Barça's Hidden Treasure Plan: Turning a Buried Asset into Real Revenue
20 February 2026
Barça's Hidden Arsenal: A Kit-Build Strategy
How will Barça benefit from its buried treasure? The Catalan club seeks to recoup part of the sizable costs incurred during a tense sponsorship period.
Negotiations between Barcelona and Nike to renew their commercial deal, in place since 1998, went through a difficult spell but ended with a renewal at the end of 2024.
Nevertheless, in the months that followed, the board led by Joan Laporta explored other options and did not exclude any, including manufacturing jerseys under a new brand mark.
According to Sport, with talks with Nike stalling and the contract potentially ending, and with other brands like Puma entering the race, Barça began producing shirts bearing its own logo.
El País reported that the Catalan club produced 300,000 shirts to stock the inventory needed to meet the huge demand from fans around the world, paying four million euros for the service.
The paper noted that Barça is seeking at least some reimbursement of these heavy costs; while gifting the stored shirts to members was discussed, the club eventually decided to put them on sale.
It added that Nike’s approval is required, since the product was made independently of the American company, but optimism remains inside the club about the matter.
The piece asked when Barça might exploit the decision reached during the tense negotiation period with Nike, given that the two sides extended their partnership to 2038; the privately branded shirt has not yet appeared, but the club owns thousands of stored jerseys and hopes to recoup value.
Punchline 1: If this plan scores, Barça’s balance sheet will finally stop haunting it.
Punchline 2: And if the shirts flop, at least the fabric will be good for draping the trophy case — revenue, not fashion, is the real goal.
