May 27 – Never mind their ongoing battles in Europe, in Japan they are golden. Barcelona have added to their agreement with existing sponsor Rakuten with the Japanese ecommerce company acquiring exclusive club merchandising rights in Japan.
Rakuten has been Barca’s shirt sponsor since 2017 in a deal that will now run until the end of the 2021/22 season.
Rakuten said it will roll out a variety of Barca related goods, including branded fashion items, toys, stationery, health and beauty items, and food products, working with local companies to produce the product.
Barca has been evolving its sports brand into a ‘lifestyle’ brand and offering a larger range of branded product to do that.
Cynics will suggest that in doing so they have forgotten that core value of the brand is still based around its football team and playing football. Though one wonders, following the club’s refusal to back down from European Super League proposal, whether they have forgotten what it means to be a football club, and the roots from which they came. Or if they even care.
The fallout out from the ESL still has a long way to run and with Barcelona potentially being excluded from European club competition for breaking football’s core values of community and solidarity, there will inevitably be damage to this new lifestyle brand and whatever its core values are and stand for.
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