Barcelona plans to drop the UNICEF logo from the front of its first-team shirts from July and replace it with the name of its new Qatari sponsor, a vice-president of the La Liga club said on Tuesday.

The Spanish champion is one of the few clubs in world soccer not to have a corporate logo on its shirts, instead displaying the name of the United Nations Children's Fund, for which it pays the organization 1.5 million euros ($2.05 million) a year.

However, it last month agreed a record five-year sponsorship deal with Qatar Sports Investment worth 30 million euros a season and will have "Qatar Foundation" emblazoned on its shirt fronts from July 1.

"It has been decided that the Qatar Foundation logo will go on the front of the shirt, on the breast," Barca vice-president Javier Faus said at a news conference.

"In the end, there will be only two words 'Qatar Foundation' in yellow," he said. "UNICEF will go on the back underneath the player's name."

The sponsorship deal, the biggest for any soccer club, will net as much as 170 million euros, including 15 million euros for commercial rights for the current season and a bonus for winning titles that could be as much as 5 million.

The agreement with the Emirate prompted allegations it had sold out and was compromising its ideals for material gain.

Barca officials argued the injection of funds at a delicate time for the club's finances was necessary to pay for the development of its sports teams.

Reuters

(China Daily 02/10/2011 page22)