Barcelona football club’s president revealed at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) conducted in Barcelona that the club aims to launch its native cryptocurrency as it examines new technologies to generate lasting and consistent corporate success.
Joan Laporta stated in a keynote presentation that the 122-year-old company plans to use both blockchain and metaverse to accomplish this aim, as well as issue its initial non-fungible coin shortly. He didn’t provide any more information on the next NFT offering.
“As a team, our primary aim is to win championships and keep our supporters delighted. However, it is obvious that we must also gain,” as per Laporta. “Sports prospects are crucial to us since we don’t own a corporation or property that fixes our financial challenges in football.”
As per Forbes, Barcelona is by far the most precious football brand and the fourth most expensive sports club across the globe, commanding a value of $4.76 billion last year. Approximately 3.5 billion people are believed to watch football throughout the globe, as per Fifa’s governing body. A large portion of the team’s income is generated from ticket and merchandising sales, and this is especially true in Europe.
As a result of the Covid-19 epidemic, European teams’ total income plummeted over 13% to $22 billion ($29.4 billion) in the 2019-2020 term, as per consultant Deloitte. Barça’s 2020-2021 season ended with a net loss of €481 million (~$533.42 million) on revenues of €631 million, which was 26% lower than expected, as per the club’s website. Even though he had agreed to a 50% wage reduction, Lionel Messi was forced to leave Barcelona in August 2021 because the struggling La Liga club could not fund his new agreement.
Camp Nou, the club’s home arena in inner Barcelona, is in the process of renovations as part of the club’s current technology drive. In an online and engaging camp visit, The National explored the huge facility. For the sake of its content creation, Barca Studios and the Barca Innovation Hub have already been founded. In addition, the club has plans to expand into the e-sports and related industries.
The fast growing digital domain, popularly known as the metaverse, is where digital and real-world experiences merge. A growing number of corporations and organizations are interested in the business, which is being hailed as the future of information exchange. As per Emergen Research, it was worth $47.69 billion two years back and is expected to reach $828.95 billion in 2028.
