FC Barcelona Addresses Its Lingering Financial Problems Through a Sale of ‘Fine Art’ NFT
The Catalan football powerhouse FC Barcelona in collaboration with the Sotheby's auction house will carry out the sale of a unique, and very artsy, non-fungible token (NFT) that depicts the historic goal scored by the club legend Johan Cruyff.
Table of contents:
- ‘The Savior’ once again comes to Barca’s rescue
- An audiovisual digital artwork that brings sweet benefits to the owner
‘The Savior’ once again comes to Barca’s rescue
Non-fungible tokens (NFT) have quickly become an essential part of marketing or fundraising campaigns for major European football clubs that have caught the smell of easy money. And when it comes to finances, FC Barcelona has been finding itself in a pickle since the resignation of the former president Josep Bartomeu two years ago. The five-time Champions League winner has lost a lot of players from its star-studded roster, including the club legend Leo Messi who moved to Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer after his relationship with club executives had deteriorated. According to the latest reports, Barca has a debt of nearly $2 billion, even after it had borrowed a substantial sum from Goldman Sachs.
The club apparently has found a way to ease the debt burden, if only slightly, through the sale of the ‘first art NFT’ that features one of the club’s biggest legends, Johan ‘The Savior’ Cruyff. The Dutchman spent five seasons at the Catalan club, scoring 48 goals in 143 games and helping the club win a handful of titles, including the Copa del Rey in 1978. Now, Jopie will help his beloved club once again - not on a real but on a digital pitch where a group of forty world-class digital artists from Hollywood recreated the famous ‘Cruyff’s Impossible Goal’ which he scored against Miguel Reina of Atletico Madrid.
An audiovisual digital artwork that brings sweet benefits to the owner
The NFT sale will take place on July 29 in collaboration with the famous auction house Sotheby's. The token dubbed ‘In a Way, Immortal’ has a floor price of $65, but it will most certainly go much higher once the live auction kicks off as it promises to become a huge hit among over 400 million Barcelona fans from around the world. In the words of Barca’s president Joan Laporta, ‘With the club’s unique strategy we found a unique opportunity to continue growing and consolidating the Barca brand.’
When the developers claim the Cruyff NFT is a digital masterpiece, they aren’t exaggerating. The perfectly animated token took 10,000 hours to make, while the soundtrack was recorded by an orchestra of thirty musicians. Sotheby's has already presented snapshots of the NFT animation, and it’s a real beauty. The lucky owner of the token will become the club’s official digital ambassador and receive access to meets & greets, hospitality rights for five years as well as access to the Spotify Camp Nou.