Futbol Club Barcelona (
Catalan pronunciation: [fubˈbɔɫ ˈkɫub bərsəˈɫonə] (
listen)), also known as
Barcelona and familiarly as
Barça,
[note 1] is a professional
football club, based in
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Catalan footballers led by
Joan Gamper, the club has become a symbol of Catalan culture and
Catalanism, hence the motto
"Més que un club" (More than a club). Unlike many other football clubs, the
supporters own and operate Barcelona. It is the
second most valuable sports team in the world, worth $3.2 billion, and the
world's fourth richest football club in terms of revenue, with an annual turnover of €484.6 million.
[2][3] The official Barcelona anthem is the "
Cant del Barça", written by Jaume Picas and
Josep Maria Espinàs.
[4]
Domestically, Barcelona
has won 23
La Liga, 27
Copa del Rey, 11
Supercopa de España, 3
Copa Eva Duarte and 2
Copa de la Liga trophies, as well as being the record holder for the latter four competitions. In
international club football, Barcelona has won five
UEFA Champions League titles, a record four
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, a shared record five
UEFA Super Cup, a record three
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and a shared record two
FIFA Club World Cup trophies. Barcelona was ranked first in the
IFFHS Club World Ranking for 1997, 2009, 2011 and 2012
[6] and occupies the second position on the
UEFA club rankings.
[7] The club has a long-standing rivalry with
Real Madrid; matches between the two teams are referred to as
El Clásico.
Barcelona is one of the most supported teams in the world, and has
the largest social media following in the world among sports teams.
[8][9][10] Barcelona's players have won a record number of
Ballon d'Or awards (10), as well as a record number of
FIFA World Player of the Year awards (7). In 2010, the club created history when three players who came through its youth academy (
Messi,
Iniesta and
Xavi) were chosen as the three best players in the world in the
FIFA Ballon d'Or awards, an unprecedented feat for players from the same football school.
Barcelona is one of three founding members of the Primera División that have
never been relegated from the top division, along with
Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid. In 2009, Barcelona became the first Spanish club to win the
continental treble consisting of
La Liga,
Copa del Rey, and the
UEFA Champions League, and also became the first football club to win six out of six competitions in a single year, completing
the sextuple in also winning the
Spanish Super Cup,
UEFA Super Cup and
FIFA Club World Cup.
[11]
In 2011, the club became European champions again and won five
trophies. This Barcelona team, which reached a record six consecutive
Champions League semi-finals and won 14 trophies in just four years
under
Pep Guardiola, is considered by some in the sport to be the greatest team of all time.
[12][13][14] In June 2015, Barcelona became the first European club in history to achieve the continental treble twice.
History
Beginnings of FC Barcelona (1899–1922)
Gamper's advertisement in
Los Deportes
English translation : "SPORT NOTE. Our friend and partner, Mr.
Kans Kamper, from the Foot-Vall Section of the 'Sociedad Los Deportes'
and former Swiss champion, wishing to organize some matches in
Barcelona, requests that everyone who likes this sport contact him, come
to this office Tuesday and Friday nights from 9 to 11."
[15]
On 22 October 1899,
Hans Gamper placed an advertisement in
Los Deportes
declaring his wish to form a football club; a positive response
resulted in a meeting at the Gimnasio Solé on 29 November. Eleven
players attended—
Walter Wild (the first director of the club), Lluís d'Ossó,
Bartomeu Terradas,
Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep
Llobet, John Parsons, and William Parsons—and Foot-Ball Club Barcelona
was born.
[15]
A formation of FC Barcelona in 1903
FC Barcelona had a successful start in regional and national cups, competing in the
Campionat de Catalunya and the
Copa del Rey. In 1902, the club won its first trophy, the
Copa Macaya, and participated in the first Copa del Rey, losing 1–2 to
Bizcaya in the final.
Kamper—now known as Joan Gamper—became club president in 1908, finding
the club in financial difficulty after not winning a competition since
the Campionat de Catalunya in 1905. Club president on five separate
occasions between 1908 and 1925, he spent 25 years in total at the helm.
One of his main achievements was ensuring Barça acquire its own stadium
and thus generate a stable income.
[17]
On 14 March 1909 the team moved into the
Camp de la Indústria,
a stadium with a capacity of 8,000. To celebrate their new
surroundings, the club conducted a logo contest the following year.
Carles Comamala won the contest, and his suggestion became the crest that the club still wears - with some minor changes - as of 2012.
[18]
With the new stadium, Barcelona participated in the inaugural version of the
Pyrenees Cup, which, at the time, consisted of the best teams of
Languedoc,
Midi and
Aquitaine (Southern France), the
Basque Country and Catalonia; all were former members of the
Marca Hispanica region. The contest was the most prestigious in that era.
[19]
From the inaugural year in 1910 to 1913, Barcelona won the competition
four consecutive times. Carles Comamala played an integral part of the
four-time champion, managing the side along with Amechazurra and
Jack Greenwell. The latter became the club's first full-time coach in 1917.
[20] The last edition was held in 1914 in the city of Barcelona, which local rivals
Espanyol won.
[21]
During the same period, the club changed its official language from
Castilian to
Catalan
and gradually evolved into an important symbol of Catalan identity. For
many fans, participating in the club had less to do with the game
itself and more with being a part of the club's collective identity.
[22] On 4 February 1917, the club held its first
testimonial match to honour
Ramón Torralba, who played from 1913 to 1928. The match was against local side Terrassa: Barcelona won 6–2.
