Historic shirt sponsorship deal: FC Barcelona

After spending much of their existence with no obvious shirt sponsorship deals, and the last five years paying Unicef for the right to place their not-for-profit organization's logo on their shirt, FC Barcelona has agreed to accept the richest sponsorship deal in history with the Qatar Foundation, an arm of the Qatari royal family, funded by Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar and directed by his wife Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned. The Qatar Foundation will pay FC Barcelona about 30 million euros per year with the deal topping out at around 170 million euros; more than any other club in the world. They will attempt to continue with Unicef as an identifying logo on their shirt, but of course Qatar Foundation will be incorporated as the main logo.

Let the polemics begin. Yes, for a club that prides itself on being mes que un club or above such base concerns as shirt logos or sponsorship deals, this does smacks of opening a door that didn't need to be opened. Ex-Barça President Joan Gaspart responded to the deal stating that "the Barça shirt has no price", that the deal is beneath them considering the association that the club is creating with a regime that "treats women poorly, male-dominated, shadowy, where no-one knows who's in charge" and a place where Sandro Rosell has personal business interests; that alone is troubling enough for a club that has come down so hard against former President Joan Laporta for his purported profiteering. There's a lot to agree with.

Step back though and the negative association isn't as clear-cut and dried as is being reported. The Qatar Foundation, as their website attests, is "a private, non-profit organization that concentrates its efforts on education, scientific research and community development." It certainly isn't Unicef or Oxfam, but are we assuming the worst just because the sponsor is from Qatar? Probably, but do we really want to measure whose filthy lucre is worse? How many gambling sites, Wall Street bankers, and fly-by-night cell-phone companies have made the rounds of major club kits? I'd be careful of putting a negative value judgment on the deal just because it's a Middle Eastern company. It's even run by a woman no less, so the charges of sexism ring false to a certain extent.

I think though that it is still too soon. The deal comes after many are still reeling from the manner in which Qatar allegedly won the bid for the 2022 World Cup. Harsh words are still being tossed around about that. Just yesterday we read about the owner of Malaga CF (a member of this very same royal family) releasing very ambitious plans for building a new stadium and investment in the club, stating that he wanted to call it the Qatar Stadium. When pressed by the interviewer, as why he would want to call it that, the Sheik Al-Thani got defensive, drawing in his connections to his homeland and revealing that he wanted to help increase awareness of Qatar as a global-brand for foreign investment, but now this happens?

As someone who often looks at the big picture first, I try to connect the dots in an orderly and rational manner, but I have some red-flags waving right now, do you? I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist in these cases, but I think there is more going on here than just whether or not Barça get a new swatch of fabric across their chest.