Futbol Club Barcelona (
Catalan pronunciation: [fubˈbɔɫ ˈkɫub bərsəˈɫonə] (
listen)), also known as
Barcelona and familiarly as
Barça,
[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). The official Barcelona anthem is the "
Cant del Barça" written by Jaume Picas and
Josep Maria Espinàs.
[2] Unlike many other football clubs, the
supporters own and operate Barcelona. It is the world's
second-richest football club in terms of revenue, with an annual turnover of $613 million and the
third most valuable, worth $2.6 billion.
[3][4] The club has a long-standing rivalry with
Real Madrid; matches between the two teams are referred to as "
El Clásico".
Barcelona is the
most successful club in Spain,
in terms of overall official titles won (83). It is one of the most
supported teams in the world, and has the largest fanbase among all
sports teams on all major social networks (with over 44 million fans on
Facebook, around 10 million followers on
Twitter, and more than 6 million on
Google+).
[5] [6] They are the current
Spanish football champions and have won 22
La Liga, 26
Copa del Rey, 11
Supercopa de España, 3
Copa Eva Duarte[7] and 2
Copa de la Liga trophies, as well as being the record holder for the latter four competitions. In
international club football, Barcelona have won four
UEFA Champions League, a record four
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, four
UEFA Super Cup, a record three
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup[8] and a record two
FIFA Club World Cup trophies. 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 &
Xavi) were chosen as the three best players in the world, having bagged the top spots at the
FIFA Ballon d'Or, an unprecedented feat for players from the same football school.
Barcelona is also the only European club to have played continental
football every season since 1955, and one of three clubs never to have
been relegated from
La Liga, 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
Champions League.
That same year, it also became the first football club ever to win six
out of six competitions in a single year, thus completing
the sextuple, comprising the aforementioned treble and the
Spanish Super Cup,
UEFA Super Cup and
FIFA Club World Cup.
[10]
History
Birth of FC Barcelona (1899–1922)
Sports Notice: Our friend and companion Hans Gamper ... former
Swiss [football] champion, being keen on organising some football games
in the city asks anyone who feels enthusiastic enough about the sport
to present themselves at the office of this newspaper any Tuesday or
Friday evening between the hours of 9 and 11 pm.
Gamper's advertisement in
Los Deportes[11]
On 22 October 1899,
Hans Kamper 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.
[11]
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.
[13]
On 14 March 1909, the team moved into the
Camp de la Indústria, a larger stadium with a seating capacity of 8,000 people. From 1910 to 1914 Barcelona participated in the
Pyrenees Cup, which consisted of the best teams of
Languedoc,
Midi,
Aquitaine (Southern France), the
Basque Country, and Catalonia. At that time it was considered the finest competition open for participation.
[14][15] 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, supporting the club had less to do with the game itself and
more with being a part of the club's collective identity.
[16]
Gamper launched a campaign to recruit more club members, and by 1922
the club had over 20,000 members and was able to finance a new stadium.
The club to moved to the new
Les Corts, inaugurated the same year.
[17] Les Corts had an initial capacity of 22,000, which was later expanded to 60,000.
[18] Jack Greenwell was recruited as the first full-time
manager,
and the club's fortunes began to improve on the field. During the
Gamper era, FC Barcelona won eleven Campionat de Catalunya, six Copas
del Rey, and four Pyrenees Cups.
[13]
Rivera, Republic and Civil War (1923–1957)
The aerial bombardment of Barcelona in 1938
On 14 June 1925, the crowd in the stadium jeered the
Spanish national anthem and then gave ovation to
God Save the King in a spontaneous protest against
Miguel Primo de Rivera's dictatorship. The ground was closed for six months as a reprisal, and Gamper was forced to relinquish the club presidency.
[19]
This coincided with the club's transition to professionalism; in 1926
the directors of Barcelona publicly declared Barcelona a professional
side for the first time.
