The phantom launch of Barça

BarcelonaThere has long been talk in the Blaugrana news about the launch of Barça Mobile. The project, which Joan Laporta defined as a "gold mine" during its presentation, had been stalled for months and, as ARA already explained, even its suppliers were wondering why they were waiting so long to launch it. After more than a year of work, however, the operator began to be marketed a few days before the elections to Barça. However, the launch has been marked by the silence of the club and New Era Visionary Group Iberia —the company in charge of carrying out the project—, who have not wanted to make much noise nor have they started any commercial campaign.

The fact is that the brand had existed for a long time. In April 2025, the company led by the Moldovan Ruslan Birladeanu began to market e-SIM cards under the name Barça Mobile for travel while continuing to work on launching what is to be its main business: a mobile and fiber operator like Movistar, Orange, Vera or Parlem. In fact, with this first launch, the company ran a very aggressive campaign, both on the club's own social networks and with advertising through various content creators. The Barça Mobile brand also began to appear strongly on billboards when the Blaugrana team played at home, first in Montjuïc and then at Camp Nou.

And this has not changed. During the last matches of the season, the operator has continued to appear in advertising banners, even though the new product, which was initially supposed to mark a turning point, has not been promoted at any time. On the club's official networks, as well as in the rest of the channels, it has not been promoted either, which has meant that the majority of Barça fans have not become aware of the launch. As sources close to New Era explain, this situation is due to the fact that they would have agreed with Barça to do a "soft launch —referring to the strategy of introducing a product in a silent, gradual and limited way, before carrying out the official advertising campaign.

The (non) promotion

This introduction, in fact, arrived after months of internal product testing, even though, as industry sources explained to ARA, they had had the green light to launch Barça Mobile on the market for months. Other voices from the world of "telecoms explain that internal tests, in most cases, are usually resolved in a matter of days. But the case of Barça Mobile, according to sources from New Era, has also been conditioned by the tempos set by the club, which currently continues to not authorize the launch to the general public, according to the company's version.

However, official sources from the club give another version: from Barça it is considered that some things have already been done for its promotion and they point out that more will be done "as the product's activity itself demands it". Furthermore, as the same official voices of the Blaugrana indicate, the advertising of Barça Mobile will be done "if necessary and depending on the moment".

as Ferran Olivé, former treasurer of Barça, explained in an interview with ARAAwaiting 30 million

Barça Mobile, however, is not the only bridge in the relationship between Barça and New Era. In November 2024, the club announced that Birladeanu's company was becoming the club's new telecommunications partner. The agreement included two main pillars: the development of Barça Mobile and the installation of 5G antennas at Camp Nou. However, as the company with its headquarters in the United Arab Emirates was newly created, it had no prior experience in the sector and did not have the infrastructure to carry out the installation, it was already announced that the antenna work would be done with the help of Orange, which does have the capacity to move forward with it. New Era, therefore, would remain as the "system integrator".

And that's not all. January 2025 was a busy month in the Culer offices. Barça was fighting to register Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor against the clock due to La Liga's demands for financial fair play. And they managed to do so at the last minute, when they managed to sell the exploitation of the so-called VIP seats at Camp Nou for 100 million euros. One of the two buying companies turned out to be New Era Visionary Group, the parent company based in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) of New Era Visionary Group Iberia. Birladeanu's company paid 28 million euros and committed to reaching the planned 70 million in different installments. In the coming weeks, the Moldovan businessman will have to pay the remaining 30 million to cover the full amount. The other 30 million of the operation was provided by Forta Advisors, a Qatari fund that arrived at the club through representative Pini Zahavi.

But it is not clear that Birladeanu will be the one to end up paying. In fact, as the former Barça treasurer Ferran Olivé explained in an interview with ARA, New Era resold to a third party the 12 million it paid to the club in the winter. Now, the company is looking for a way to repeat the move to get rid of the last payment. It is unknown who the partners are who covered the 12 million that were received in the winter, nor is it known who may end up assuming the 30 million that are missing to reach the final 70 million euros.