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FC Barcelona

Full name

Futbol Club Barcelona

Nickname(s)

Barça

Founded

1899

Ground

Camp Nou,
Barcelona, Catalonia,
Spain

Capacity

98,600

Chairman

Spanish

Joan Laporta

Manager

Dutch

Frank Rijkaard

League

First Division

2004-05

First Division, 1st

Team colours	Team colours	Team colours
Team colours
Team colours

Home colours

Team colours	Team colours	Team colours
Team colours
Team colours

Away colours

FC Barcelona, also known as Barça, is a sports club in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain with sections in many different sports. Founded in 1899 by a group of twelve, led by Joan Gamper, its motto is "El Barça és més que un club" (Catalan for Barça is more than a club). Its main stadium is the Nou Estadi del Futbol Club Barcelona, popularly known as the Camp Nou, in Barcelona.

FC Barcelona and long-standing rival Real Madrid remain the most representative teams of Spain. FC Barcelona fans are also called culés.

Have to see

1 History
2 Football
3 Handball
4 FC Barcelona Basketball Section
- 4.1 History
- 4.2 Trophies
5 Current Squad Basketball 2005/06
6 Famous Basketball Coaches
7 Famous Basketball Players
8 Trivia
- 8.1 Sponsorship
- 8.2 Culés
9 External links

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History

Early Years

Joan Gamper, founder of FC Barcelona

FC Barcelona was founded by Swiss businessman Hans Gamper, who embraced Catalan nationalism so fervently that he changed his name to Joan Gamper. Gamper changed the club's original name to the current Catalan version. Everything started when he decided to put a message in a local newspaper asking for players to join him in a relatively unknown sport called football. Eleven players attended this meeting: Gualteri Wild, Lluís d'Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John Parsons, and William Parsons. The club's international nature has been a quality since the first days of its existence, as shown by still holding the original semi-anglicized version of its name Futbol Club Barcelona, instead of the formal Spanish version Club de Futbol Barcelona.

The team did not have to wait much time for their first trophy, as in 1901 they won the Copa Macaya, later known as the Campionat de Catalunya (Championship of Catalonia). Until 1909 the team played in different stadiums, none of them owned by the club. On March 14 of that year, the 6,000 seat stadium of Carrer Industria (Industry Street) opened its door. It was the first field owned by FC Barcelona. During these years the club grew, amassing trophies and a popular following.

The Golden Years

Legendary players like Alcantara, Zamora, and Samitier boosted the club's success with brilliant playing style, bringing the team to a Golden Age of expansion. By 1922, the club opened the doors of its stadium of Les Corts, which had an initial capacity of 30,000, later expanded to an impressive 60,000. Besides dominating Spanish and Catalan championships, they won the first ion of the Spanish League in 1929.

Crisis and the Civil War

The ongoing crisis, started in the late 1920s during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, only got worse after the start of the Spanish Civil War. The political problems of the country affected the club, eventually leading to the assassination of President Josep Suñol by soldiers of the Franco's side and the bombing of the club's headquarters. After these events, the club was forced to change its name to Club de Futbol Barcelona, remove the catalan portion of the flag, and a president friendly to Franco's regime was appointed.

The rivalry with Real Madrid was initiated by the political climate during Franco's regime. As the Catalan flag and language were banned, FC Barcelona became the sole outlet of Catalan nationalism. Barcelona started performing better in the 1950s. The club was set back through the government's intervention over their purchase of Alfredo Di Stefano. The club's board of directors resigned in protest of a farcical arrangement, where Barcelona and their rivals Real Madrid were meant to "share" the player. This had arisen because the two clubs both believed they had signed Di Stefano, but from different clubs, one which owned his contract, the other where he was on loan. This agreement deteriorated to Real having sole use of the player - something viewed widely as government favouritism to Real.

Kubala

By the second half of the 1940s the club began to recover from its problems, which almost led the club to disband. Players like Cesar, Ramallets, and Velasco won the First Division fifteen years after the first and only time. With political issues calming down, the style of football played, and titles being brought, financial problems started to fade as more people became members. In 1950 arrived one of the most important players for FC Barcelona, Ladislao Kubala. During the first years after his arrival the team won almost every competition they played in, and its forwards, Cesar, Basora, and Kubala himself are still remembered.

Camp Nou

In 1957, the Camp Nou opened its doors to the public. It had a capacity for up to 90,000 spectators, already making it one of the biggest stadiums in the world. Unfortunately, a few years after the inauguration, titles became scarce, as they only won three official titles during the 1960s. But even then the club did not stop growing, gaining social and economic power every year.

Unlike the decade of the 50s, when Real Madrid bought Argentinian player Alfredo Di Stefano from FC Barcelona, Dutch legend Johan Cruyff signed a contract with the club in 1973. His electric style of play, fast and smart, could not appeal more to the fans. Even the record amount of £922,300 paid by FC Barcelona for him seemed nothing after defeating Real Madrid 5-0 in their own stadium and winning the league. By the following year the club had 70,000 members, making it one of the most powerful in the world.

The second golden age (1988a href="1996.html" title="1996">1996)

Josep Luis Nuñez became president of FC Barcelona in 1978, leading the club into an unprecedented period of social and economic growth. Dozens of titles were won by all teams, and other sections seen as less important than the football team started to receive more attention. During 1990a href="1994.html" title="1994">1994, Johan Cruyff's Dream Team won four consecutive Leagues and for a first time the Champions League (1992) among other trophies.

