Barca extend Qatar Airways ‘sponsorship’ deal to 2017

This news has been read 7092 times!

BARCELONA, July 19, (RTRS): La Liga champions Barcelona said they agreed a one-year extension to their shirt sponsorship with Qatar Airways, increasing the annual value of the deal to around 35 million euros ($38 million) according to Spanish media reports. The Spanish giants — once renowned for never having had a sponsor on their shirts — have been locked in negotiations with the airline for months to renew a three-year, 96-million-euro deal that expired this year.

“Qatar Airways has helped us to make Barca bigger in recent years … We hope to continue along the same lines of mutual growth,” said Barcelona’s vice president Manel Arroyo in a statement. The club are in negotiations to replace the airline from the end of next season with US e-commerce giant Amazon, in a three-year deal that Barcelona-based newspaper Diario Sport said would be worth up to 45 million euros ($49.75 million) a year.

Five-times Champions League winners and 24-times La Liga champions Barcelona took their first steps towards ending the sponsorship-free tradition in 2006 by bearing the logo of Unicef on the shirts while donating 1.5 million euros ($1.65 million) per year to the charity.

This news has been read 7092 times!