Barcelona facing internal tensions following historic Nike partnership

Barcelona’s renewed contract with Nike has arrived on much-improved terms and comes as a much-needed relief to the club’s burning finances.

The negotiations, however, were significantly delayed from what was initially anticipated and the continuous postponement forced Barcelona to alter even their transfer plans in the summer as the agreement did not arrive in time.

Needless to say, the delay in progress raised eyebrows on the man in charge of negotiations – Julie Giu, who is Barcelona’s head of marketing.

Internal tensions

The administrator’s failure to speed-track negotiations and the constant delay unsurprisingly created internal rifts in the Barcelona hierarchy and Cat Radio (h/t FCBWorld) now reveals that the tensions are still growing.

Barcelona are facing internal rift. (Photo by Eric Alonso/Getty Images)

As relayed by the outlet, Laporta was highly critical of Giu’s work and eventually took matters into his own hands, after which the deal moved with pace and an agreement was reached.

Now, the relationship between Laporta and the head of marketing has significantly deteriorated in light of the same and the management is trying to address the matter internally. It remains to be seen what comes of it.

Irrespective of the marketing head’s future, Laporta’s hastened efforts have helped Barcelona earn the financial injection they so dearly required and the club is now closer to the 1:1 rule than ever before.

After all, the American giants’ new deal with the club sees Barcelona rope in close to €160 million as an initial bonus and an annual sponsorship figure of as much as €127 million annually.

However, there is still some way to go before the Blaugrana can bask in that success and are still trying to find solutions to register Dani Olmo and Pau Victor next month.