[17] The club's 1928 victory in the
Spanish Cup was celebrated with a poem titled "Oda a
Platko", written by a member of the
Generation of '27, poet Rafael Alberti, who was inspired by the "heroic performance" of the Barcelona keeper.
[20] On 30 July 1930, Gamper committed suicide after a period of depression brought on by personal and financial problems.
[13]
Although they continued to have players of the standing of
Josep Escolà, the club entered a period of decline in which political conflict overshadowed sport throughout society.
[21] 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 a
disputed title in 1937) evaded them. A month after the
Spanish Civil War began in 1936, several players from Barcelona and
Athletic Bilbao enlisted in the ranks of those who fought against the military uprising.
[22] On 6 August,
Josep Sunyol, the club president and representative of a pro-independence political party, was murdered by
Falangist soldiers near
Guadarrama.
[23] Dubbed the martyrdom of
barcelonisme, the murder was a defining moment in the history of FC Barcelona.
[24] In the summer of 1937, the squad went on tour in Mexico and the United States, where it was received as an ambassador of the
Second Spanish Republic. That tour secured the club financially, but also resulted in half the team seeking
asylum
in Mexico and France. On 16 March 1938, Barcelona came under aerial
bombardment, resulting in over 3,000 deaths; one of the bombs hit the
club's offices.
[25] Catalonia came under occupation a few months later. As a symbol of 'undisciplined'
Catalanism, the club, down to just 3,486 members, faced a number of restrictions.
[26] After the Civil War, the
Catalan flag
was banned and football clubs 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 club shield.
[18]
In 1943, Barcelona faced rivals Real Madrid in the semi-finals of
Copa del Generalísimo.
Their first match at Les Corts was won by Barcelona 3–0. Before the
second leg, Barcelona's players had a changing room visit from
Franco's
director of state security. He "reminded" them that they were only
playing due to the "generosity of the regime". Real Madrid dominated the
match, winning 11–1.
[27] Despite the difficult political situation, CF Barcelona enjoyed considerable success during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1945, with
Josep Samitier as managers and players like
César,
Ramallets, and
Velasco, they won La Liga for the first time since 1929. They added to this total in 1948 and again in 1949. They also won the first
Copa Latina that year. In June 1950, Barcelona signed
Ladislao Kubala, who was to be an influential figure at the club.
On a rainy Sunday in 1951, the crowd left Les Corts stadium after a 2–1 win against
Santander on foot, refusing to catch any trams and surprising the
Francoist authorities. A tram strike was taking place in
Barcelona, which received the support of
blaugrana fans.
Events such as this made the club represent much more than just
Catalonia; many progressive Spaniards saw the club as a staunch defender
of rights and freedoms.
[28][29]
Managers
Ferdinand Daučík and
László Kubala led the team to five different trophies including La Liga, the Copa del Generalísimo (now the Copa del Rey), 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.
[18]
Club de Fútbol Barcelona (1957–1978)
With
Helenio Herrera as manager, 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
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup double in 1960. In 1961 they became the first club to beat Real Madrid in
European Cup competition, but lost 3–2 to
Benfica in the final.
[30][31][32]
The 1960s were less successful for the club, with Real Madrid monopolising La Liga. The building of the
Camp Nou, completed in 1957, meant the club had little money to spend on new players.
[32] On the positive side, the decade 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. Barça restored some of its former pride by beating Real Madrid
1–0 in the 1968 Copa del Generalísimo final at the
Bernabéu, in front of Franco, with former
republican pilot
Salvador Artigas
as manager. The end of Franco's dictatorship in 1974 saw the club
changing its official name back to Futbol Club Barcelona and reverting
the crest to its original design, again including the original letters.
[33]
The 1973–74 season saw the arrival of
Johan Cruyff, who was bought for a world record £920,000 from
Ajax.
[34]
Already an established player in the Netherlands, Cruyff quickly won
over the Barça fans when he told the European press he chose Barça over
Real Madrid because he could not play for a club associated with Franco.
He further endeared himself when he chose the Catalan name
Jordi, after the local saint, for his son.
