Rakuten and Barça to share the stage for the final time in Camp Nou this Sunday

The 2017/18 season saw the start of the agreement between FC Barcelona and Rakuten – the first ever Japanese company to become the Club’s main sponsor and have their name feature on the first team jersey. Five years later after a fruitful relationship, both entities have decided to go their separate ways, bringing their shared journey to a close.

Barça and Rakuten wanted to make the farewell a festive occasion and look back at their journey together. As such, a special date was chosen, no less than the final competitive home game of the season this weekend at Camp Nou. The innovative tech company prepared a range of visual activities to coincide with Barça’s final LaLiga game of the season on Sunday against . These activities form part of the 'Arigato Barça' ('Thanks Barça') campaign, featured both in the stadium and on social networks.

Pre-match, the first team players walked out onto the pitch wearing the jersey with 'Arigato Barça' written at the front andholding hands with a group of children wearing t-shirts with the campaign’s slogan. The pitch announcer explained the meaning of this action to the Camp Nou crowd. At the same time, the LED screens around the pitch also featured the Arigato Barça message and the electronic scoreboards showed a specially created spot for the occasion. Furthermore, the FC Barcelona Instagram account posted a Gameday Stories wrap-up on reels. They are short audio-visual pieces in which Rakuten has been acknowledging the Club’s staff that make gameday possible at the stadium, when every piece has to fall into place behind the scenes to ensure the sporting spectacle goes ahead.

Barça and Rakuten will bring an end to a fruitful five years with these symbolic activities, a period in which both have made strides in the world of sports sponsorship and created even stronger links between Japan and FC Barcelona.