Barcelona ‘close’ to £171m sponsorship deal with Puma | OneFootball

Barcelona are ‘very close’ close to agreeing a new sponsorship deal with Puma, according to reports in Spanish media. However, the club's current contract with Nike could prove to be a major stumbling block.

As per Sport (via Forbes), the deal could become the most lucrative kit sponsor arrangement in football if all parties can come to an agreement. Puma, though, will supposedly "not sign a single document" until the relationship between Barca and Nike is broken.

Puma could pay £171m per season

Current Nike deal worth up to £132m

The proposed new deal is said to be worth around €200m (£171m) per season. This historic contract will see at least £98.2m a year fixed for the Blaugrana, but that figure is capable of rising to the full £171m if a number of incentives are met.

Nike – who have supplied Barca's shirts and kits since 1998 – currently pay the Spanish giants around €105m (£90m) per season, which can rise to as much as €155m (£132m). The issue, though, is that the American company believes it will incur losses of €350m (£300m) if Barcelona walk away in the coming months.

As a consequence, Barca are trying to simultaneously negotiate with Puma while also trying to resolve all these issues with Nike. Puma has said they will offer a bonus if they can get out of its contract with Nike.

Most lucrative kit deals in football

Real Madrid currently top

Puma, of course, currently sponsors Premier League champions Manchester City. In 2019, they agreed to pay the English outfit around £650m for 10 years.

According to Football Benchmark, Real Madrid currently have the most lucrative kit deal in the world of football. Their contract with Adidas will see them pull in over £1bn over an eight-year period starting in 2020.

It remains unclear for how many years Puma's deal would be with Barcelona, but at £171m per season, it would seem them shoot way past the £102m figure pulled in by Madrid. In short, it would almost certainly see the La Liga club pick up the best kit sponsorship deal in the history of football.

To put that in perspective, Manchester United currently get paid around £90.6m per season, and Arsenal pick up about £75m – with both teams sponsored by Adidas. Nike's biggest current deal is with Barcelona but Paris Saint-Germain are their next best-paid clients at £68.38m per term.

Barcelona's financial troubles have been well-publicised over the past few years and so they will no doubt welcome the opportunity to become the best-paid club in the world in terms of kit sponsor. What's more, the pressures of their finances will make them desperate to get this deal across the line as soon as possible – even if it could mean burning bridges with Nike.

It will certainly be interesting to see if all the parties can come to some sort of an agreement over the coming months. Should that happen, it will also be fascinating to see what compromises and fees will be settled upon.