Barcelona have been desperately seeking income for much of the last five years, and any care for where and from who it comes from has gone out of the window. This summer, as Barcelona battled their salary limit again, they met with Saudi Arabian construction giant NEOM to explore potential opportunities.
As per MD, who cite Forca Barca AR and various Saudi media outlets, Barcelona executives met with NEOM in a hotel in Riyadh. They are responsible for the major urban development project in Tabuk in the North-East of Saudi Arabia, and President Joan Laporta was due to attend the meeting, but had to drop out at the last minute. Curiously, his close friend in his own words, and Israeli agent Pini Zahavi was also present.
Héctor Fort was excluded from the Spain U19 camp due to a skin virus. He'll rejoin training next Monday after Flick granted four days off. It's nothing serious, just a rash, but he's advised to stay in Barcelona and avoid travel. @Mariio_RB
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) September 4, 2024
Barcelona were offering sponsorship packages for their training kit, sponsoring Barca Atletic, the basket ball team, the VIP boxes at Camp Nou and other options too, but NEOM declined to get involved. However they did express an interest in Barcelona taking on a pastoral role in educating Saudi Arabian football players, and potentially setting up a franchise in Saudi Arabia. They are expected to meet with Barcelona again in the coming weeks.
Since Barcelona took on Qatar Airways as their first ever sponsor on their shirt, they have continued contributing to social projects, but have not paid much attention to the human rights records of their partners.
