Barcelona have struck a landmark four-year sponsorship settlement with the Democratic Republic of Congo geared toward selling the nation’s tourism trade and boosting the war-torn nation’s international picture.
The deal, finalized June 29, is reported to be value round 44 million euros ($46.37 million) and marks one of the bold partnerships between a high soccer membership and an African nation grappling with a long time of battle and instability.
Under the contract, the DRC’s “Visit Congo, the Heart of Africa” marketing campaign will seem on the backs of Barcelona’s coaching and warm-up jerseys for each the lads’s and girls’s groups.
Although Barcelona’s major matchday shirts will retain their essential sponsor, Spotify, the DRC emblem will likely be featured prominently on youth and basketball group sleeves.
The settlement additionally contains integration of the DRC’s branding throughout the membership’s international advertising platforms, together with digital campaigns, the membership journal, and promoting supplies, reaching an estimated 400 million followers worldwide.
This partnership comes at a essential second for Barcelona, which is navigating ongoing monetary constraints underneath La Liga’s strict monetary honest play guidelines.
As of July 2025, the membership stays exterior the league’s 1:1 spending ratio, which requires golf equipment to stability their expenditures with earnings.
The infusion of sponsorship cash from the DRC will assist Barcelona adjust to these laws, enabling key participant registrations and supporting plans for the partial reopening of Spotify Camp Nou later this 12 months.
Club president Joan Laporta has praised the deal as important for stabilizing funds whereas sustaining competitiveness each domestically and in Europe.
For the Democratic Republic of Congo, the settlement is a strategic transfer to rebrand a rustic identified extra for battle than tourism.
Rich in pure wonders similar to Virunga National Park and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, the DRC has struggled to draw guests as a result of persistent violence and political instability.
The authorities is betting on Barcelona’s international stature to alter that narrative, hoping to attract vacationers, traders, and a youthful era wanting to discover Africa’s hidden gems.
The DRC’s sponsorship push extends past Barcelona.
The nation lately signed comparable offers with AC Milan, paying 14 million euros per season for coaching equipment branding, and with AS Monaco for 1.6 million euros yearly.
Sports and Tourism Minister Didier Budimbu described these partnerships as half of a bigger effort to place the DRC as a continental chief in tourism and financial growth.
A pleasant match involving Barcelona in Kinshasa can be in dialogue, supposed to additional increase the nation’s profile.
Country in turmoil
However, the deal has sparked controversy at residence and overseas.
Eastern Congo stays unstable, with the insurgent group M23 seizing the town of Goma in early 2025 and displacing hundreds.
A latest United Nations report accused neighboring Rwanda of supporting M23 to regulate mineral-rich territories, fueling regional tensions.
In response, DRC Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner publicly urged main European golf equipment to finish their sponsorship ties with Rwanda’s “Visit Rwanda” marketing campaign, calling it “blood-stained.”
Critics argue that investing over 40 million euros in a soccer sponsorship is misplaced when thousands and thousands of Congolese face poverty, illness, and ongoing violence.
Yet, Congolese officers defend the deal as a long-term funding within the nation’s “soft power,” infrastructure, and international picture.
By leveraging Barcelona’s huge attain and attraction, they hope to draw tourism and international funding that may finally assist stabilize and develop the nation.
Barcelona’s partnership with the DRC suits inside a broader pattern of African nations utilizing soccer sponsorships to spice up their worldwide standing.
Rwanda’s “Visit Rwanda” marketing campaign, for instance, has linked with Arsenal, Bayern Munich, and Paris Saint-Germain to efficiently improve vacationer arrivals regardless of political controversy.
Unlike Rwanda’s deal with matchday equipment branding, the DRC’s settlement facilities on coaching and promotional supplies however nonetheless guarantees intensive publicity by way of Barcelona’s huge media ecosystem.
For Barcelona, the deal builds on a historical past of revolutionary sponsorships with international manufacturers like Rakuten and Spotify, and it enhances the membership’s social initiatives by way of the Barca Foundation.
The inclusion of humanitarian and academic packages within the DRC underscores an effort to stability business pursuits with company social accountability.
Source: www.dailysabah.com