Speaking at the Mobile World Congress, Joan Laporta lifted the lid on plans to join clubs in going digital to interact with fans around the world.
Barcelona plan to develop their own cryptocurrency, NFTs and metaverse to ‘survive financially’ against football’s elite, the club’s president Joan Laporta has confirmed.
The Catalan giants become the latest of a growing trend of clubs to turn to technology. Last month, in fact, Manchester City announced plans to build 
a virtual replica of the Etihad Stadium in the metaverse; as part of a 
new partnership with Sony.
Barcelona have rejected opportunities to go down a similar route though, preferring to develop their own digital currency and metaverse in-house – just like they do with their own footballers.
Why are Barcelona going solo?
“We’re developing our own metaverse, [which is why] we rejected the chance to be associated with any cryptocurrency enterprises,” said Laporta at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.
“We want to create our own cryptocurrency, and we have to do that ourselves. We are different because we survive financially from what we can generate through the industry of sport.
“We do not have big corporations or shareholders behind us. That forces us to be imaginative, innovative, brave and be a step ahead in many areas that surround the sports industry.”
How do they plan to use metaverse?
T
he metaverse is a 3D version of the internet. Users can explore, interact with each other or companies, play games, learn, and experience things as they would do in the real world.
Barcelona plan to dip into this technology to support its e-sports teams and video activities.
“There has been a lot of attention [on] blockchain products and services such as NFTs and metaverse,” says Laporta. “We all know that the digital world will play a very important role in the coming year. We will soon be able to offer digital products to our members, to our fans [and] the fans of e-sports.”
What about NFTs?
NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) is a digital resource that represents real-world objects, such as videos and music. They are bought and sold on the internet, generally with cryptocurrency.
Laporta hopes Barcelona can introduce their first range of NFTs soon, but can’t share too many details at the moment.
“It’s something we can share with our fans around the world — around 300 million of them,” the 59-year-old said. “I could announce something else, but I have to be prudent because it’s confidential still.
“The players know what we’re working on, that this is a modern club that makes use of new media. There are clauses in their contracts related to the NFT world and the metaverse.”
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