It does sound too good to be true. What do the Qataris get in return? Just for using our brand name?
Atletico Madrid has a franchise in Canada, so does OL in the NWSL I think. Great idea to have a franchise team in another country, but the 100m per year figure does sound ridiculous.
It would go far behind just franchise rights. Would include exchange of talent (young players going to play for that side, for better or worse) coaches, traning camps, friendlies, first team player appearances, media events and whatever other added value.
They basically ripped off Barcelona for free with Aspire, so why not get paid for it? But it won't be a free lunch, that's for sure.
Said it before, but talking is easily than reality, but it would have been better to deal with the Saudi than the Qatari's.
And also, Laporta was always inclined to the franchise model, he just wasn't rich enough and Barcelona is the wrong club for it being socio owned and not Oil owned. Barcleona Miami project was well ahead of it's time, and everything the City Group has achieved is what Barcelona's Laporta led team wanted to achieve with a far better brand (stuck in an admittedly worst country and league).