[23]
Gamper simultaneously launched a campaign to recruit more club
members, and by 1922, the club had more than 20,000, who helped finance a
new stadium. The club then moved to the new
Les Cortes, which they inaugurated the same year.
[24] Les Cortes had an initial capacity of 30,000, and in the 1940s it was expanded to 60,000.
[25]
Gamper recruited
Jack Greenwell
as the first full-time manager in Barcelona's history. After this
hiring, the club's fortunes began to improve on the field. During the
Gamper-led era, Barcelona won eleven
Campionats de Catalunya, six
Copa del Rey and four
Pyrenees Cups and enjoyed its first "golden age".
[17]
Rivera, Republic and Civil War (1923–1957)
The aerial bombardment of Barcelona in 1938
On 14 June 1925, in a spontaneous reaction against
Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, the crowd in the stadium jeered the
Royal March. As a reprisal, the ground was closed for six months and Gamper was forced to relinquish the presidency of the club.
[26]
This coincided with the transition to professional football, and, in
1926, the directors of Barcelona publicly claimed, for the first time,
to operate a professional football club.
[24] On 3 July 1927, the club held a second testimonial match for
Paulino Alcántara, against the
Spanish national team. To kick off the match, local journalist and pilot Josep Canudas dropped the ball onto the pitch from his airplane.
[23] In 1928, victory in the
Spanish Cup was celebrated with a poem titled "Oda a
Platko", which was written by a member of the
Generation of '27,
Rafael Alberti, inspired by the heroic performance of the Barcelona
goalkeeper, Franz Platko.
[27]
Two years after the victory, on 30 July 1930, Gamper committed suicide
after a period of depression brought on by personal and financial
problems.
[17]
Although they continued to have players of the standing of
Josep Escolà,
the club now entered a period of decline, in which political conflict
overshadowed sports throughout society. Attendance at matches dropped as
the citizens of Barcelona were occupied with discussing political
matters.
[28] Although the team won the
Campionat de Catalunya in 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936 and 1938, success at a national level (with the exception of the
1937 disputed title) evaded them.
A month after the
Spanish Civil War
began in 1936, several players from Barcelona enlisted in the ranks of
those who fought against the military uprising, along with players from
Athletic Bilbao.
[29] On 6 August,
Falangist soldiers near
Guadarrama murdered club president
Josep Sunyol, a representative of the pro-independence political party.
[30] He was dubbed the martyr of
barcelonisme, and his murder was a defining moment in the history of FC Barcelona and Catalan identity.
[31] In the summer of 1937, the squad was on tour in Mexico and the United States, where it was received as an ambassador of the
Second Spanish Republic. The tour led to the financial security of the club, but also resulted in half of the team seeking
asylum in Mexico and France, making it harder for the remaining team to contest for trophies.
[32][33]
On 16 March 1938, Barcelona came under aerial bombardment from the
Italian Air Force, causing more than 3,000 deaths, with one of the bombs hitting the club's offices.
[34][35] A few months later, Catalonia came under occupation and as a symbol of the "undisciplined"
Catalanism,
the club, now down to just 3,486 members, faced a number of
restrictions. All signs of regional nationalism, including language,
flag and other signs of separatism were banned throughout Spain. The
Catalan flag was banned and the club were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures forced the club to change its name to
Club de Fútbol Barcelona and to remove the Catalan flag from its crest.
[36]
In 1943, Barcelona faced rivals Real Madrid in the semi-finals of
Copa del Generalísimo (now the Copa del Rey). The first match at
Les Corts was won by Barcelona 3–0. Real Madrid comfortably won the second leg, beating Barcelona 11–1.
[37] According to football writer
Sid Lowe,
"There have been relatively few mentions of the game [since] and it is
not a result that has been particularly celebrated in Madrid. Indeed,
the 11–1 occupies a far more prominent place in Barcelona's history."
[38]
It has been alleged by local journalist Paco Aguilar that Barcelona's
players were threatened by police in the changing room, though nothing
was ever proven.
[39]
Despite the difficult political situation,
CF Barcelona enjoyed considerable success during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1945, with
Josep Samitier as coach and players like
César,
Ramallets and
Velasco, they won La Liga for the first time since 1929. They added two more titles in 1948 and 1949.
[40] In 1949, they also won the first
Copa Latina.
[41] In June 1950, Barcelona signed
László Kubala, who was to be an important figure at the club.
[42]
On a rainy Sunday of 1951, the crowd left Les Corts stadium after a 2–1 win against
Santander by foot, refusing to catch any trams, and surprising the
Francoist authorities. The reason was simple: at the same time, a tram strike was taking place in
Barcelona, receiving the support of
blaugrana fans. Events like this made CF Barcelona represent much more than just
Catalonia and many progressive
Spaniards saw the club as a staunch defender of
rights and
freedoms.
[43][44]
Coach
Ferdinand Daučík and
László Kubala led the team to five different trophies including La Liga, the Copa del Generalísimo, the
Copa Latina, the
Copa Eva Duarte, and the Copa Martini Rossi in 1952. In 1953, the club won La Liga and the Copa del Generalísimo again.
[25]
Club de Fútbol Barcelona (1957–1978)
With
Helenio Herrera as coach, a young
Luis Suárez, the
European Footballer of the Year in 1960, and two influential
Hungarians recommended by Kubala,
Sándor Kocsis and
Zoltán Czibor, the team won another national double in 1959 and a
La Liga and Fairs Cup double in 1960. In 1961, they became the first club to beat Real Madrid in a
European Cup play-off. However, they lost 2–3 to
Benfica in the final.
[45][46]
The 1960s were less successful for the club, with
Real Madrid monopolising La Liga. The completion of the
Camp Nou, finished in 1957, meant the club had little money to spend on new players.
