FC Barcelona Replacing UNICEF On Jerseys With Qatar Foundation

FC Barcelona VP Javier Faus yesterday said that the La Liga club plans to "drop the UNICEF logo from the front of their first-team shirts from July and replace it with the name of their new Qatari sponsor," according to Iain Rogers of REUTERS. Barcelona is "one of the few clubs in world soccer not to have a corporate logo on their shirts." But the club signed a five-year deal with Qatar Sports Investment in December worth US$41M annually, and beginning July 1 will feature "Qatar Foundation" on the front of its jerseys. Faus said, "In the end, there will be only two words 'Qatar Foundation' in yellow. UNICEF will go on the back underneath the player's name." He added that it was "not clear whether the UNICEF logo would be allowed to appear on shirts worn in the Champions League." Rogers noted the Qatari sponsorship "includes a commitment for the club to play one friendly per season and the Qatar Foundation will take part in joint projects with UNICEF and Barca's own foundation" (REUTERS, 2/8).

NFL FANS WANT NO PART OF SPONSOR LOGOS: The issue of placing corporate logos on NFL jerseys was discussed on ESPN2's "SportsNation" yesterday, and 71% of viewers responded that they would not be okay with corporate logos on uniforms. ESPN's Colin Cowherd said, "I could care less. The most popular sport in the world is soccer, and international soccer has been doing it for 50 years now." ESPN's Michelle Beadle: "We are talking about a league that is not floundering. The only leagues that I want to see do it are ones that are struggling. The WNBA did it and I'm okay with that, but I don't want the NFL to end up looking like NASCAR on cleats" ("SportsNation," ESPN2, 2/8).