Qatar Airways, FC Barcelona deal to be unveiled

A new sponsorship deal between FC Barcelona and Qatar Airways will be officially unveiled on Monday, the Spanish football club has said.

The event will be attended by club president Sandro Rosell and the CEO of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, the club said in a statement.

The unveiling follows an agreement in November when it was announced that Qatar Airways will become the main shirt sponsor of FC Barcelona, arguably the best football team in the world, from the 2013-14 season.

The new sponsorship deal is part of a $225m five-year agreement between the Spanish La Liga club and Qatar Sports Investments which was first announced last year.

At the same time, Qatar Sports Investments has designated Qatar Foundation - the current shirt sponsors - as the official human development partner of FC Barcelona.

Prior to the Qatar Foundation agreement, FC Barcelona was one of the few sides in world soccer not to have a corporate logo on their shirts, instead displaying the name of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), for which they paid the organisation 1.5 million euros ($2m) a year.