[35] Next to players of quality like
Juan Manuel Asensi,
Carles Rexach, and
Hugo Sotil, he helped the club win the La Liga title in 1973–74 for the first time since 1960, defeating Real Madrid 5–0 at the Bernabéu along the way.
[36] 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 ever to do so) in
1974 while he was still with Barcelona.
[37]
Núñez and the stabilisation years (1978–2000)
Beginning with
Josep Lluís Núñez
in 1978, the president of FC Barcelona has been elected by the club
members. This decision was closely tied to Spain's transition to
democracy in 1974 and the end of Franco's dictatorship. Núñez's main
objective was to develop Barça into a world-class club by giving it
stability both on and off the pitch. On recommendation from Cruyff,
Núñez inaugurated
La Masia as Barcelona's youth academy on 20 October 1979.
[38]
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 players such as
Diego Maradona,
Romário and
Ronaldo go rather than meeting their demands.
[39][40]
On 16 May 1979, the club won its first
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup by beating
Fortuna Düsseldorf
4–3 in Basel in a final that was watched by more than 30,000 travelling
blaugrana fans. In June 1982 Maradona was signed for a then-world
record fee of £5 million from
Boca Juniors.
[41] In the following season, under manager
Menotti, Barcelona won the Copa del Rey, beating Real Madrid. Maradona's time with Barça was short-lived; 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 notable displays by German midfielder
Bernd Schuster. The next season Venables took the team to their second
European Cup final, only to lose on penalties to
Steaua Bucureşti during a dramatic evening in Seville.
[39]
After the
1986 FIFA World Cup, English top scorer
Gary Lineker was signed along with goalkeeper
Andoni Zubizarreta,
but the team could not achieve success as Schuster was excluded from
the team. Venables was fired at the beginning of the 1987–88 season and
replaced with
Luis Aragonés.
The players rebelled against president Núñez in an event that became
known as the Hesperia mutiny, and ended the season with a 1–0 victory in
the Copa del Rey final against
Real Sociedad.
[39]
Johan Cruyff won four consecutive La Liga titles as manager of Barcelona.
Dream Team
In 1988,
Johan Cruyff returned to the club as manager and he assembled the so-called
Dream Team. He used a mix of Spanish players like
Pep Guardiola,
José Mari Bakero, and
Txiki Begiristain while signing international stars such as
Ronald Koeman,
Michael Laudrup, Romário, and
Hristo Stoichkov.
[42] Under his guidance, Barcelona won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. They beat
Sampdoria in both the 1989
Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992
European Cup final at
Wembley. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the
European Super Cup in 1992, and three
Supercopa de España. With 11 trophies, Cruyff became the club's most successful manager, until being overtaken by Guardiola in 2011.
[43] He also became the club's longest consecutive serving manager, serving 8 years.
[44]
Cruyff's fortune changed in his final two seasons, when he failed to
win any trophies and fell out with president Núñez, resulting in his
departure.
[39]
Cruyff was briefly replaced by
Bobby Robson,
who took charge of the club for a single season in 1996–97. The club
signed Ronaldo and delivered a cup treble, winning the Copa del Rey,
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.
[45] The club won the
UEFA Super Cup against
Borussia Dortmund
and won a Copa del Rey and La Liga double in 1998. In 1999 the club
celebrated its 'centenari', winning the Primera División title. Rivaldo
became the fourth Barça player to be awarded
European Footballer of the Year.
Despite this domestic success, the failure to extend that success to
the Champions League led to van Gaal and Núñez resigning in 2000.
[45]
Exit Núñez, enter Laporta (2000–2008)
Ronaldinho, 2005 Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player
The departures of Núñez and van Gaal were nothing compared to that of
Luís Figo.
As well as club vice-captain, Figo had become a cult hero and was
considered by Catalans to be one of their own. Barça fans were
distraught by Figo's decision to join arch-rivals Real Madrid, and
during subsequent visits to the Camp Nou, he 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.