Late 1990s with satisfactory results

Bobby Robson took charge of the club for a single season in 96-97, he recruited Ronaldo from PSV Eindhoven (his previous club) and delivered a Cup Winners' Cup and Spanish Kings cup. Interestingly he also brought the famous Portuguese manager José Mourinho to the club. José Mourinho at that time helped Robson at training tasks and he was responsible for translating Robson's press conferences to journalists.

Robson's time was short lived as the club had already made an agreement with notorious Dutch manager Louis van Gaal. Despite the loss of Ronaldo to Internazionale of Milan Rivaldo joined the team and Barcelona twice won the Spanish League title. Despite their great results at domestically, Barcelona failed to win the Champions League. Due to heavy fan criticism after three seasons in 2000, van Gaal resigned.

Years of turmoil

Joan Gaspart was elected as the successor of Josep Lluis Nuñez in 2000. It was not an easy task considering his achievements and a lot of pressure was put on the new board of directors. Still, Joan Gaspart's perceived bad management led the club to a financial crisis. Poor judgement when using the club's funds, the absence of any important victory, and underperforming players made the social pressure unbearable, forcing him to resign in 2003. A temporary commission took over until current president Joan Laporta was elected in the same year.

Revival

Joan Laporta proved to be a better choice for FC Barcelona. With his arrival, and that of football superstar Ronaldinho and former Dutch international Frank Rijkaard as manager (who was actually Laporta's third choice, Ronald Koeman of Ajax being his first and Guus Hiddink now of PSV Eindhoven his second) amongst others, the new style of management has restored success to the club. Massive inherited debts have been reduced, and only two players remain from the original team that did not win a major title in five years. In 2003/2004 Barcelona made a spectacular return to form, finishing second after being near the bottom of the table for much of the season. It was only because the revival started too late that Barcelona didn't claim the title that season. During 2004/2005, Barcelona moved atop La Liga by mid-season, and preserved a healthy lead over its arch-rival Real Madrid, culminating in its 17th Spanish La Liga title on May 14th, 2005 and its 6th Spanish Supercup title on August 20th, 2005. Despite their exit from the Champions League at the hands of Chelsea, supporters and players alike are starting to believe that a third golden age is beginning.

Football

History

Although Barcelona has outstanding teams in different sports, the most famous and well-known section is its football team, which competes in the first division of the Spanish Football League. Except for the Intercontinental Cup, it has won all known trophies, being one of only four clubs to have won all three major European trophies. It is the only team in Europe to have participated in European club competition in every season since 1955, and has never left the Spanish First Division since its beginning in 1928, along with cofounders Athletic de Bilbao and Real Madrid.

Trophies

Current Squad 2005/06

¹ Has dual nationality and plays competitively for Portugal despite place of birth.

Squad changes during 2005/06 season

Statistics 2004/05

Stadium Information

Successful managers

Top players

Handball

FC Barcelona Basketball Section

History

Trophies

Current Squad Basketball 2005/06

Famous Basketball Coaches

Famous Basketball Players

Trivia

Sponsorship

Barça are also known for their relentless refusal to allow sponsor logos on their football shirts. This is due to the fact that Barça is seen as a symbol of Catalonia, and any offer of sponsorship of "intrusive nature" is usually to be turned down. Even their kit manufacturer, Nike's swoosh was controversial. However since 2005 Barça have accepted to yeld the logo of TV3 (the main Catalan TV channel and also a symbol of Catalonia) on the left arm, leaving, for the moment the fact that no sponsor will cover the body of Barça's football shirt, although media are speculating about contracts being closed lately. In recent weeks, it has been widely reported (though officially denied) that Barça are close to making a deal with the organizing committee for the 2008 Summer Olympics to place the Beijing Olympic logo on their football shirts. The proposed deal would run through 2010; after the 2008 Olympics, Barça shirts would bear the logo for the 2010 Asian Games, slated for Guangzhou.

Nonetheless, Barça have accepted a sponsor's logo on their basketball jerseys. The basketball section is sponsored by the Swiss insurance company Winterthur—a sponsorship uniquely appropriate for Barça, as the company was founded in Winterthur, the birthplace of Joan Gamper.

Culés

The etymological meaning of this word derives from the word cul which means literally arse in Catalan (pronounced /kuˈles/). An approximate translation of this term would be arses. Far from being somewhat offensive or insulting for Barça's fanship, this term was created in the early 20 century, where, while seated in the highest position of the stadium, from outside people saw the bottoms of the fans. This rather humorous term was coined and the fans were called this way ever since. There are about 1700 FC Barcelona's officially registered supporters clubs around the world (as of October 2005).

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Contents

History

Early Years

The Golden Years

Crisis and the Civil War

Kubala

Camp Nou

The second golden age (1988a href="1996.html" title="1996">1996)

Late 1990s with satisfactory results

Years of turmoil

Revival

Football

History

Trophies

Current Squad 2005/06

Squad changes during 2005/06 season

Statistics 2004/05

Stadium Information

Successful managers

Top players

Handball

FC Barcelona Basketball Section

History

Trophies

Current Squad Basketball 2005/06

Famous Basketball Coaches

Famous Basketball Players

Trivia

Sponsorship

Culés

External links

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