FC Barcelona has a lot of financial commitments and issues they must resolve. The Catalan club is hardly in a sustainable position, and they need to figure things out. To do so, Barcelona have opened up various routes for themselves that allow them to compete to an extent with their restrictions.
One of the most pressing issues that managed to come forward even before the end of this season was their contractual problem with Nike. Despite having been a long-term sponsor, Barcelona president Joan Laporta believed their offer did not value or reward Barça enough for what the club’s sponsorship is actually worth.
Now, instead of having called all future alliances off, both Barcelona and Nike renegotiated. The aim was to find a middle ground that made both parties happy after carefully assessing the situation, and an agreement was found which Barcelona would ideally have needed to sign as soon as possible to add some much-needed revenue into their books to operate on the 1:1 rule this summer.
However, it seems that there may be no need for that now. As highlighted by SPORT, Barcelona have an agreement in place to sell a percentage of Barça Vision for €40 million, and there is a much stronger belief this time that the deal will go through, unlike the problematic Libero situation.
Through this agreement, Barcelona can now aim to return to the 1:1 rule this summer itself by the end of June. As a consequence, it becomes unnecessary for Barcelona to need to sign the agreement with Nike in haste and can instead go through it even more thoroughly.
At the moment, there are some agreements in place already with Nike. As a fixed amount, somewhere between €105-120 million has been agreed upon in terms of what the sponsorship will entail and will be Barça’s reward annually, while €100 million or more is reportedly going to arrive as a signing bonus.
Other variables may still be sorted between Barcelona and Nike. These could involve the bonuses and additional benefits that Barça receives as per the silverware or success they have in upcoming seasons. Ultimately, there is now time for Barcelona to act with much more precision and accuracy before signing the agreement with the American sports-based company.