UNICEF to be Dropped from Front of Barca Shirts

February 11, 2011

Spanish soccer giant Barcelona, is to drop the UNICEF logo from the front of its shirts at the end of this season, to be replaced by the name of its new Qatari sponsor.

Barcelona is the most well-renownd of a small group of soccer clubs in the world not to have a corporate logo on its shirts, instead displaying the name of the United Nations Children’s Fund, for which it pays the organisation US$2.03m a year.

However, last month the club agreed a record five-year sponsorship deal with Qatar Sports Investment worth $40.57m a season and will have ‘Qatar Foundation’ on the front of its shirts from July 1.

Barcelona vice-president Javier Faus stated: “It has been decided that the Qatar Foundation logo will go on the front of the shirt, on the breast.

“In the end, there will be only two words – Qatar Foundation – in yellow. UNICEF will go on the back underneath the player’s name.

“We continue to have significant structural problems, which we have been burdened with for some years, but which are our structural problems now and which we have to deal with.

“We have solved some of them with the Qatar Foundation sponsorship deal but we still have many challenges ahead.”

Faus was unsure as to whether the UNICEF logo would be allowed to appear on shirts worn in the UEFA Champions League, but added: “What we can guarantee is that every FC Barcelona shirt that is sold around the world will have the UNICEF logo on the back.”