Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has been speaking at the announcement of a lucrative four-year sponsorship deal with Japanese technology company Rakuten.

The new sponsorship agreement will see Rakuten replace Qatar Airways on the front of Barca's shirts from the start of next season and, according to fcbarcelona.com, will earn the club 55 million euros (£47m) a year.

Bartomeu revealed Barca defender Gerard Pique and his popstar wife Shakira helped the club negotiate the deal with Rakuten chief executive Hiroshi Mikitani.

"Gerard Pique and his wife Shakira are very close friends with Mr Mikitani," Bartomeu said.

"It was in the summer of 2015, Gerard organised a dinner in San Francisco during our summer tour.

"At that dinner we met Mr Mikitani, who was, for us, an incredible person.

"We talked about the future, about his interest in FC Barcelona and we started at that moment conversations and Gerard Pique helped us a lot to meet Mr Mikitani, so we are very grateful to him."