Barca chief hails new shirt deal

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has hailed the Spanish club’s record-breaking shirt sponsorship deal with the Qatari Foundation.

In what is believed to be the richest sponsorship contract in the sport, Barca have signed a 165-million euro deal to feature the Qatari Foundation’s logo on their shirt.

It is the first time in their 111-year history that Barca will be paid to advertise on their shirt, but maintains the club’s commitment to promoting a charitable message.

Since 2006, the La Liga champions have displayed the logo of international charity UNICEF on their shirt, a privilege Barca was happy to pay for.

However, the club has departed from their long-held principle not to accept advertising adornment on the famous shirt in the wake of revelations about the significant debt being carried at the Camp Nou; reported to be over 440 million euros.

According to Rosell, the deal has been funded by the Qatar Sports Investment group, who have transferred their rights to the Qatari Foundation so that Barca can proudly display the charity’s mark alongside the UNICEF logo.

“With this deal, we ensure that our shirt is a charitable one. This was very important for us, because this agreement is a necessity for the club,” Rosell told reporters.

“As you all know, the financial side hasn’t been so good. It is even worse than we imagined.”

“Of the various ways to resolve this problem, we thought that the best was to look for partners who have the same values as us and to continue having a shirt with a charitable message.”

“We share it with UNICEF and can ensure that the children of the world have a more promising future.”

“We are very happy. I personally am very happy because, without losing the charitable message that we had, and that had pleased so many of you, we also help the club.”

“I have always said that in order to help others, you must help yourself. We achieve this with our friends from Qatar.”

The Qatari Foundation was established by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani in 1995 and is intended to foster ‘education, scientific research and community development in Qatar, the Middle East and beyond’.