http://0rz.tw/ljR89 Qatar sticks in the throat - but Barcelona have stolen a march on Real Madrid, Manchester United and the rest By PETE JENSON [excerpts] He is not worried about accusations he tip-toed around the club’s democratic process or that fans don’t like their club’s ethics being compromised by a partnership with a country that has human rights issues. As he told Al Jazeera on Wednesday: 'The banks were the first to congratulate us.' Annual friendlies and pre-season tours in Qatar form part of the sponsorship agreement because this is the new Barcelona. It’s a lot more like Florentino Perez’s Real Madrid and a lot less like the club of old. .. Barcelona’s former vice-president Marc Ingla said this week that the club’s current economic standing is no different to its position in 2006, when it last flirted with shirt sponsorship. Ingla claims a ￡75m offer from Bwin was turned down in favour of paying to wear the logo of children’s charity UNICEF. 'The situation was the same then,' he said. 'We had an income of €208m (￡141m) and a debt of €292m (￡199m); now we bring in €400m (￡340m) and the debt is €420m (￡355m).' For Rosell, his own links to Qatar and the country’s desire to pay for a massive image makeover were conditions too good to pass up on. His own sports image rights and events management company Bonus Sports Marketing has a long history of doing business in Doha. It holds the rights to run Aspire - the country’s major sports academy - and such is the proximity of the new deal and Rosell’s business that he will complete the sale of it to Saudi firm DAG next January to ensure no one accuses him of a conflict of interests. Those close links will continue, however, and further commercial link-ups are expected next year. Qatar investors – under various guises but with all wealth inevitably traced back to the ruling Al-Thani family – have been contemplating investment in both Manchester United and Real Madrid. Even if business with the former still materializes Rosell feels Barcelona have stolen a march on the competition. All of which makes weathering any storm of protest worthwhile. On Sunday Spanish paper El Mundo claimed the Qatar Foundation had given money to extremist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi an advocate of terrorism, wife-beating and anti-Semitism - something Rosell has dismissed as a mistake made in good faith. It was even worth keeping any mention of the imminent deal out of this October’s members’ assembly. Negotiations were well already under way at that point but members were told nothing with the deal finally being sealed on November 17 when the two parties met at the Brazil v Argentina friendly in Doha. A new design incorporating the Qatar Foundation’s tree logo will be presented in the next 10 days and 2m shirts will be made and put on sale next spring. It remains to be seen how well they sell. The Camp Nou could yet fill up with retro tops in protest at the sell-out but it’s too late to change the decision. Barcelona might be no longer more than a club but Rosell will argue no one will remember that if he ends up making it the richest one in the world. --

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