[46] The 1960s saw the emergence of
Josep Maria Fusté and
Carles Rexach,
and the club won the Copa del Generalísimo in 1963 and the Fairs Cup in
1966. Barcelona restored some pride by beating Real Madrid 1–0 in the
1968 Copa del Generalísimo final at the
Bernabéu in front of
Franco, with coach
Salvador Artigas, a former
republican pilot in the civil war. With the end of Franco's dictatorship in 1974, the club changed its official name back to
Futbol Club Barcelona and reverted the crest to its original design, including the original letters once again.
[47][48]
The 1973–74 season saw the arrival of
Johan Cruyff, who was bought for a world record £920,000 from
Ajax.
[49]
Already an established player with Ajax, Cruyff quickly won over the
Barcelona fans when he told the European press that he chose Barcelona
over Real Madrid because he could not play for a club associated with
Francisco Franco. He further endeared himself when he named his son
Jordi, after the local Catalan
Saint George.
[50] Next to champions like
Juan Manuel Asensi,
Carles Rexach and
Hugo Sotil, he helped the club win the
1973–74 season for the first time since 1960, defeating Real Madrid 5–0 at the
Bernabéu along the way. He was crowned
European Footballer of the Year
in 1973 during his first season with Barcelona (his second Ballon d'Or
win; he won his first while playing for Ajax in 1971). Cruyff received
this prestigious award a third time (the first player to do so) in 1974,
while he was still with Barcelona.
[51]
Núñez and the stabilisation years (1978–2000)
In 1978,
Josep Lluís Núñez
became the first elected president of FC Barcelona, and, since then,
the members of Barcelona have elected the club president. The process of
electing a president of FC Barcelona was closely tied to Spain's
transition to democracy in 1974 and the end of Franco's dictatorship.
The new president's main objective was to develop Barcelona into a
world-class club by giving it stability both on and off the pitch. His
presidency was to last for 22 years, and it deeply affected the image of
Barcelona, as Núñez held to a strict policy regarding wages and
discipline, letting go of such players as
Maradona,
Romário and
Ronaldo rather than meeting their demands.
[52][53]
On 16 May 1979, the club won its first
Cup Winners Cup by beating
Fortuna Düsseldorf 4–3 in
Basel
in a final watched by more than 30,000 travelling blaugrana fans. The
same year, Núñez began to invest in the club's youth program by
converting
La Masia
to a dormitory for young academy players from abroad. The name of the
dormitory would later become synonymous with the youth program of
Barcelona.
[54]
In June 1982, Diego Maradona was signed for a world record fee of £5 million from
Boca Juniors.
[55] In the following season, under coach
Luis, Barcelona won the
Copa del Rey, beating Real Madrid. However, Maradona's time with Barcelona was short-lived and he soon left for
Napoli. At the start of the
1984–85 season,
Terry Venables was hired as manager and he won La Liga with noteworthy displays by German midfielder
Bernd Schuster. The next season, he took the team to their second
European Cup final, only to lose on penalties to
Steaua Bucureşti during a dramatic evening in Seville.
[52]
Around this time, tensions began to arise between what was perceived
as president Núñez's dictatorial rule and the nationalistic support
group,
Boixos Nois.
The group, identified with a left-wing separatism, repeatedly demanded
the resignation of Núñez and openly defied him through chants and
banners at matches. At the same time, Barcelona experienced an eruption
in
skinheads,
who often identified with a right-wing separatism. The skinheads slowly
transferred the Boixos Nois' ideology from liberalism to fascism, which
caused division within the group and a sudden support for Núñez's
presidency.
[56] Inspired by British hooligans, the remaining Boixos Nois became violent, causing havoc leading to large-scale arrests.
[57]
After the
1986 FIFA World Cup, Barcelona signed the English top-scorer
Gary Lineker, along with goalkeeper
Andoni Zubizarreta,
but the team could not achieve success, as Schuster was excluded from
the team. Terry Venables was subsequently fired at the beginning of the
1987–88 season and replaced with
Luis Aragonés.
The season finished with the players rebelling against president Núñez,
in an event known as the Hesperia mutiny, and a 1–0 victory at the Copa
del Rey final against
Real Sociedad.
[52]
Dream Team
Johan Cruyff won four consecutive La Liga titles as manager of Barcelona
In 1988, Johan Cruyff returned to the club as manager and he assembled the so-called
Dream Team.
[58] He used a mix of Spanish players like
Pep Guardiola,
José Mari Bakero and
Txiki Begiristain while signing international players such as
Ronald Koeman,
Michael Laudrup,
Romário and
Hristo Stoichkov.
[59]
It was ten years after the inception of the youth program, La Masia,
when the young players began to graduate and play for their first team.
One of the first graduates, who would later earn international acclaim,
was previous Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.
[60] Under Cruyff's guidance, Barcelona won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. They beat
Sampdoria in both the 1989
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992
European Cup final at
Wembley, with a free kick goal from Dutch international Ronald Koeman. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the
European Super Cup in 1992 and three
Supercopa de España
trophies. With 11 trophies, Cruyff became the club's most successful
manager at that point. He also became the club's longest consecutive
serving manager, serving eight years.
[61] Cruyff's fortune was to change, and, in his final two seasons, he failed to win any trophies and fell out with president
Núñez, resulting in his departure.
[52]
On the legacy of Cruyff's football philosophy and the passing style of
play he introduced to the club, future coach of Barcelona Pep Guardiola
would state, "Cruyff built the cathedral, our job is to maintain and
renovate it."
