Barcelona President spends week seeking Asian investment and smoking shisha

Barcelona President Joan Laporta has been on his travels during the international break too, although not for football. The Blaugrana chief was seen private jetting to Mongolia and then Azerbaijan with various club directors and his ex-cousin-in-law Alejandro Echevarria.

First of all he was seen in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bataar, where he met with the Culture Minister Nomin Chinba. Relevo say it was in part to discuss opening a Barcelona Academy in Mongolia, while they also met with Gobi, a cashmere clothing brand, to talk about bringing out a Barcelona range.

It is also reported that they attended a third unnamed country, but that Laporta was present at the COP29 meeting in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. There he met with Farthad Hajiyev, the Vice-Minister for Youth and Sports, and Azhemco owner Adnan Ahmadzada, whom he has met with multiple times before in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

Rival political group Som un Clam have demanded explanations for the trip, including the objective of the trip, the costs, the lack of transparency and the number of employees that were involved.

This comes as Barcelona continue to search for more sources of income. Despite reassuring fans during their general assembly that there would be no issues to register the contracts of Dani Olmo and Pau Victor in January, but all of the reporting says that even with the new Nike sponsorship contract, Barcelona still need to resolve the matter.

In the past, Laporta has been criticised for not being entirely honest both about the club’s finances, and the club’s contractual agreements. The Nike deal was kept confidential, as per request by the American sportswear brand say the club’s officials, but as a club owned by the members, in theory their accounts and deals are all public.