Barcelona say Mediapro's claim that they turned down an offer worth €300 million for Camp Nou's naming rights is untrue.
Mediapro CEO and founder Jaume Roures said on Spanish radio on Thursday that negotiations for the multimedia communications group to sponsor the La Liga club's stadium had recently broken down.
Roures explained that the reason behind the talks coming to an end was because of Barca's request for Mediapro to drop a lawsuit against the club's former president, Sandro Rosell, for espionage.
However, Barca say Roures' comments only contain elements of the truth and that the actual terms under discussion would have resulted in a deal worth less than €300m.
"It's true that there was contact with Mediapro but it never reached the stage where we received a written offer because the club's requisites for any company that wants to sponsor Camp Nou were not met," Barca spokesman Josep Vives said.
"That's to say, the figure of €300 million was to be paid over the course of the 20-year deal with no interest. That would have mean €15m per year and the club would have had to finance the cost of the Espai Barca project [for the regeneration of Camp Nou and the surrounding area]. So, calculating annual interest of around 6.5 percent, the offer was only actually worth €165m.
"When club members approved the €600m Espai Barca project, they did so with the clause that [at least] €200m for the project has to come from the naming rights, another €200m from the club's revenue and €200m in credit."
Barca also deny that they called for the lawsuit against Rosell, currently in prison on charges of money laundering, to be dropped.
"The information is also manipulated," Vives said. "It says Barca's conditions for accepting the offer were dependent on a complaint against Barca and other people connected with Barca being dropped. That is absolutely not true. Unfortunately, the club are not surprised by Mr. Roures comments."
Sources told ESPN FC in the summer that Barca are hopeful of receiving €300m for the naming rights to Camp Nou for a 20-year sponsorship agreement. The club hope to have a deal in place before the end of the season.