[62]
Reacting to Cruyff's departure, an independent protest group was organised by Armand Caraben,
Joan Laporta and Alfons Godall.
[63] The objective of the group, called
L'Elefant Blau, was to oppose the presidency of Núñez, which they regarded as a corruption of the club's traditional values.
[63][64] Laporta would later take over the presidency of Barcelona in 2003.
[65]
Cruyff was briefly replaced by
Bobby Robson, who took charge of the club for a single season in 1996–97. He recruited
Ronaldo from his previous club,
PSV and delivered a
cup treble, winning the Copa del Rey,
UEFA Cup Winners Cup and the
Supercopa de España. Despite his success, Robson was only ever seen as a short-term solution, while the club waited for
Louis van Gaal to become available.
[66]
Like Maradona, Ronaldo only stayed a short time before he left for
Internazionale. However, new heroes emerged, such as
Luís Figo,
Patrick Kluivert,
Luis Enrique and
Rivaldo, and the team won a Copa del Rey and La Liga double in 1998. In 1999, the club celebrated its
centenari, winning the Primera División title, and Rivaldo became the fourth Barcelona player to be awarded
European Footballer of the Year.
Despite this domestic success, the failure to emulate Real Madrid in
the Champions League led to van Gaal and Núñez resigning in 2000.
[66]
Exit Núñez, enter Laporta (2000–2008)
Plaque commemorating the centenary of FC Barcelona (1899–1999)
Ronaldinho, 2005 Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year winner
The departures of Núñez and van Gaal were hardly noticed by the fans
when compared to that of Luís Figo, then club vice-captain. Figo had
become a cult hero, and was considered by Catalans to be one of their
own. However, Barcelona fans were distraught by Figo's decision to join
arch-rivals Real Madrid, and, during subsequent visits to the
Camp Nou,
Figo was given an extremely hostile reception. Upon his first return, a
piglet's head and a full bottle of whiskey were thrown at him from the
crowd.
[67] The next three years saw the club in decline, and managers came and went. van Gaal was replaced by
Llorenç Serra Ferrer
who, despite an extensive investment in players in the summer of 2000,
presided over a mediocre league campaign and a humiliating first-round
Champions League exit, and was eventually dismissed late in the season.
Long-serving coach
Carles Rexach
was appointed as his replacement, initially on a temporary basis, and
managed to at least steer the club to the last Champions League spot on
the final day of the season. Despite better form in La Liga and a good
run to the semi-finals of the Champions League, Rexach was never viewed
as a long-term solution and that summer Louis van Gaal returned to the
club for a second spell as manager. What followed, despite another
decent Champions League performance, was one of the worst La Liga
campaigns in the club's history, with the team as low as 15th in
February 2003. This led to van Gaal's resignation and replacement for
the rest of the campaign by
Radomir Antić,
though a sixth-place finish was the best that he could manage. At the
end of the season, Antić's short-term contract was not renewed, and club
president
Joan Gaspart
resigned, his position having been made completely untenable by such a
disastrous season on top of the club's overall decline in fortunes since
he became president three years prior.
[68]
After the disappointment of the Gaspart era, the combination of a new young president,
Joan Laporta, and a young new manager, former
Dutch and
Milan star
Frank Rijkaard, saw the club bounce back. On the field, an influx of international players, including
Ronaldinho,
Deco,
Henrik Larsson,
Ludovic Giuly,
Samuel Eto'o, and
Rafael Márquez, combined with home grown Spanish players, such as
Carles Puyol,
Andrés Iniesta,
Xavi and
Víctor Valdés, led to the club's return to success. Barcelona won La Liga and the
Supercopa de España in 2004–05, and Ronaldinho and Eto'o were voted first and third, respectively, in the
FIFA World Player of the Year awards.
[69]
In the 2005–06 season, Barcelona repeated their league and Supercup
successes. The pinnacle of the league season arrived at the Santiago
Bernabéu Stadium in a 3–0 win over Real Madrid. It was Frank Rijkaard's
second victory at the Bernabéu, making him the first Barcelona manager
to win there twice. Ronaldinho's performance was so impressive that
after his second goal, which was Barcelona's third, some Real Madrid
fans gave him a standing ovation.
[70] In the Champions League, Barcelona beat the English club
Arsenal
2–1 in the final. Trailing 1–0 to a 10-man Arsenal and with less than
15 minutes remaining, they came back to win 2–1, with substitute Henrik
Larsson, in his final appearance for the club, setting up goals for
Samuel Eto'o and fellow substitute
Juliano Belletti, for the club's first European Cup victory in 14 years.
[71]
Despite being the favourites and starting strongly, Barcelona
finished the 2006–07 season without trophies. A pre-season US tour was
later blamed for a string of injuries to key players, including leading
scorer Eto'o and rising star
Lionel Messi. There was open feuding as Eto'o publicly criticized coach Frank Rijkaard and Ronaldinho.
[72] Ronaldinho also admitted that a lack of fitness affected his form.
[73]
In La Liga, Barcelona were in first place for much of the season, but
inconsistency in the New Year saw Real Madrid overtake them to become
champions. Barcelona advanced to the semi-finals of the
Copa del Rey, winning the first leg against
Getafe 5–2, with a goal from Messi bringing comparison to
Diego Maradona's goal of the century, but then lost the second leg 4–0. They took part in the
2006 FIFA Club World Cup, but were beaten by a late goal in the final against Brazilian side
Internacional.
[74] In the
Champions League, Barcelona were knocked out of the competition in the last 16 by eventual runners-up
Liverpool on
away goals.
