Qatar Airways to be unveiled as Barca shirt sponsors

 

The airline’s CEO Akbar Al Baker is believed to be flying to the Spanish city of Barcelona where he will join Barca’s club’s president, Sandro Rosell to make a joint announcement on the sponsorship deal.

The Doha carrier became named as the first corporate sponsor to appear on Barca’s shirts last year and is now stepping up its relationship in a clear reflection of the growing relationship between Qatar and Spain.

In November FC Barcelona and Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) announced that Qatar Airways would appear on the team’s equipment for the 2013/14 season as the club’s principal global partner.

The contract between QSI and FC Barcelona stipulated that a new sponsor could be included in the third year of the agreement.

Also in November, QSI, in agreement with the club, designated Qatar Foundation as the official Human Development Partner of FC Barcelona, in order to enable the continuity of initiatives based on their shared values.

It’s the first time a corporation rather than a charity will feature on the club’s jerseys, which have carried the names of UNICEF (since 2006) and Qatar Foundation (since 2011) in recent years. Before these two non-profit organisations, the club’s players sported a ‘sponsor-clean’ shirt.

The airline will replace Qatar Foundation, the main sponsor on the shirts since July 2011. The contract with the Foundation was for $39.1m to be paid in five seasons, until June 2016. In addition, the club was to pocket $19m through commercial rights, with the total amount reaching $221m.

According to Doha newspaper The Peninsula, relations between FC Barcelona and Qatari companies have deepened recently with the Qtel Group choosing the club’s star player, Lionel Messi, as its new brand ambassador.