Another milestone achieved by Europe's greatest club, after successes with Unicef and UNESCO.


History was made today as FC Barcelona and ACNUR signed a collaboration agreement in Geneva today for a three-year period. The first refugee action programmes involving Barça will be applied in Rwanda, Nepal and Ecuador. The agreement will be in place, in principle, for three years, and the first 12 months will be focused on Rwanda, Nepal and Ecuador, three countries that host thousands of refugees from other territories. The president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, and the High Commissioner of UNHCR/ACNUR, António Guterres, signed an agreement at midday today by which the football club will be adapting some of the Foundation’s programmes to different refugee camps in different parts of the world. The agreement was signed at the UNHCR/ACNUR headquarters in Geneva. According to Joan Laporta, who spoke after the signing, the Barca president said that:

This is further evidence of Barça’s commitments. This is our next big challenge. We are ready to score lots of goals.
Yet again, we are sending a message to the world, but as always, it is not just a message. It is also about actions.

In response, the ACNUR high commissioner, António Guterres thanked FC Barcelona and was clearly happy with the resolve and philosophy of the Catalan clubside. Guterres outlined the importance of the agreement when he said:

We believe Barça will open a lot of doors for us in order to make society understand about the plight of refugees. FC Barcelona and its Foundation have a high capacity for communication. Associating sport with education is a formidable thing.

FC Barcelona sees revenue prospects surge to all-time high.


Since assuming office in 2003, Barca president, Joan laporta has done well for himself and the club, turning around a huge deficit he inherited to create one of the financially sound clubs and sporting outfits in the present day world of sports. To add to its already soaring earnings, two major deals have been struck by the club management, which will bolster the coffers at Camp Nou and give the club an income of €400m-a-year and around €100m of that could be used to buy players. The first, and largest, contract that has been signed is with television company Mediapro for the rights to Barça's games and will see the club receive €750m between the 2008/2009 and 2012/2013 campaigns. That will see Barça earn around €160m-a-year, which is nearly €40m more than they currently receive.


Added to that is the contract with sportswear giant Nike which has been renewed for around €30m-a-year, although both parties have been sworn to secrecy over the figures involved. Barça were receiving €15m-a-year from the company to manufacture their kits and apparel, but Sport believe that has now doubled.
FC Barcelona has also benefitted immensely from goodwill, as the outfit, which is more than a club, has partnerships with world charity organisations like the Unicef and the UNESCO.

The overall prospects of the great club look better than ever, with more ideas and designs still in the pipeline and ready for implementation.

FC Barcelona is more than just a club. This was proved once again with a milestone achievement after sealing a deal with yet another world body while still on great partnership with Unicef.


Barca made history in Paris after it signed an agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO. This enables both bodies to actively cooperate toward helping out under-privileged children. The collaboration between FC Barcelona and UNESCO, which will run for an initial five years is unique in the world of sport as it is the first time that a sports club has signed a global agreement with UNESCO. Read more:


FC Barcelona Sign Historic Agreement With UNESCO.

FC Barcelona's projected revenue this year will put the Blaugrana top place over all other clubs as the top club in the world by the end of this season.


After a staggering revenue of 290.1 Million Euros for last year and an even greater prospect of increasing that figure this year to above 300 million Euros, FC Barcelona are on a roller-coaster ride in virtually all departments of the great club. The partnership with Unicef is going exceptionally well and the clubs is not faring badly in terms of it's footballing and other sports like basketball among others. The Catalan clubs vice-president, Marc Ingla. who is very passionate about the publicity and financial issues that concern Barca, spoke on FC Barcelona's rising profile and rising relevance in both traditionally soccer and non-soccer areas of life all over the planet:

We are in the top three clubs in the world in terms of commerce. We are even higher than the franchises from Major League Baseball and the NFL that, theoretically, are among the richest sports markets on the planet. We are making a huge effort to remain close to our 160 million fans and to connect with them. Nearly 80 per cent of our television audience is foreign and so is more than 50 per cent of our merchandising, while Barça TV goes out in 155 countries. In Japan we have 15,000 members signed up to out multimedia package on mobile phones and our website sees 60 million hits per month are read in English.

Barca have fixed their focus on the two biggest markets in the world, namely the United States and China. The reason is simple, as Ingla says:

United States and China are the two countries that are going to experience the biggest increase in business for football in the world.

The vice-president also cast his attention on the very popular partnership with Unicef, which beams the logo that Barca is more than just a club, with extensive investments and interests in charity as well:

We've had a successful partnership with the world body. Our association with Unicef gives us the opportunity to show why Barça is more than a club and gives us a unique image in the world and the logo is on our shirts as a sign of symbolism and positioning.

Ingla ended with comments on one of the best sports contract deals on the globe, which is the over 300 million Euro contract Barca signed with sports giants, Nike:

It's a great initiative. The contract with Nike is the best in the market and we are convinced it will be for the next seven or eight years.

Barcelona forge ahead to make a difference in the lives of people.


Although most clubs focus on football only on the pitch and the money and revenues they get from such, FC Barcelona, despite being a top rated clubside worldwide, still finds quality time to carry out very meaningful activities to mankind, as the Catalan giants are also giants off the pitch in terms of social causes.This is clearly demonstrated by acts of solidarity such as what happened at the Beijing International Conference Centre, where Barça was present at a charity gala to raise money for the disabled. Further projects include a similar supper to be held in Hong Kong, organised by the Spinal Injury Foundation and the United Christian Hospital, to help people with back problems.


Operating through the FC Barcelona Foundation, the arm responsible for administering and cordinating social causes for the Blaugrana, Barca are able to reach out to the poor, the under privileged and the hurting of the world. This is all part of the club’s social commitments and the virtuous circle that has characterised the club in recent years in both a sporting and economic sense. To present this concern for more vulnerable sectors of society and to secure new institutional agreements with local organisations, the general manager of the Foundation, Lander Unzueta, has travelled on the club tour, along with the International projects manager Marta Segú. Both men are also responsible for promoting FC Barcelona’s international notoriety, through its deal with Unicef, as the model for opening the doors to cooperation and solidarity to more people than ever. These people have been two of the engines of the Foundation’s projects over the past season, through such projects as the XICS (International Network of Solidarity Centres), JES (Solidarity Sports Days) and the development of the Unicef agreement. These projects have focused both on Catalonia and the world in general.


The FC Barcelona Foundation represents the club’s social identity, and has new projects planned for this season, which will use the club’s most notorious instrument, football, as a tool and not an end in itself for achieving commitment to society. Initiatives like ‘Play It’, forming part of the Sports and Citizenship programme, are among the new the new schemes unveiled by the club for this season, which will be placing a special focus on education and health. That is not forgetting the social area which, for example, will be helping more people around the world to enjoy the right to leisure time.
President Joan Laporta has said that the Foundation’s work is not just about improving the club’s image, but simply making a difference in the lives of people. Laporta is proud of everything that the Foundation has achieved. The president says that what the club is doing is combining conventional marketing with the club’s solidarity values:

We do social marketing and as an institution we have assumed our social and corporate responsibilities. We have set new standards and this great image is the result of very hard work.