The FC Barcelona brand still remains one of the strongest and most competent in world football. The Blaugranes have maintained a solid standing in terms of the revenue they generate from sales of merchandise and similar trinkets. However, even in that department, Barcelona are not without certain headaches.
One of those massive headaches arrives in the form of relationships with Nike. A long-standing partnership, Barcelona and the American brand have a deep-rooted history at this point. However, times have changed, and the demands of Barça require that Laporta also be more demanding of the terms of their current contract.
Thus, rumors have been sparking for quite some time that this particular partnership may be terminated. Now, as highlighted by Mundo Deportivo, the Barcelona president has himself given some insight into how things are going on in the sponsorship department in terms of the dissatisfaction with Nike:
“We told Nike that, based on some breaches that for us were flagrant, we were terminating the contract. They had 45 days to compensate us, but they did not do it and we communicated that the contract was terminated, to which they responded with precautionary measures that we have responded to and now we are seeing the solution to these measures.”
Moreover, the Barcelona head confirmed that Nike did eventually propose an improved offer. However, even that was deemed to be inadequate according to how the club values its own brand:
“They have tried to improve the contract, but they have made efforts that are not enough because we know that the market pays more.”
For now, Nike has a contract with Barcelona until 2026 in place. The Catalan club thus needs to continue working to solve this uncertainty of continuation as soon as possible, something Laporta assures is a process Barcelona are working on to attain the ‘best contract in the world’:
“In this sense, we are civilized, with all the options we have, working. We are convinced that we will have the best contract in the world. We are open to everything, but we cannot have a contract much lower than what the market pays. It is our responsibility as executive directors of the club to secure the best contract.”
Without providing a deadline as to when exactly this would be settled, the Barcelona president simply stated it would depend on the “negotiations we have”: “The deadline is set by the negotiations we have.”
