unicef

The Catalan club’s Board have approved the motion to extend the alliance with the UN body until the end of their term in office, which lasts until 2016. FC Barcelona has agreed, as it has done in recent years, to donate €1.5 million euros a year to joint projects with Unicef, which involve the promotion of education and sport among vulnerable children. Barça and the United Nations first joined forces in September 2006. The current deal was due to end in 2014. “We are very satisfied with this alliance”, stated the  Board Spokesman and Secretary, Toni Freixa.

For the first time in its history, FC Barcelona will be wearing an away kit based on the red and yellow Catalan flag – the ‘senyera’. FC Barcelona and Nike presented Barça’s new first team’s kit on Tuesday morning, which include the traditional blue and claret stripes in a modern design which sees the stripes peter off on the sleeves. Furthermore shorts will be blue for the main outfit and red for the away kit.

Barça President, Sandro Rosell, will meet with representatives from three institutions and organisations that are currently working with the FC Barcelona Foundation: Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. These projects take the Foundation’s work to countries like Brazil, Ghana, China and South Africa.

Unicef has released a study revealing that children and youngsters are some of the most vulnerable people hit by the crisis. The study stresses that they are the future of any society. Between 2008 and 2010, child poverty in Catalonia increased by more than 5 percentage points. In Spain as a whole, child poverty jumped from 24% to 26.2% in the same period.

FC Barcelona and UNICEF will continue working together for vulnerable children. Barça has been showing UNICEF logo on its T-shirt for the last five years and will continue doing so.