Barcelona have announced they will end one of their sponsorship deals after links with Andrew Tate were revealed. The Blaugrana announced the deal in November, and six weeks later decided to terminate the deal.
The business in question, ZKP, has been announced as Barcelona’s ‘blockchain partner’, ahead of the launch of the new trading currency. An acronym stands for a word Zero Knowledge Evidence, the idea that people can be certain of something based on knowing other information without that idea being true.
Barcelona released a statement on the termination of ZKP’s contract
After facing problems with the contract, Barcelona responded by terminating the deal. The Catalan giants released the following statement.
“Regarding the latest reports about Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP), with which FC Barcelona entered into a sponsorship agreement making the company the Official Cryptographic Protocol Partner of the Club, FC Barcelona informs that:
Due to the violation of the terms of the agreed contract and after the Departments of Legal Compliance of the Group have carried out the necessary verification and analysis, FC Barcelona has confirmed the existence of actions that do not comply with the terms and conditions established in the signed sponsorship agreement. As a result, FC Barcelona terminated the aforementioned contract.
The group reiterates that it is not at all connected with any token related to the said company, nor any responsibility or involvement in its release or management, and that these aspects are not foreseen in the signed agreement.
FC Barcelona confirms its commitment to transparency, protecting its institutional reputation, and strictly complying with the agreements it enters into. “
It has been confirmed by the sportsmen that the connection between ZKP and the right-wing promoter Tate is the reason for Barcelona’s decision.
🚨 JUST IN: Ronald Araújo will not feature in the derby or the Spanish Supercup at this time. The team intends to slowly release him back to the team. [@scapde_45] 🇺🇾 pic.twitter.com/Pg1ez5mRy6
– barcacentre (@barcacentre) December 31, 2025
Why Andrew Tate is damaging Barcelona’s reputation
Barcelona has made a point of protecting the series of ‘heritage’ in recent years, something that runs directly counter to the Tate’s ethos. The British citizen does not believe that women are equal to men, and has also been charged with human trafficking, child trafficking, rape and sex with a minor in Romania, while in his home country of the United Kingdom, he has 21 charges of rape, physical harm and human trafficking.
It is not yet clear whether there is any financial connection between Tate and ZKP, but the blockchain company had promoted one of Tate’s tweets on their Twitter/X account, appearing as their pinned tweet. No question, Barcelona got a big kick out of running in the same circles as Tate.