Barcelona finished the
2007–08 season third in La Liga and reached the semi-finals of the
UEFA Champions League and
Copa del Rey, both times losing to the eventual champions,
Manchester United and
Valencia, respectively. The day after a 4–1 defeat to Real Madrid,
Joan Laporta announced that
Barcelona B coach Josep Guardiola would take over Frank Rijkaard's duties on 30 June 2008.
[75]
Guardiola era (2008–2012)
FC Barcelona B youth manager
Pep Guardiola took over Frank Rijkaard's duties at the conclusion of the season.
[75] Guardiola brought with him the now famous
tiki-taka
style of play he had been taught during his time in the Barcelona youth
teams. In the process Guardiola sold Ronaldinho and Deco, and started
building the Barcelona team around
Xavi,
Iniesta and Messi.
Barça beat
Athletic Bilbao 4–1 in the
2009 Copa del Rey Final,
winning the competition for a record-breaking 25th time. A historic 2–6
victory against Real Madrid followed three days later and ensured that
Barcelona became La Liga champions for the 2008–09 season. Barça
finished the season by beating the previous year's Champions League
winners
Manchester United 2–0 at the
Stadio Olimpico in Rome to win their third Champions League title and completed the first ever
treble won by a Spanish team.
[77][78][79] The team went on to win the
2009 Supercopa de España against Athletic Bilbao
[80] and the
2009 UEFA Super Cup against
Shakhtar Donetsk,
[81]
becoming the first European club to win both domestic and European
Super Cups following a treble. In December 2009, Barcelona won the
2009 FIFA Club World Cup,
[82] and became the first football club ever to accomplish
the sextuple.
[83]
Barcelona accomplished two new records in Spanish football in 2010 as
they retained the La Liga trophy with 99 points and won the Spanish
Super Cup trophy for a ninth time.
[84][85]
After Laporta's departure from the club in June 2010,
Sandro Rosell
was soon elected as the new president. The elections were held on 13
June, where he got 61.35% (57,088 votes, a record) of total votes.
[86] Rosell signed
David Villa from
Valencia for €40 million
[87] and
Javier Mascherano from
Liverpool for €19 million.
[88] In November 2010, Barcelona defeated their main rival, Real Madrid 5–0 in
El Clásico. In the
2010–11 season, Barcelona retained the La Liga trophy, their third title in succession, finishing with 96 points.
[89] In April 2011, the club reached the
Copa del Rey final, losing 1–0 to Real Madrid at the
Mestalla in Valencia.
[90] In May, Barcelona defeated Manchester United in the
2011 Champions League Final 3–1 held at
Wembley Stadium, a repeat of the 2009 final, winning their fourth European Cup.
[91] In August 2011, La Masia graduate
Cesc Fàbregas was bought from
Arsenal
and he would help Barcelona defend the Spanish Supercup against Real
Madrid. The Supercup victory brought the total number of official
trophies to 73, matching the number of titles won by Real Madrid.
[92]
Later the same month, Barcelona won the
UEFA Super Cup after defeating
Porto 2–0 thanks to goals from Lionel Messi and
Cesc Fàbregas.
This extended the club's overall number of official trophies to 74,
surpassing Real Madrid's total amount of official trophies.
[93]
The UEFA Super Cup victory also marked another impressive achievement
as Josep Guardiola won his 12th trophy out of 15 possible in only three
years at the helm of the club, becoming the all-time record holder of
most titles won as a coach at FC Barcelona.
[94]
In December, Barcelona won the
FIFA Club World Cup for a record second time since its establishment, by beating the Brazilian 2011
Copa Libertadores holders,
Santos, 4–0 in the final thanks to two goals from Lionel Messi and goals from Xavi and Fàbregas.
[95]
As a result, the overall trophy haul during the reign of Guardiola was
further extended and saw Barcelona win their 13th trophy out of 24
possible in four years, continuing their high-quality performance in
recent world football competitions.
[96][97]
In the 2011–12 season, Barcelona lost the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League against
Chelsea.
Right afterward, coach Pep Guardiola, who had been on a rolling
contract and had faced criticism over his recent tactics and squad
selections,
[98][99] announced that he would step down as manager on 30 June and be succeeded by assistant
Tito Vilanova.
[100][101] Guardiola finished his tenure with Barça winning the
Copa del Rey final 3–0, bringing the tally to 14 trophies that Barça had won under his coaching.
[102]
Recent history (2012–)
It was announced in summer of 2012 that
Tito Vilanova,
assistant manager at FC Barcelona, would take over from Pep Guardiola
as manager. Following his appointment, Barcelona went on an incredible
run that saw them hold the top spot on the league table for the entire
season, recording only two losses and amassing 100 points. Their top
scorer once again was Lionel Messi, who scored 46 goals in the League,
including two hat-tricks. On 11 May 2013 Barcelona were crowned as the
Spanish football champions for the 22nd time, still with four games left
to play. Ultimately Barcelona ended the season 15 points clear of
rivals Real Madrid, despite losing 2–1 to them at the beginning of
March.
[103] They reached the semifinal stage of both the
Copa del Rey and the
Champions League, going out to Real Madrid and
Bayern Munich
respectively. On 19 July, it was announced that Vilanova was resigning
as Barcelona manager because his throat cancer had returned, and he
would be receiving treatment for the second time after a three-month
medical leave in December 2012.
[104]
On 22 July 2013,
Gerardo 'Tata' Martino was confirmed as manager of FC Barcelona for the 2013–14 season.
