File photo of Barcelona's Messi. Reuters
Doha: Qatar Airways hopes to maintain commercial ties with Barcelona despite ending its contract to sponsor the Spanish champions' shirts, CEO Akbar Al Baker said yesterday.
Barca signed the most lucrative shirt sponsorship deal in world soccer last month by agreeing a four-year deal with Japanese internet retailer Rakuten worth €55m ($58.9m) a year.
Qatar Airways will cease to be the club's shirt sponsor from next season.
"Our contract finishes next June but we are having conversations about being the club's main airline partner," Al Baker told a news conference yesterday ahead of Barcelona's friendly with Al Ahli Saudi FC in Doha tomorrow.
"When we finish discussions and things are clearer we'll decide if we stay together or not. Right now we have various teams that want us to sponsor them so we'll take our time to decide what direction we take."