[46] President Núñez was replaced by
Joan Gaspart
in 2000, and the three years he was in charge saw the club decline and
managers came and went; van Gaal served a second term. Gaspart did not
inspire confidence off the field either and in 2003, he and van Gaal
resigned.
[47]
After the disappointment of the Gaspart era, the club bounced back with the combination of a new young president,
Joan Laporta, and a young new manager, former
Dutch player
Frank Rijkaard.
On the field, an influx of international players combined with
home-grown Spanish players led to the club's return to success. Barça
won La Liga and the Supercopa de España in 2004–05, and the team's
midfielder,
Ronaldinho, won the
FIFA World Player of the Year award.
[48]
In the 2005–06 season, Barcelona repeated their league and Supercup successes.
[49] In the Champions League, Barça beat English club
Arsenal
2–1 in the final. Trailing 1–0 to a 10-man Arsenal and with less than
15 minutes left, they came back to win 2–1 for the club's first European
Cup victory in 14 years.
[50]
Despite being the favourites and starting strongly, Barcelona finished the 2006–07 season without trophies apart from the 2006
Supercopa de España victory against local rivals
RCD Espanyol. They took part in the
2006 FIFA Club World Cup, but were beaten by a late goal in the final against Brazilian side
Internacional.
[51] A pre-season U.S. tour and open feud between the player
Samuel Eto'o and Rijkaard was later blamed for the lack of trophies.
[52][53]
In La Liga, Barça were in first place for much of the season, but their
inconsistency in the new year caused them to be overtaken by Real
Madrid on 12 May 2007; Barça tied Madrid on points but lost the title on
head-to-head superiority. In the Champions League, Barça narrowly
managed to advance from Group A by winning 2–0 over
SV Werder Bremen, but they were eliminated in the round of 16 by 2005 winners
Liverpool F.C. on away goals.
The
2007–08 season
ended without any titles, as Barça finished third in La Liga and were
defeated in the Champions League semi-finals 1–0 by eventual winners
Manchester United.
Guardiola era (2008–2012)
FC Barcelona B youth manager
Pep Guardiola took over Frank Rijkaard's duties at the conclusion of the season.
[54] 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.
Lionel Messi, four-time
FIFA/
Ballon d'Or winner, in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, and FC Barcelona's top goalscorer in official competitions with 319 goals
[55]
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 side.
[56][57][58] The team went on to win the
2009 Supercopa de España against Athletic Bilbao
[59] and the
2009 UEFA Super Cup against
Shakhtar Donetsk,
[60]
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,
[61] and became the first football club ever to accomplish
the sextuple.
[62]
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.
[63][64]
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.
[65] Rosell signed
David Villa from
Valencia for €40 million.
[66] and
Javier Mascherano from
Liverpool for €19 million.
[67] 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.
[68] In April 2011, the club reached the
Copa del Rey final, losing 1–0 to Real Madrid at the
Mestalla in Valencia.
[69] 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.
[70] In August 2011, the La Masia graduate
Cesc Fàbregas was bought from
Arsenal
and who would help Barcelona defend the Spanish Supercup against Real
Madrid. The Supercup victory brought the total amount of official
trophies to 73, matching the number of titles won by Real Madrid.
[71]
Later the same month, Barcelona won the
UEFA Super Cup after defeating
Porto 2–0 thanks to goals from
Lionel Messi and
Cesc Fábregas.
This extended the club's overall amount of official trophies to 74,
surpassing Real Madrid's total amount of official trophies.
[72]
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.
[73]
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 Fábregas.
[74]
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 4 years, continuing their high-quality performance in recent
world football competitions.
[75][76]
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,
[77][78] announced that he would step down as manager on 30 June and be succeeded by assistant
Tito Vilanova.
[79][80] 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 stewardship.
