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Why is the first Barça shirt sold out?

BarcelonaIn the last few days, the Blaugrana fans who wanted to buy the shirt of the men’s first team have encountered many difficulties because the stock has run out. In fact, this week the version of the first Blaugrana clothing for supporters, with a price of 94.99 euros, could not even be purchased through the Barça website. A sign of coming soon it appears under the photograph of the shirt: both the one with the La Liga patch and the Champions League shirt, which Xavi Hernández’s team is releasing this week. Only sizes left for boys and girls. At the beginning of the week, there was no stock of the player version either, with a price of 144.99 euros, but this Wednesday there is again.

The club hopes to get back to normal soon. “We are informed that from this weekend we will start having shirts in our stores. And the issue will be regularized until the end of the month”, they told ARA from the Camp Nou. The situation is explained by the flood of sales that has taken place thanks to the excitement generated by the signings that have been made in the summer, especially that of Robert Lewandowski. But other voices close to Barça’s commercial department consider this lack of stock to be a mistake on Nike’s part. The American multinational had to work beyond deadlines in the making of the Barça shirts this season because Joan Laporta’s board exceeded the deadline of October 2021 to inform him who the new sponsor would be of the front of the shirt.

The Blaugrana club’s contract with Spotify was closed in March 2022. This five-month delay meant that in many places around the world, during the summer, the Barça shirt was sold without advertising on the front. On the other hand, Barça’s official stores were overwhelmed after the signing of Lewandowski by the number of people who wanted to put the Polish striker’s name on their backs. Some days it was not possible because the letter W to stamp the name ran out.

A not very detailed relationship

After a year and a half in the presidency, Joan Laporta continues to have on the table one of the most important pending cases in the commercial department: the deepening of the contract with Nike. Since 2016, under the mandate of Josep Maria Bartomeu, Barça and the multinational with headquarters in Portland have been linked by means of a provisional contract of a few pages that is technically called short form. It was signed at a time when the previous board needed revenue and agreed with Nike that, although the ten-year contract would officially start from 2018 (when the previous one ended and until 2028) , I would make a payment in advance for the 2016-2017 school year. At the time, the pact was that in 2018 the provisional would end and the two parties would sit down to formalize the long/detailed contract, that is, the detailed contract typical of a commercial relationship of this dimension. But it didn’t happen.

Barça and Nike agreed in the 2016 renewal that the sports multinational would pay up to 155 million euros annually to the Barcelona club. Anyway, sources familiar with the details of the short form they explain to the ARA that it depends on several variables that are very difficult to meet 100%.

Encystment of the contract short form it has led to tensions between the club and Nike because their readings leave a lot of room for subjectivity. Before the pandemic, Bartomeu and the American company approached to try to solve the issue, but the confinement stopped everything. Later, Nike didn’t want to do anything until there was a new president. In March 2021, Joan Laporta won the election and talks with Nike resumed to resolve the unusual contractual situation. Barça wanted more autonomy in some aspects. But, so far, it has not been achieved. “Nike has made a strategy of delaying for years the negotiation of the general rules of the game with Barça. Thus, every issue that arises in the relationship means having to negotiate it individually”, explains a source who knows the relationship

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