has closed the much-announced million-dollar deal with Nike. This was confirmed by the club this afternoon. Last Friday, President Joan Laporta held an extraordinary telematic meeting with his board of directors to explain to them that he had already reached an agreement with the American company. The only thing missing, then, was Nike’s approval. This Saturday, the Catalan entity and the sports company made the new link official. However, the statement does not reveal the years of the contract or the amount that Barcelona will receive for the extension of the alliance with Nike. A partnership that dates back to 1998, when Josep Lluís Núñez, then Barça president, signed the first contract with the Oregon-based company.
“It could have been signed in August, but it wasn’t done because I wanted to have the best contract of all. We went to the market to look for a better offer, we got it and they matched it. It will be for 10 years,” said Laporta, in an interview, before the assembly. It was not simply a matter of sticking out your chest: Barcelona’s economic area had already included the new link in the budgets for the 2024-2025 season. According to sources from the Barça board, at the meeting held on Friday, the top manager assured that the contract will run until 2038, so that the club will be linked to Nike for the next 14 years.
The new contract is divided, according to the same sources, into two parts. The first covers until 2028, when the current link expired; Until then, Barça will earn around 108 million instead of the 60 it currently received. That is, 48 million more per year. In the second tranche of the link, from 2028 to 2038, the Catalan entity will receive close to 120 million annually. In addition, Barça secures a renewal bonus of another 100. The club offices estimate that, in total, Barcelona will pocket approximately 1.7 billion. Today there is no better sponsorship contract than that, which exceeds 110 million that Real Madrid earns from Nike each season.
The problem is that, in a constantly expanding market, Barcelona is tied to Nike for 14 years. It happens, in any case, that the duration of the link is not the only drawback for Laporta’s board. The new pact with the American company does not solve the club’s financial difficulties. In the Camp Nou offices they assure that the agreement with Nike does not erase the limitations in financial fair play: Barça does not return to the 1×1 rule to sign players.
