It has been close to a month since Barcelona reached an agreement with Nike over a new sponsorship deal after months of negotiations and conflict.
The club confirmed the agreement in an official statement that outlined how the two parties would continue to work in cohesion to improve the club’s retail merchandising and global supply chain.
Yet, the biggest change undoubtedly was the financial boost the deal gave the Catalans amid their financial crisis with a bonus of close to €158 million speculated along with improved annual sponsorship fees.
Yet to be approved
While the Blaugrana did indeed reach an agreement with Nike over the deal, it is yet to be presented and approved by the club assembly and the administration has now finalised a date for the same.
Barcelona have confirmed that they will convene a special assembly on December 21 with two calls at 10:30 am and 11:00 am respectively.
Nike deal to be approved this month. (Photo by Getty Images)
The extraordinary session will be convened online and will be held according to the Catalan Sports Law and the new contract with Nike will be the sole item on the agenda for the session.
Once approved, Barcelona can begin working on the financial situation and the urgency with which the sudden assembly was called only goes to show the club’s dire situation ahead of the January transfer market.
Despite not looking to make any signings, Barcelona are in a race against time to ensure that Pau Victor and Dani Olmo are registered and available for the second half of the season. The deal with Nike will go a long way in enabling the same.
Notably, however, the sponsorship deal alone is not sufficient to bring Barcelona back to the 1:1 rule and Joan Laporta and Co. must find an urgent injection of funds to enable the registrations and renewals on hold.