Barcelona sign €220m shirt deal with Japanese Rakuten

FC Barcelona has sealed one of the world’s largest football shirt sponsorships after signing a deal worth at least €220m with Japanese retailer Rakuten, as the value of commercial deals for top-flight soccer teams continues to rise.

The deal with one of Europe’s most successful football teams signals Rakuten’s desire to gain global recognition for a brand that is already a household name in its home market. From next season, its logo will be emblazoned on the shirts of some of the world’s best players, including Lionel Messi and Neymar.

On Wednesday, the Catalan club and the Japanese company announced they had signed a four-season deal — with an option to extend to a fifth — worth €55m a year. It ends Barcelona’s protracted search for a new shirt sponsor after its partnership with Qatar Airways, worth roughly €30m a year, was extended for a year in July after expiring at the end of last season.

Josep Maria Bartomeu, president of FC Barcelona, said the Rakuten sponsorship puts the club “at the forefront of sports club sponsorships, which have always been an objective for the current board”, and will help the club “achieve its goal of being a reference point worldwide”.

The Rakuten deal is one of the largest for on-shirt advertising, roughly the same amount United earns in its £47m-a-year contract with US carmaker Chevrolet. Barcelona has also signed deals to feature the Turkish electronics brand Beko on shirtsleeves and US semiconductor company Intel on the inside of its shirts.

According to Repucom, a sports consultancy, corporate spending on football shirt sponsorship in Europe’s top six divisions has doubled since 2010, reaching €830m this year.

For Rakuten, Japan’s largest internet retailer by sales, the sponsorship is an opportunity to be associated with a team watched around the world by millions of fans. Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten’s founder, chairman and chief executive, said: “I have personally followed the team for decades and have long admired their unique playing style and professionalism.”

Shirt sponsorship is still relatively new territory for Barcelona. For more than a century, the club refused to have a sponsor. When it finally relented in 2006, it was to apply the name of Unicef and the club reportedly paid the global children’s charity £1m to do so.

According to Deloitte, Barcelona is the second-richest club in the world, earning revenues of €560.8m in the 2014-15 season, behind Real Madrid. But the two Spanish clubs are expected to fall behind United, which is forecast to earn £500m this season on the back of large increases in broadcasting revenues.

In December, Mr Bartomeu revealed a six-year business plan designed to keep the club at the pinnacle of the sport. This includes the expansion of the Camp Nou, already the largest stadium in Europe, to raise capacity from 97,000 to 105,000. Mr Bartomeu has said the aim was to be the first football club to reach €1bn in revenues.

 

FT