Barcelona's Camp Nou naming rights gesture echoes Unicef shirt sponsorship with potential for future deal

Work on the new Camp Nou is set to be completed in 2024
Getty Images
Ben Hayward22 April 2020

"An important moment is upon the world," Barcelona said at the beginning of the news article on their website.

In it, the Catalan club announced that the naming rights to their Camp Nou home will be sold for next season in the fight against coronavirus.

"FC Barcelona has taken an exceptional decision," the piece went on. "One that chimes with the answer that humanity requires at such a moment of great uncertainty."

Then, the confirmation. "Barcelona have approved the ceding of the title rights to Camp Nou for the season 2020-2021 to the Barça Foundation to raise money to invest in research projects being carried out in Catalonia and the rest of the world involved in the fight against the effects of COVID-19," they said.

"ALL ABOUT THIS HISTORIC AGREEMENT," the article was entitled on social media. Barcelona were clearly proud of this – and they wanted everybody to know.

Inside, one of the sub-headers spoke of "the historic commitment of 'more than a club'."

The 'Mes que un club' motto first appeared during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco as Barca became a defender of Catalans' rights and the slogan adorns one of the stands at Camp Nou. These days, though, there are also Rakuten and Nike markings at either end of the ground.

Selling the naming rights to the entire stadium has long been in Barcelona's plans. In their proposal for a brand new Camp Nou back in 2014, the Catalan club revealed that naming rights would be sold to help fund the €600 million project.

In the revised plans for the stadium, which is due for a total transformation in the next few years, naming rights featured again – although they were only set to be sold once the work was completed on the new Camp Nou in 2024.

Getty Images

“The cause, fighting against the coronavirus, is a global one," vice president Jordi Cardoner said in quotes included in Barcelona's announcement.

"Being the top sporting entity on a world scale implies that we take on this challenge as fully as we can and if we can serve as inspiration for other organisations involved in the battle, perhaps we can create a wave of hope for millions of people around the world who are suffering due to this pandemic.”

It is a generous gesture, yet also a clever one which will allow Barcelona to earn from naming rights sooner than they had planned, with a switch from raising money for the coronavirus fight to an income source inevitable after next season.

In that respect, the move echoes Barca's shirt agreement with Unicef, when the Catalans signed an accord with the humanitarian organisation in 2006 to feature the name on their jerseys.

AFP via Getty Images

At the time, that was seen by many as a way of getting fans used to seeing a name on the shirt after almost 100 years without a sponsor and sure enough, Unicef later lost pride of place to Qatar Foundation, Qatar Airways and now Rakuten.

"Title rights, an unused resource," was another of the sub-headers in the piece on Barca's site.

Bringing forward this plan gives Barca some much-needed positive PR in a season blighted by boardroom infighting, disputes with the players, the unceremonious dismissal of coach Ernesto Valverde, accusations of corruption and claims the Catalan side paid a social media company for online posts to protect president Josep Maria Bartomeu and attack key figures connected to the team (including Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique) - both of which the club strenuously deny.

AP

In reality, though, it is probably an attempt at cleaning up the club's tainted image and a clever way of ensuring that the losses due to coronavirus are mitigated by bringing in this new "unused resource" after the deal to raise funds for Covid-19 ends.

And with a change of presidency around the corner next summer, the current board will be able to say, as Joan Laporta did with regard to Unicef ​when he left office in 2010, that they merely sold the Camp Nou name for a charitable cause.

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