The real deal between Qatar Airways and FC Barcelona Revealed. It’s On The Brinks.
Qatar Airlines and FC Barcelona in better days. Now the team and the airline are not even on speaking terms over a 60 million euro sponsorship deal gone sour.
We all seen the Qatar Foundation or Qatar Airlines logo on the famous FC Barcelona’s kits for a few years now. What seems like a great relationship between the Catalan football club and the Qatar airline is all but great. In fact, the relationship is on the brinks.
The Qataris blame FC Barcelona for changing the terms of the “verbal” deal at the last minute or perhaps even after the deal was done. Barca president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, traveled to Qatar in hopes of savaging the deal. He was allegedly stood up by Qatar Airline officials during that trip. No visits to the hotel or even a local hotel call to the Cule president by the Qataris who feel betrayed by Barca.
The deal itself was rumored to be for 60 million euros. Not sure how much of this was actually paid or not paid by Qatar Airlines. But one thing is for sure, the Qataris will not pay anymore. This is putting the Nike shirt production situation in a bind claims Barca. The shirt and sneaker brand who manufactures Barca’s kits needs about a month to halt and change production of the Barca kits with or without another jersey sponsor logo.
It’s possible that we see a new sponsor on the Barca kit soon. Which means around round of sales at the Nike super store at Camp Nou. Which will surely be another great paid day for Barca. Fans always want to have the latest kits. Each new official jersey cost roughly 135 euros. So the break up with Qatar is probably not that bad after all is said and done. Barca wins again.
Meanwhile Bartomeu continues to try and convince the Qataris to continue with the deal. Qataris aren’t talking. Barca is sidebar negotiating with three brands. One from Europe, an American brand and one Asian brand. Meanwhile, FC Barcelona is also paying Nike a fee for the delay in production caused by the melee between the club and the airline. The one thing that is certain is that FCB will not be able to negotiate more than 60 million euros for the sponsorship now that the numbers are public. All brands are complaining about low oil prices are affecting marketing dollars. This means that the Cule club is in deep “mud” as far as team sponsorship is concerned.