Guardiola's four trophy-laden years has inspired British director
Paul Greengrass to make a documentary about the Catalan giants. Entitled
Barça,
the film will examine the process and legacy of one of the world's most
famous sports franchises, focusing primarily on the four years in which
Guardiola guided the club to 14 trophies. The movie is expected to be
finished ahead of the
2014 World Cup, when public attention will begin focusing on the international event in
Rio de Janeiro.
[81]
Tito Vilanova (2012–2013)
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 first 26 weeks, recording only 1 loss in 23 games. Lionel Messi
scored 34 goals in this time period alone, and in mid-February they were
12 points clear of second placed Atlético Madrid. On 11 May 2013
Barcelona were crowned as the Spanish football champions for the 22nd
time.
[82]
On 19 July, it had been announced that Vilanova will resign as
Barcelona manager after his throat cancer returned, and will be
receiving treatment again, after he took a three-month medical leave in
December 2012.
[83]
Support
The nickname
culer 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 are said to be Barça sympathisers, second behind
Real Madrid, supported by 32% of the population.
[84] Throughout Europe, Barcelona is the favourite second-choice club.
[85] The club's membership figures have seen a significant increase from 100,000 in the 2003–04 season to 170,000 in September 2009,
[86] 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.
[87][88]
In addition to membership, as of June 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.
[89] The club has had many prominent persons among its supporters, including Pope
John Paul II, who was an honorary member, and former prime minister of Spain
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
[90][91] FC Barcelona has the second highest
average attendance of European football clubs only behind
Borussia Dortmund.
[92][93]
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.
[94]
During the dictatorships of
Primo de Rivera 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.
[95][96] 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.
[97]
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 the
Merengues stadium is named, fought with
los nacionales).
[98][99] 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.
[100] The 1960s saw the rivalry reach the European stage when they met twice at the knock-out rounds of the European Cup.
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.
[101] The rivalry was strengthened by what Catalonians saw as a provocative representative of Madrid.
[102] Their original ground was in the affluent district of
Sarrià.
[103][104]
Traditionally, especially during the Franco regime, 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.
[105] In 1918 Espanyol started a counter-petition against autonomy, which at that time had become a pertinent issue.
[101]
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.
[101]
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 have 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. 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.
[106]
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.
[107][108] 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.
[109]
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.
[110] The members of Barcelona, called
socis, form an assembly of delegates which is the highest governing body of the club.
[111] As of 2010 the club has 170,000
socis.
[86]
An audit by Deloitte in July 2010 showed that Barcelona had a net
debt of €442 million, currently 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.
[112]
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.
[113]
For 2011, Barcelona's gross debt stands at around €483m and the net debt is at €364m.
[114]
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.
[115]
Records
Xavi
presently holds the team record for number of total games played (682)
and the record number of La Liga appearances (447), surpassing the
previous record holder
Migueli (391).
[116]
FC Barcelona's all-time highest goalscorer in all competitions (including friendlies) is
Paulino Alcántara with 369 goals.
[116][117] The all-time highest goalscorer for Barcelona in all official competitions, excluding friendlies, is
Lionel Messi with 319 goals. He is also the record goalscorer for Barcelona in European and international club competitions
[118] and the record league scorer with 221 goals in La Liga.
Four people have managed to score over 100 league goals at Barcelona:
Lionel Messi (221),
César Rodríguez (192),
Ladislao 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 Messi in a game against
Racing Santander, which Barça won 2–1.
[119]
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.
[120]
Barcelona's highest home attendance was 120,000, for a European Cup quarter-final against Juventus on 3 March 1986.
[121]
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.
[122]
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.
[123] 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.
[123]
The blue and red colours of the shirt were first worn in a match against Hispania in 1900.
[124]
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.
[125]
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
has 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.
[126]
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.
[127] In 2004, a company could become one of 25 "Honorary members" by contributing between £40,000–60,000 (£52,000–78,000)
[128] per year. There are also 48 associate memberships available for an annual fee of £14,000 (£18,200)
[128] and an unlimited number of "patronages" for the cost of £4,000 per year (£5,200).
[128]
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".
[129]
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[130] 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.
[131]
