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FC Barcelona has come underneath fireplace for signing a three-year sponsorship cope with a Samoa-based cryptocurrency agency promoted by the controversial influencer Andrew Tate.
The corporate, Zero-Data Proof (ZKP), was following simply three on-line accounts, FC Barcelona, Bitcoin, and Andrew Tate, when the deal was introduced. The corporate discloses no management or possession, whereas claiming $100 million in financing.
The transfer has intensified scrutiny of Barcelona’s seek for income because the membership navigates heavy debt and a expensive stadium redevelopment, elevating issues it’s taking business and reputational dangers by way of an opaque crypto firm.
“It looks like a foul joke, however sadly it’s actual,” former Barcelona board director Xavier Vilajoana mentioned on X, calling on the membership to ”clarify the due diligence course of carried out earlier than approving this settlement.”
Sembla un mal acudit, però malauradament és actual.
El FC Barcelona ha anunciat un acord de patrocini amb ZKP, una empresa de blockchain poc coneguda registrada a Samoa, una jurisdicció que la UE inclou a la llista de paradisos fiscals. En el second d’anunciar-se l’acord, el…
— Xavier Vilajoana (@XaviVilajoana) November 18, 2025
Andrew Tate Hyperlinks
Vilajoana demanded that Barcelona ”make clear if ZKP has any direct or oblique reference to Andrew Tate,” stating that the influencer has “confronted costs for human trafficking, rape, and belonging to a prison group.”
He added that because the announcement of the deal, ”Tate has posted a video selling ZKP, including much more public concern.”
He urged Barcelona to ”act with speedy transparency,” and clarify what due diligence it had finished earlier than the settlement was signed.
Whereas ZKP’s web site claims a dedication to transparency, the corporate offers few particulars about who’s behind it.
“Everybody asks, ‘Who’s behind this?’ As if understanding the names would make the code stronger,” it mentioned on its web site. ”It gained’t. We’re actual — engineers, cryptographers, ex-founders, system killers. However we’re not enjoying the PR recreation.”
FC Barcelona’s Monetary Strain Grows
The transfer to associate with ZKP comes as FC Barcelona faces rising monetary pressures. The basis trigger for the disaster is the membership’s exorbitant spending on gamers, transfers and wages over the previous decade.
The monetary strain worsened with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in matchday revenues collapsing. This hit the membership particularly exhausting, as a result of these revenues had been amongst its main earnings sources.
Through the years, the membership has additionally been punished for repeatedly breaching Spanish soccer’s spending restrict, with its newest accounts exhibiting web debt of €469 million.
The membership has additionally dedicated to an enormous renovation undertaking, Espai Barça, to rebuild and modernize Barcelona’s residence stadium in Camp Nou. This transfer has positioned a heavy long-term debt and financing burden on the sporting big’s stability sheet, with monetary information exhibiting greater than €900 million in stadium-related borrowing.
Barcelona has tried to deal with its funds by way of asset gross sales, together with parts of its long-term tv earnings. Nonetheless, the expensive delays to its stadium renovation have escalated the urgency round income technology.
The membership had engaged in different Web3 ventures through the years, lots of which have faltered. Regardless of the setbacks, Barcelona has maintained its digital initiatives.
Barcelona bought its first non-fungible token (NFT) for $693K at Sotheby’s in July 2022. It additionally launched FC Barcelona Token by way of Chilliz and Socios in June 2020. These fan tokens bought out for $1.3 million in lower than two hours.
Prior to now yr, the membership’s fan token has seen its worth plummet greater than 73%, in line with CoinMarketCap knowledge.
FC Barcelona Fan Token worth (Supply: CoinMarketCap)
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