Anfield, Old Trafford, Bernabeu … many stadiums are not left without the name of the sponsor on the front. Barcelona also no longer had that luxury due to the large mountain of debt that was accumulating in Catalonia.
Chairman Joan Laporta has been looking for a new lender for a while and has now struck a deal with Swedish music provider Spotify. It will pay around €70 million annually over the next four seasons to rename the Barcelona Temple to Spotify Camp Nou.
But it doesn’t stop there: Spotify will also be on the blaugrana shirt for the next four years, for both men and women. The fifth shirt sponsor in the club’s history. UNICEF was the first in 2006, followed by Qatar Foundation, Qatar Airways and Rakuten.
The new money is supposed to help Barcelona out of a deep financial trough. “With this transaction, we are taking another step forward in this new era,” said Laporta Chairman. “It also shows the innovative nature of the club.”
The deal with Spotify has taken a lot of effort. Ferran Riverter, the former Mediamarkt CEO who was brought in to sort things out at Camp Nou, quit after less than a year because he was considering a longer contract.
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