‘Bad Joke’: FC Barcelona criticized for $22 million deal with Samoan crypto company ZKP

European football club FC Barcelona has come under fire after signing a three-year, $22 million global sponsorship deal with little-known crypto firm Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP), based on the Pacific island of Samoa.

Xavier Vilajoana, a former club board member, told the club Financial times that striking a deal with the crypto startup was a sign of financial “desperation,” pointing to “red flags” in the company’s background and calling the decision “incredibly worrying.”

In one tweetVilajoana pointed out that ZKP’s Tate posted an endorsement of the Zero-Knowledge Proof technology on its X page, which was later shared by the company on its Telegram page, with an additional ZKP logo.

“It seems like a bad joke, but unfortunately it is real,” said Vilajoana.

The club, believed to be under severe financial pressure, has a debt of €469 million ($542 million).

Zero-Knowledge Proof appears to have launched its social media channels and whitepaper in early November. Details about the ownership and financing structure are not clear on the website, although it says it is governed by Samoan law. The company is currently in the process of conducting its first coin offering. ZKP’s cryptographic technology of the same name has been possible since the early 1990s.

The Financial Times noted that it could find no public information about some of the company’s management, including Jeff Wilck, the head of blockchain.

In an official statement, FC Barcelona said it has “no connection whatsoever with the company’s token,” and that the club has not discussed the existence or issuance of this token during sponsorship discussions.

“The club has no responsibility or involvement in the issuance or management of this token, nor does it use any associated technology,” the club said.

Harry Halpin, CEO of blockchain privacy company Nym Technologies, said he would be skeptical of any company “that came out of nowhere and claimed to provide privacy via zero-knowledge proofs.”

“There are, I suspect, only about fifty programmers alive who can actually understand the math and code production-ready zero-knowledge proof systems.”

He added that most of them already work at established companies such as the privacy-focused Ethereum layer-2 Aztec, the blockchain protocol Anoma, the privacy-focused layer-1 blockchain Aleo and the Electric Coin Company, which is behind the Zcash privacy coin.

He also pointed out that zero-knowledge proofs by themselves do not necessarily automatically provide anonymity, as the IP addresses of those involved may still be visible, hence the use of “mixnets” in some privacy-oriented ecosystems.

Declutter contacted Zero-Knowledge Proof for comment on the widespread criticism of the company and FC Barcelona’s statement, but did not immediately receive a response.

“No LinkedIn. No pitch deck. No press charm offensive. Just a new blockchain, Proof Pods deployed and 100% self-funded,” the company wrote on Friday on

Crypto and football

Crypto sponsorship has become almost ubiquitous in European football in recent years.

Research EuropeThe analysis from earlier this month found that more than a third of teams in Europe’s top five leagues are working with cryptocurrency or trading firms this season, rising to 70% in the British Premier League.

Trading platform eToro has signed deals with eight different clubs, and crypto exchanges Bitpanda and Kraken have signed four and three deals with major European clubs respectively.

By 2022, Bloomberg reported that Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon and Italy’s Spezia have terminated their commercial relationships with Bitci.com, a Turkey-based crypto group, due to alleged non-payment.