Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker confirmed that the airline is "in conversations" to be Barcelona's airline sponsor next year, according to Juan Jiménez of AS. When the team in November announced its shirt sponsorship with Rakuten, which will start next summer, Barcelona VP of Marketing Manel Arroyo said that the club "did not want to abandon its relationship with Qatar." This "left open the possibility that Qatar Airways would be the official airline of Barcelona," as Turkish Airlines was from '10-13. Barcelona "wants to leave the door open to Qatar" not only as its possible airline sponsor, but also as a possible sponsor of the Espai Barça complex, new Camp Nou or the first team's practice shirt (AS, 12/12). In Barcelona, Roger Torelló reported Al Baker said, "We are talking about being Barcelona's airline, we do not want only the name, but also to give value to this sponsorship. We are now negotiating and when we finish talking we will say whether we will go forward together. For now we have various teams interested in us being their sponsor, so we will take some time to see what direction we take" (MUNDO DEPORTIVO, 12/12).
CLUB ADDS ASIAN PARTNERS: Barcelona signed a three-year regional sponsorship deal with Chinese technology firm BNN Technology. The partnership enables BNN Technology partner NewNet -- part of the Xinhua News app -- to distribute Barcelona content such as club news, access to enter competitions and games. It also enables NewNet to run a series of football camps each season in China, where over 300 young Chinese amateur football players will be trained by Barcelona coaches to hone technique, tactical awareness and fitness. The club also partnered with Peking University's Guanghua School of Management in a deal that will see Barcelona collaborate with the university to develop the sports industry in China and globally. The agreement includes a center of knowledge and innovation in sports that will be jointly created by Barcelona and the Guanghua School of Management. One of the first activities of the partnership will be a trip students from the school will take to Barcelona to enroll in sports management courses during the first semester of '17 (Barcelona).