[105] Barcelona's first official games under Martino were the home and away legs of the 2013
Spanish Supercup,
which Barça won 1–1 on away goals. On 23 January 2014, Sandro Rosell
resigned as president by the admissibility of the complaint for alleged
misappropriation following the transfer of
Neymar.
Josep Maria Bartomeu replaced him to finish the term in 2016.
In April 2014,
FIFA
banned the club from buying players for the next two transfer windows
following the violation of the FIFA's rules about the transfer of
footballers aged under 18.
[106]
A statement on FIFA's website read "With regard to the case in
question, FC Barcelona has been found to be in breach of art. 19 of the
Regulations in the case of ten minor players and to have committed
several other concurrent infringements in the context of other players,
including under Annexe 2 of the Regulations. The Disciplinary Committee
regarded the infringements as serious and decided to sanction the club
with a transfer ban at both national and international level for two
complete and consecutive transfer periods, together with a fine of
CHF
450,000. Additionally, the club was granted a period of 90 days in
which to regularise the situation of all minor players concerned."
[107] FIFA rejected an appeal in August but the pending appeal to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport allowed Barcelona to sign players during the summer of 2014.
[108]
Luis Suárez became the club's most expensive signing in 2014, paying between €81 to €94 million for the striker
On 17 May, in a game where they needed to defeat
Atlético Madrid (who had eliminated them from the
UEFA Champions League in the
quarterfinals earlier in the year) to be crowned champions of La Liga for the 23rd time, they drew after Atlético defender
Diego Godín headed in the equalizer in the 49th minute, giving Atlético the championship.
[109]
On 19 May 2014, it was announced that Luis Enrique would return to
Barcelona as head coach, after he agreed to a two-year deal. He was
recommended by sporting director
Andoni Zubizarreta, his former national teammate.
[110][111] Following Enrique's arrival, Barcelona broke their
transfer record when they paid
Liverpool F.C. between €81 to €94 million for striker
Luis Suárez,
[112][113] who was serving a four-month ban from all football-related activity imposed by the
FIFA Disciplinary Committee after
biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini during his appearance for Uruguay in a
World Cup group stage match.
[114][115][116]
In late December 2014, Barcelona's appeal to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport
was unsuccessful and the original transfer ban was reinstated, leaving
the club unable to utilise the 2015 winter and summer transfer windows.
[108] On 5 January 2015, Zubizareta was sacked by the board after 4 years as director of football.
[117]
On 12 February 2015, Barcelona announced the formation of a new
Football Area Technical Commission, made up of vice-president Jordi
Mestre, board member Javier Bordas,
Carles Rexach and Ariedo Braida.
[118]
Barcelona won the
treble
in the 2014–2015 season, winning La Liga, Copa del Rey and UEFA
Champions League titles, and became the first European team to have won
the treble twice.
[119] On 17 May the club clinched their 23rd La Liga title after defeating
Atlético Madrid.
[120] This was Barcelona's seventh La Liga title in the last ten years.
[121] On 30 May, the club defeated
Athletic Bilbao in the
Copa del Rey final at
Camp Nou.
[122] On 6 June, Barcelona won the
UEFA Champions League final with a 3–1 win against
Juventus, which completed
the treble, the club's second in 6 years.
[123]
Barcelona's attacking trio of Messi, Suárez and Neymar, dubbed MSN,
ended with 122 goals, the most in a season for an attacking trio in
Spanish football history.
[124]
Support
The nickname
culé for a Barcelona supporter is derived from the Catalan
cul (English: arse), as the spectators at the first stadium,
Camp de la Indústria, sat with their
culs
over the stand. In Spain, about 25% of the population is said to be
Barça sympathisers, second behind Real Madrid, supported by 32% of the
population.
[125] Throughout Europe, Barcelona is the favourite second-choice club.
[126] The club's membership figures have seen a significant increase from 100,000 in the 2003–04 season to 170,000 in September 2009,
[127] the sharp rise being attributed to the influence of Ronaldinho and then-president
Joan Laporta's media strategy that focused on Spanish and English online media.
[128][129]
In addition to membership, as of 2010 there are 1,335 officially registered fan clubs, called
penyes, around the world. The fan clubs promote Barcelona in their locality and receive beneficial offers when visiting Barcelona.
[130]
Among the best supported teams globally, Barcelona has the highest
social media following in the world among all sports teams, with over 82
million Facebook fans as of February 2015.
[9][131][132] The club has had many prominent people among its supporters, including Pope
John Paul II, who was an honorary member, and former prime minister of Spain
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
[133][134] FC Barcelona has the second highest
average attendance of European football clubs only behind
Borussia Dortmund.
[135][136]
Club rivalries
El Clásico
There is often a fierce rivalry between the two strongest teams in a
national league, and this is particularly the case in La Liga, where the
game between Barça and
Real Madrid is known as
El Clásico. From the start of national competitions the clubs were seen as representatives of two rival regions in Spain:
Catalonia and
Castile, as well as of the two cities. The rivalry reflects what many regard as the political and cultural tensions felt between
Catalans and the
Castilians, seen by one author as a re-enactment of the
Spanish Civil War.
[137]
During the dictatorships of
Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923-1930) and especially of
Francisco Franco (1939–1975), all regional cultures were suppressed. All of the languages spoken in Spanish territory, except Spanish (
Castilian) itself, were officially banned.
[138][139] Symbolising the Catalan people's desire for freedom, Barça became 'More than a club' (
Més que un club) for the Catalans. According to
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán,
the best way for the Catalans to demonstrate their identity was by
joining Barça. It was less risky than joining a clandestine anti-Franco
movement, and allowed them to express their dissidence.
