Figure this..................
1.Manchester united - £14 million(AIG)
2.Chelsea-£10 million(Samsung)
3.Juventus-£15 million(Tamoil)
so when ................................................
FC Barcelona decided to end it's 107 year old tradition of not sporting any logo on their shirt's many big companies lined up to secure the deal as this would catapult them to the south american market where barcelona are followed passionately ,apart from europe and asia ,for instance internet gambling giant betandwin.com agreed on a £12 million deal with the club.so with which organisation did BARCA decide to enter into an agreement???
well it was no corporate giant ,but an international organisation we all know which was set up in 1953 ,to help in welfare of children known as UNICEF ,and how much did unicef decide to pay barcelona ,actually nothing to the contrary barcelona decided to pay 1.5 million euros per year for the next five years to unicef,and this year the money will be used to help children in swaziland suffering from HIV.it may suprise many people that barca decided to go with this deal ,but once we understand the club and their history it will not be a suprise to us.
Setup in 1899 by a group of english ,dutch and catalan supporters with the moto Més que un club (More than a club) ,it truly is more than a club for it's million of supporters worldwide ,it has become sort of a catalan institution where people of catalan region associate themselves with ,after their rights and freedom was reduced under the rule of FRANCO during the spanish civil war ,and this is one of the reasons of their great rivalry between REAL MADRID ,known as the EL CLASSICO de grande ,as it was supported by FRANCO under his rule .BARCA were not allowed to sport the catalan flag in their logo during the time of FRANCO.He tried to embodied real madrid as the spain he wanted to create and as a result it was known as the REGIME CLUB with barca being called as the opposition,another factor which lead to their rivalry was the dispute over argentine ALFREDO DI STEFANO who became one of the greatest footballers while playing for real madrid leading them to five straight european club triumphs in the mid 50's.
This brings us to a question whether "sports clubs are only there for money?",althought the monetary aspect of clubs cannot be put on the backburner as they need money to survive ,for eg.LEEDS UNITED were relegated from ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE because of bad debts which resulted in their players moving out of it ,but money should not be the only criteria as people associate their passion,joy and sadness with their clubs after all how would one account for these rivalries all over the world??
- boca juniors vs river plate(argentina)
- vasco vs flamengo(brazil)
- liverpool vs everton(england)
all these rivalries are a result of the passion of supporters who were instrumental in founding of these clubs in their early years.
Clubs bring happiness to the faces of people in adversities ,like a small town in belarus known as GOMEL ,which was devastated by the chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 are avid supporters of their club FC GOMEL and they prove it by attending their matches in a huge no they are no 1 when it comes to fans attending matches in belarus league as it allows them to forget their sufferings for a few hours.
To conclude i would only say that although money is important but one should never hesitate to help people who are in more need than us,and if we have the means to do it.Well our cricket board BCCI can take a cue from barcelona as it boasts of the richest shirt deal for indian cricket team with sahara and nike by helping people who really need money and not just putting money in their lockers and not using them or being used by people who alreasy have it.
