As one of the world’s most prominent sports teams, it’s no surprise that FC Barcelona has dozens of companies lining up to associate with it. Partnerships range from headline sponsors Nike, Spotify and Philips Ambilight to local cava producer Codorníu via toolmaker Stanley and Malaysian lender Maybank. Those commercial partners get to sell their wares to Barça’s vast fan base and bask in the reflected glamour of the club that gave us Lionel Messi. In return, they get cash.
Earlier this month, Barca made a curious addition to its
partnership team sheet: Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP). The previously unknown
crypto company will be the club’s “official blockchain technology” partner for
the next three years.
“This new sponsorship deal, in a cutting-edge area of
technology, is yet another example of FC Barcelona’s leadership in the
commercial field,” the club said when announcing its ZKP tie-up.
Yet, despite access to Barça’s digital channels and hundreds
of millions of fans — there is little publicly available information about ZKP.
The company registered in Samoa, appears to have no listed address or public
team, no clear disclosures about founding or financing, and minimal digital
footprint. ZKP claims it has developed a piece of hardware that lets users
verify information without revealing underlying data — a “privacy-first”
blockchain/AI protocol. Repeated efforts to contact ZKP have so far been
unsuccessful.
“Everyone asks, “Who’s behind this?” the company says
on its website. “As if knowing the names would make the code stronger. It
won’t. We’re real — engineers, cryptographers, ex-founders, system killers. But
we’re not playing the PR game.”
But that secrecy means fans have no idea who they might be
dealing with. Criticism of the deal prompted Barcelona to publish a statement
on Thursday evening, saying it had “no connection whatsoever” or responsibility
for ZKP’s debut coin auction or its associated technology. Not the greatest endorsement of your latest
commercial ally 12 days into a three-year deal.
Football clubs have been dabbling with crypto sponsorships
for some time, with pretty mixed results. Clubs including Inter Milan, Chelsea
and Atlético Madrid have had to end such deals early, in some cases due to non-payment.
Despite the reputational and financial risks — not to
mention the potential brand dilution — such deals keep coming. The money, it
appears, is too good to turn down.
It could be argued Barça is a special case. Its vast debt
burden makes raising revenue particularly urgent, while its member-owned
structure limits some other options — for example, issuing new shares or
bringing in major investors. Commercial partnerships remain the most
straightforward way to raise cash quickly.
But the need to raise income as quickly as possible is an
increasingly common theme across football, and one that could get even more
pressing as regulation across Europe ties spending to revenue.
European football doesn't have a great record when it comes
to long-term thinking. So long as crypto companies still have money to spend,
expect them to find a willing audience in club boardrooms — no matter how
opaque they are.
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