Barcelona President Joan Laporta has spoken of the imminent nature of a new sponsorship deal with Nike on multiple occasions, but five months after it was first leaked that the deal was close to being done, there is still no agreement. At least not one that they are willing to sign.
As per Relevo, Barcelona and Nike reached an agreement on the 12th of August, but decided against signing the deal, feeling they could get a better one. While the Blaugrana were trying to get a better deal in terms of the amount they will receive on annual basis from the American sportswear brand, they are concerned about the smallprint.
Official: FC Barcelona and Fermín López have reached an agreement to extend the player's contract through to 30 June 2029. The young midfielder's buy-out clause has been set at 500 million euros. @FCBarcelona pic.twitter.com/gi7kB6ayuq
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) October 31, 2024
One of the key points of debate is the lack of points of sale abroad. Nike does not have shops in all locations across the world, and Barcelona feel it is a major faux pas not to be able to sell their shirt in every country – not least China, where Nike is not. They also do not understand the supply chain issues that have plagued the American brand too, which Nike put down the pandemic, but forced them to use upside down Ms in order to print Lewandowski’s name after they ran out of Ws.
On top of that, Nike’s supply chain issues also delayed the release of Barcelona’s away kit this season, and forced the club to use the sponsorship logo from last season’s home kit when selling the first replicas – meaning there was a difference between the shirts being worn and sold. Time is against Barcelona though too, as they need to work out a way of registering Dani Olmo in January, for which they need an influx of money.
