Barcelona Vice-President Javier Faus has explained that the decision to carry sponsorship on the club’s shirts is reversible.
Faus, the person responsible for Barca’s economic and strategic development, was responding to questions in Moscow – where Tito Vilanova’s men play Spartak Moscow in the Champions League on Tuesday – regarding the decision to change the sponsor’s name that appears on first-team shirts from the start of next season.
A €160m agreement with the Qatar Foundation was signed in December 2010 that has seen the organisation’s logo appear on Barca shirts since the beginning of the 2011-12 campaign, with the provision for a new sponsor from 2013-14.
The arrangement will now see Qatar Airways’ name across the front of the club’s shirts but Faus maintains this could change within three years.
“Things could change in 2016 if there is a new management structure after the elections, and it is the members who will decide if this remains in place or not and with which sponsor,” he told gathered media.
Faus was addressing the issue at a meeting of special envoys in Russia designed to iron out some important changes, not least of which is the conflict of interests between Qatar Airways and secondary sponsor Turkish Airlines.
He also stressed the importance of the agreement with the Qatari government and how it is positive for the club coffers, while accepting the fact Barca have now taken on a commercial sponsor and not an institutional one, such as the Qatar Foundation or UNICEF.
