FC Barcelona have expanded their esports division this week with the announcement of a new League of Legends team, set to compete in the Spanish Superliga, the top division of League in Spain from 2022. The team will compete against a number of other orgs, including a team owned by popular Spanish streamer Ibai Lanos and Barcelona captain Gerard Pique.

As yet Barca haven’t made any announcement regarding the players or staff they hope to sign for the competition, but the addition of their brand will be a major boon to a competition that also hosts G2 Arctic and MAD Lions’ Madrid roster. Barcelona will be the second football club to join after Real Betis, who created a team to join the division in June of 2020.

Barcelona, who currently have teams in Rocket League, Hearthstone and eFootball, have made the move as part of their ongoing efforts to use esports to connect with new markets. As their statement on the new team said, they hope the team will “help connect the Club and its philosophy to new audiences, particularly among emerging markets for football fandom, and to take the Barça brand to countries such as the United States of America or China”.

Financial incentives

In terms of reaching new fans, the Spanish division is only the beginning, but still boasts some decent numbers. When the 2021 season came to a close the Superliga had been watched by close on five million people, with over 2.6 million viewing hours, 39% up on the previous year. An impressive 300,000 unique viewers tuned in for the Grand Finals between Vodafone Giants and UCAM Esports Club, smashing the previous record of 73,596 viewers.

This obviously comes at a time when the football club is financially struggling, to the extent that when sacking their manager Ronald Koeman recently they were forced to ask if he would consider reducing the contractually agreed redundancy package, to which the answer was apparently no. The same financial issues have seen a number of players take pay cuts to stay at the club, as well as leading to the much-discussed free transfer of Leo Messi to Paris Saint Germain over the summer.

The club say the project will also promote their values, which they list as “only participating in non-violent games with its brand and all that it represents, while also promoting gender equality, and a commitment to educate both fans and players”. This is an admirable ambition, although some might say it is contradicted by the football club’s relationship with Qatar, a state that has a reputation for poor gender equality and other human rights issues.