as successful as hoped, for instance dropping out of the Champions League early, the club actually received only €50-60m from Nike.

What are Nike saying?

Nike and Barca have worked together closely since their first deal was signed in 1998. When asked by The Athletic to comment on the new deal extension, Nike said it was delighted to continue this deep and meaningful relationship.

A Nike spokesperson said: “We are excited to progress our work together at all levels, from grassroots football initiatives that inspire and empower young players, to elevating FC Barcelona as a global icon of style and culture. Together, we are particularly passionate about advancing the growth of the women’s game, and our partnership with FC Barcelona’s women’s team is a testament to our shared dedication to equality and inclusivity in sport.”

Nike said they could not confirm details of the financial or business sides of the agreement.

What’s the optimistic view?

The €1.7bn headline figure is huge, even by the standards of multi-million kit deals at the elite level in club football. It would be a huge improvement on Barca’s previous earnings from Nike, a significant boost in revenues which would help improve the club’s financial situation over the coming years.

Importantly for many around Camp Nou, with the signing bonus included it would also mean that Barca have achieved Laporta’s often-stated ambition to top Real Madrid’s €120m-a-year agreement with Adidas, currently accepted as the most lucrative in world football.

This would back the current board’s case that they are working successfully to fix the financial problems they inherited from their predecessors.

What’s the reality of the situation?

It is not typical in football for a club to renegotiate a kit deal with four years still to run. But the agreement with Nike was identified by Barca’s board as a potential way to increase their revenues by ‘levering’ more money into their annual accounts.

Nike were only going to agree to a new deal if it suited them, and there had been anger within the U.S. multinational at how they had been treated through the whole negotiation process, including the Catalan club trying (unsuccessfully) to find a legal way to exit their previous agreement.

Laporta and his closest executives took charge of the negotiations which finally led to the weekend’s announcement. Full details of the agreement were not even shared with the board before last Friday’s vote to accept.

Some industry sources consulted by The Athletic were sceptical about the figures being claimed, with doubt from some in the Spanish capital about whether Barca’s deal really was going to be bigger than Madrid’s.

There were also concerns voiced about the effect of the new arrangement on the Catalan club’s Barca Licensing and Merchandising (BLM) arm, with the statement announcing the deal appearing to suggest a deeper role for Nike in this area of Barca’s business.

Since its launch by Bartomeu in 2018, BLM has been a big success. The €179m that Barca earned from kit and merchandising revenues was the most of any European club according to UEFA.

There are concerns that Nike playing a greater role in the many ‘casual’ ranges of clothing and other merchandise sold in official club shops will mean less of the profits end up in its coffers. Club sources have denied that this will be the case.

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What’s the latest on Barca’s salary limit?

As so often in recent years, Barca had to work hard this summer to be able to register all their current squad members with La Liga, including Spain international playmaker Olmo, a €60m arrival from RB Leipzig, and young striker Victor, a €2.7m signing from Girona.

Both were only registered at the last minute, using La Liga’s financial rule 77, which allows for the temporary replacement of injured players (in this case Andreas Christensen). That meant they were only registered with La Liga until December 31. For either or both to feature after the winter break, the club must find more money from somewhere.

During a press conference in early September, Laporta said that Barca were “€60million away” from returning to a situation where La Liga would let them sign and register players as normal.

A few weeks later it emerged that Barca’s auditors had required a write-down in its 2023-24 accounts of the value of the club’s troubled ‘Barca Vision’ subsidiary, which holds its current and future media rights and activities.

This meant that Barca now needed to raise an estimated €120m to get back within its allowed salary limit for the current campaign.

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How could the new Nike deal affect the situation?

When Laporta has been asked about the Barca Vision problem, he would often mention the bumper benefits of a new kit deal as at least part of the solution.

One hope was that a ‘bonus’ of €100m-plus could fill most or all of the immediate holes in the club’s accounts caused by the failure of the Barca Studios lever. The agreed deal now divides this bonus over its 14-year term — meaning only an estimated €9m extra in 2024-25 (plus the extra €40m in normal revenues over the course of the season).

Club sources have told The Athletic that the new Nike deal helps but does not resolve the Barca Vision issue. So the search continues for more investors in that project. There is confidence at the highest level at Camp Nou that this will be successful, and player sales will not be required in the winter transfer window. However, as so often under the current regime, it looks likely to go right down the wire.

And over the longer term?

The general impression is that this new Nike deal fits well with Laporta’s policies during his second presidency. The club is gaining upfront money which it can use to fix holes in the accounts and continue to spend on the squad.

A longer-term issue with the new Nike contract flagged in multiple conversations with industry sources is that Barca are now locked into this deal for another 14 years. Given the inflation in the market, €127m a year may not look so good by 2034. “This deal could tie the hands and feet of the next president,” an ex-Blaugrana board member told The Athletic.

However, there is also an understanding that Barca are where they are, and the numbers coming from the club are impressive and necessary. “Financially this new Nike deal is a tremendous boost of oxygen,” said one influential figure in the club’s ‘entorno’ who has not always backed Laporta’s lever policies.

(Additional reporting: Pol Ballús)

(Top photo: Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)