[140] During Franco's regime, however, the
blaugrana team was granted profit due to its good relationship with the dictator at management level, even giving two awards to him.
[141]
On the other hand, Real Madrid was widely seen as the embodiment of the sovereign oppressive
centralism and the fascist regime at management level and beyond:
Santiago Bernabeu, the former club president for whom
their stadium is named, fought on the
Nationalist side during the
Spanish Civil War.
[142][143] However, during the Spanish Civil War, members of both clubs such as
Josep Sunyol and
Rafael Sánchez Guerra suffered at the hands of Franco supporters.
During the 1950s the rivalry was exacerbated further when there was a
controversy surrounding the transfer of
Alfredo di Stéfano, who finally played for Real Madrid and was key to their subsequent success.
[144]
The 1960s saw the rivalry reach the European stage when they met twice
in a controversial knock-out round of the European Cup, with Madrid
receiving unfavourable treatment from the referee.
[146]
In 2002, the European encounter between the clubs was dubbed the "Match
of The Century" by Spanish media, and Madrid's win was watched by more
than 500 million people.
[147]
El derbi Barceloní
Barça's local rival has always been
Espanyol.
Blanc-i-blaus,
being one of the clubs granted royal patronage, was founded exclusively
by Spanish football fans, unlike the multinational nature of Barça's
primary board. The founding message of the club was clearly
anti-Barcelona, and they disapprovingly saw FC Barcelona as a team of
foreigners.
[148] The rivalry was strengthened by what Catalonians saw as a provocative representative of Madrid.
[149] Their original ground was in the affluent district of
Sarrià.
[150][151]
Traditionally, Espanyol was seen by the vast majority of Barcelona's
citizens as a club which cultivated a kind of compliance to the central
authority, in stark contrast to Barça's revolutionary spirit.
[152]
Also in the 1960s and 1970s, while FC Barcelona acted as an integrating
force for Catalonia's new arrivals from poorer regions of Spain
expecting to find a better life, Espanyol drew their support mainly from
sectors close to the
regime such as policemen, military officers, civil servants and career fascists.
[153]
In 1918 Espanyol started a counter-petition against autonomy, which at that time had become a pertinent issue.
[148]
Later on, an Espanyol supporter group would join the Falangists in the
Spanish Civil War, siding with the fascists. Despite these differences
in ideology, the
derbi has always been more relevant to Espanyol
supporters than Barcelona ones due to the difference in objectives. In
recent years the rivalry has become less political, as Espanyol
translated its official name and anthem from Spanish to Catalan.
[148]
Though it is the most played local derby in the history of La Liga,
it is also the most unbalanced, with Barcelona overwhelmingly
dominant.
In the league table, Espanyol has only managed to end above Barça on
three occasions in almost 70 years and the only all-Catalan Copa del Rey
final was won by Barça
in 1957.
Espanyol has the consolation of achieving the largest margin win with a
6–0 in 1951, while Barcelona's biggest win was 5-0 on five occasions
(in 1933, 1947, 1964, 1975 and 1992). Espanyol achieved a 2–1 win
against Barça during the 2008–09 season, becoming the first team to
defeat Barcelona at Camp Nou in their treble-winning
season.
[154]
Finances and ownership
In 2010,
Forbes
evaluated Barcelona's worth to be around €752 million (USD $1 billion),
ranking them fourth after Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Arsenal,
based on figures from the 2008–09 season.
[155][156] According to
Deloitte,
Barcelona had a recorded revenue of €366 million in the same period,
ranking second to Real Madrid, who generated €401 million in revenue.
[157] In 2013,
Forbes
magazine ranked Barcelona the third most valuable sports team in the
world, behind Real Madrid and Manchester United, with a value of $2.6
billion.
[158]
Along with Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, and
Osasuna, Barcelona is organised as a registered association. Unlike a
limited company, it is not possible to purchase shares in the club, but only membership.
[159] The members of Barcelona, called
socis, form an assembly of delegates which is the highest governing body of the club.
[160] As of 2010 the club has 170,000
socis.
[127]
An audit by Deloitte in July 2010 showed that Barcelona had a net debt of €442 million, 58% of net worth as evaluated by
Forbes. The new management of Barcelona, which had ordered the audit, cited "structural problems" as the cause of the debt.
[161]
News had emerged that the club had recorded a loss of approximately €79
million over the course of the year, despite having defended their La
Liga title.
[162]
For 2011, Barcelona's gross debt stands at around €483m and the net debt is at €364m.
[163]
Barcelona was found to have the highest average salary per player of
all professional sports teams in the world, just ahead of rival Real
Madrid.
[164]
Records
Xavi holds the record for most games played for Barcelona
Xavi Hernández
presently holds the team record for most number of total games played
(767) and the record number of La Liga appearances (505), surpassing the
previous record holder
Migueli (391).
[166]
FC Barcelona's all-time highest goalscorer in all competitions (including friendlies) is
Lionel Messi with 445 goals.
[166][167]
Messi is also the all-time highest goalscorer for Barcelona in all
official competitions, excluding friendlies, with 416 goals. He is the
record goalscorer for Barcelona in European (77 goals) and international
club competitions (84 goals),
[168] and the record league scorer with 287 goals in La Liga.
Four people have managed to score over 100 league goals at Barcelona: Lionel Messi (287),
César Rodríguez (192),
László Kubala (131) and
Samuel Eto'o (108).
On 2 February 2009, Barcelona reached a total of 5,000 La Liga goals. The goal was converted by Lionel Messi in a game against
Racing Santander, which Barça won 2–1.
[169] On 18 December 2009 Barcelona beat
Estudiantes 2–1 to win their sixth title in a year and became the first ever football team to complete the sextuple.
