Nike negotiators met with FC Barcelona on Monday in order to present an improved offer of a 10 year contract which would come with a bonus capable of wiping out the club’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) issues according to Mundo Deportivo, which cited anonymous sources.
The sportswear giants and the Catalans have been working together since 1998, and most recently renewed their terms in 2018 when former president Josep Bartomeu was still at the helm.
Under his successor Joan Laporta, however, the club feels it could receive more lucrative sums elsewhere and also isn’t comfortable with the penalties SPORT explained and which it can receive from Nike for not meeting certain objectives, according to MARCA.
Last month, Laporta explained to Mundo Deportivo how the club effectively cancelled its contract with Nike because it felt that the American company had breached it in various instances.
On Monday, however, Relevo reported that judges ruled in Nike’s favour, meaning the contract between the two parties until 2028 will have to be honoured.
Amid rumors of the La Liga giants flirting with Puma, the same paper reports that Nike’s negotiators met with Barca counterparts in Barcelona on Monday and “presented an ambitious proposal to extend” their contract.
Though Nike currently has Barca tied down until 2028 as mentioned, it wants the club to sign a new deal for ten seasons.
The new proposal includes improved fixed money, plus a financial bonus that could reportedly “already solve the problems” of salary and Financial Fair Play Limits.
Over the past few seasons, Barca has struggled to register the contracts of new signings, or fresh deals of existing squad members, and badly wants to return to the 1:1 rule after mostly recovering from an economic crisis that left it on the brink of bankruptcy.
Mundo Deportivo doesn’t specify the numbers involved when it comes to the new offer or the bonus, but does reveal that Nike “has not yet reached what the club is asking for”.
Even so, Nike is clearly making an effort by raising the fixed money MARCA reported as $93 million (€85 million) a season with a further $21.8 million (€20 million) possible in variables, and is now reaching a proposal that “should be one of the largest in the history of sports sponsorship”.