Spotify set for £237m Barcelona sponsorship deal
Spotify are close to agreeing a sponsorship deal with Barcelona that would be among the biggest in football, according to reports in Spain.
The music streaming platform would pay the Catalan club €280m (£237m) over three years, said radio station RAC1.
In return Spotify would get naming rights to Barcelona’s stadium, which would be rebranded Spotify Camp Nou, as well as front-of-shirt placement on the kits of their men’s and women’s teams.
The proposed contract between Barcelona and Spotify works out as €93m a year.
Rivals Real Madrid currently have what is believed to be the biggest sponsorship deal in football, worth around €70m a year with airline Emirates, but that is for shirts only and does not include stadium naming rights.
Manchester United have the biggest shirt sponsorship in the Premier League, worth £47m (€56m) a year with technology company Team Viewer.
Barcelona’s current shirt sponsorship deals, with Rakuten for the men’s team and Stanley Black and Decker for the women’s, are due to expire at the end of this season.
The club is also said to have received sponsorship proposals from cryptocurrency company VeganNation and blockchain platform Polkadot.
Barca have debts of more than €1bn from years of financial mismanagement that followed the most successful era in the club’s history.
Spotify founder Daniel Ek last year mounted a failed bid to buy Arsenal from American multi-sport owner Kroenke Sports Enterprises.
The music platform has been mired in controversy in recent weeks over its failure to vet anti-vaccine views on popular podcaster Joe Rogan’s shows.