[170]
Barcelona's highest home attendance was 120,000, for a European Cup quarter-final against
Juventus on 3 March 1986.
[171] The modernisation of Camp Nou during the 1990s and the introduction of
all-seater stands means the record will not be broken for the foreseeable future as the current capacity of the stadium is 99,354.
[172]
Crest and shirt
The first crest worn by Barcelona
Since its foundation the club has played with a crest. The club's
original crest was a quartered diamond-shaped crest topped by the
Crown of Aragon and the
bat of King James, and surrounded by two branches, one of a laurel tree and the other a palm.
[18] In 1910 the club held a competition among its members to design a new crest. The winner was
Carles Comamala,
who at the time played for the club. Comamala's suggestion became the
crest that the club wears today, with some minor variations. The crest
consists of the
St George Cross in the upper-left corner with the Catalan flag beside it, and the team colours at the bottom.
[18]
The blue and red colours of the shirt were first worn in a match against
Hispania in 1900.
[173]
Several competing theories have been put forth for the blue and red
design of the Barcelona shirt. The son of the first president,
Arthur Witty, claimed it was the idea of his father as the colours were the same as the
Merchant Taylor's School team. Another explanation, according to author Toni Strubell, is that the colours are from Robespierre's
First Republic. In Catalonia the common perception is that the colours were chosen by Joan Gamper and are those of his home team,
FC Basel.
[174]
The club's most frequently used change colours have been yellow and
orange. An away kit featuring the red and yellow stripes of the
flag of Catalonia has also been used.
Prior to the 2011–2012 season, Barcelona had a long history of
avoiding corporate sponsorship on the playing shirts. On 14 July 2006,
the club announced a five-year agreement with
UNICEF,
which includes having the UNICEF logo on their shirts. The agreement
had the club donate €1.5 million per year to UNICEF (0.7 percent of its
ordinary income, equal to the UN International Aid Target,
cf. ODA) via the FC Barcelona Foundation.
[175]
The FC Barcelona Foundation is an entity set up in 1994 on the
suggestion of then-chairman of the Economical-Statutory Committee, Jaime
Gil-Aluja. The idea was to set up a foundation that could attract
financial sponsorships to support a non-profit sport company.
[176] In 2004, a company could become one of 25 "Honorary members" by contributing between £40,000–60,000 (£54,800–82,300)
[177] per year. There are also 48 associate memberships available for an annual fee of £14,000 (£19,200)
[177] and an unlimited number of "patronages" for the cost of £4,000 per year (£5,500).
[177]
It is unclear whether the honorary members have any formal say in club
policy, but according to the author Anthony King, it is "unlikely that
Honorary Membership would not involve at least some informal influence
over the club".
[178]
Barcelona ended their refusal of corporate sponsorship prior to the
commencement of the 2011–12 season, signing a five-year €150m deal with
Qatar Sports Investments, that meant the
Qatar Foundation[179] was on the club's shirt for the 11/12 and 12/13 seasons, then replaced by
Qatar Airways
for the 13/14 season, the deal allowing for a commercial sponsor logo
to replace the charity logo, two years into the six-year deal.
[180]
Stadiums
An elevated view of a full Camp Nou
Barcelona initially played in the
Camp de la Indústria. The capacity was about 6,000, and club officials deemed the facilities inadequate for a club with growing membership.
[181]
In 1922, the number of supporters had surpassed 20,000 and by lending money to the club, Barça was able to build the larger
Camp de Les Corts,
which had an initial capacity of 20,000 spectators. After the Spanish
Civil War the club started attracting more members and a larger number
of spectators at matches. This led to several expansion projects: the
grandstand in 1944, the southern stand in 1946, and finally the northern
stand in 1950. After the last expansion, Les Corts could hold 60,000
spectators.
[182]
After the construction was complete there was no further room for
expansion at Les Corts. Back-to-back La Liga titles in 1948 and 1949 and
the signing of
László Kubala in June 1950, who would later go on to score 196 goals in 256 matches, drew larger crowds to the games.
[182][183][184] The club began to make plans for a new stadium.
[182]
The building of Camp Nou commenced on 28 March 1954, before a crowd of
60,000 Barça fans. The first stone of the future stadium was laid in
place under the auspices of Governor Felipe Acedo Colunga and with the
blessing of Archbishop of Barcelona Gregorio Modrego. Construction took
three years and ended on 24 September 1957 with a final cost of 288
million
pesetas, 336% over budget.
[182]
One of the stands displaying Barcelona's motto, "Més que un club", meaning 'More than a club'
In 1980, when the stadium was in need of redesign to meet UEFA
criteria, the club raised money by offering supporters the opportunity
to inscribe their name on the bricks for a small fee. The idea was
popular with supporters, and thousands of people paid the fee. Later
this became the centre of controversy when media in Madrid picked up
reports that one of the stones was inscribed with the name of long-time
Real Madrid chairman and
Franco supporter
Santiago Bernabéu.
[185][186][187] In preparation for the
1992 Summer Olympics two tiers of seating were installed above the previous roofline.
[188] It has a current capacity of 99,354 making it
the largest stadium in Europe.
[1]
There are also other facilities, which include:
[189]
- Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper (FC Barcelona's training ground)
- Masia-Centre de Formació Oriol Tort (Residence of young players)
- Mini Estadi (Home of the reserve team)
- Palau Blaugrana (FC Barcelona indoor sports arena)
- Palau Blaugrana 2 (Secondary indoor arena of FC Barcelona)
- Pista de Gel (FC Barcelona ice rink)
