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Revision as of 16:11, 29 June 2006
Football club| Full name | Futbol Club Barcelona | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Barça, Blaugrana, Culers | ||
| Founded | 1899 | ||
| Ground | Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain | ||
| Capacity | 98,787 | ||
| Chairman |  Joan Laporta | ||
| Head Coach |  Frank Rijkaard | ||
| League | La Liga | ||
| 2005-06 | La Liga, 1st | ||
| |||
Futbol Club Barcelona, popularly known as Barça, is a sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, British, Spanish and Catalan footballers led by Joan Gamper. The club has become a Catalan institution, hence the motto is El Barça és més que un club (Barça is more than a club) . The fans of FC Barcelona are known as culers (or culés) and in May 2006 the number of club members reached 140,000.
The club's main stadium is the Camp Nou and the club is best known for its La Liga football team and the reserve football team FC Barcelona B. The senior team were founding members of La Liga in 1928 and, together with Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, they have never been relegated from the Primera División. They are currently champions of both Spain and Europe. The club also includes four other professional sports teams, having expanded into basketball, handball, roller hockey and futsal. The teams involved in these sports are subsidised by the football section and wear the same colours. They include Winterthur FCB and FC Barcelona-Cifec. In the past the club also featured an American football team, the now-defunct FC Barcelona Dragons.
The club also includes number of prominent amateur sports teams that compete at rugby union, women's basketball, women's football and wheelchair basketball. These include FCB Rugby, UB-Barça, FC Barcelona-Institut Guttman. Other amateur teams represent the club at ice hockey, five-a-side football, athletics, baseball, cycling, field hockey, figure skating, and volleyball.
Barça have to date refused to allow sponsorship logos on their football shirts. This is because the Barça colours are traditionally seen as a symbol of Catalonia and logos have been regarded as intrusive. However since 2005 Barça have worn the TV3 logo of Televisió de Catalunya on the left arm. They have also started to wear a senyera (small Catalan flag) on their shorts and on the neck of the shirt.
History
Early years
On 22 October 1899 Joan Gamper placed an advert in Los Deportes declaring his wish to form a football club. A positive response resulted in a meeting at the Gimnasio Sole on November 29. Eleven players attended : Gualteri Wild, Lluís d'Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John Parsons, and William Parsons. As a result Foot-Ball Club Barcelona was born. Several other Spanish football clubs, most notably Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, also had British founders, and as a result they initially adopted English-style names.
Legend has it that Gamper chose the club colours, blaugrana / azulgrana, after FC Basel, his former club. However other Swiss teams Gamper played for, the Canton of Zürich and Merchant Taylors' School in Merseyside have all been credited and/or claimed to be the inspiration. Initially the club used the same coat of arms as the city of Barcelona, but in 1910 the club organized a competition to design their own. It was won by an anonymous entrant who produced the present model.
FC Barcelona quickly emerged as one of the leading clubs in Spain and they participated in the first Campionat de Catalunya and the first Copa del Rey. They won their first trophy when they won the Copa Macaya in 1901. In 1902 the club also played in the first Copa del Rey final, losing 2-1 to Club Vizcaya.
The Gamper years
In 1908 Joan Gamper became club president for the first time. He subsequently held the position on five separate occasions and spent 25 years at the helm. His main achievement as president was to give Barça their own stadium. He also started a campaign to recruit more club members and by 1922 the club had over 10,000 members. Gamper also introduced legendary players such Paulino Alcántara, the clubs all time top-scorer, Ricardo Zamora, and Josep Samitier . These players helped the club dominate both the Championat de Catalunya and Copa del Rey and then win the first La Liga championship in 1929.
Until 1909 the team played in various stadiums, none of them owned by the club. On March 14 1909, the 6,000 seat stadium of Carrer Industria opened its door. This was the first ground owned by the club. In 1922 the club moved to Les Corts. This stadium had an initial capacity of 20,000, later expanded to an impressive 60,000.
Rivalry with Real Madrid
As often happens, there is a very strong rivalry between the two strongest teams in a national league and in Spain, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid are no exception. From the start the clubs were seen as representatives of the two rival regions of Spain, Catalonia and Castile, as well as the two cities themselves. However the rivalry reached a new level during the Franco years when Real Madrid was considered to be the "regime team" while FC Barcelona was regarded as the team of the opposition.
During the Spanish Civil War, however, members of both clubs suffered at the hands of Franco supporters. FC Barcelona president Josep Sunyol was murdered while Real Madrid president Rafael Sánchez Guerra, a prominent Republican, was imprisoned and tortured. They also arrested and murdered a Real vice-president and club treasurer and an acting president disappeared. In 1940 Enric Pineyro, a Franco collaborator, was appointed club president. The rivalry with Real intensified further after the 1943 Copa del Generalísimo semi-final between the two clubs. The first leg at Les Corts ended in a 3-0 victory to Barça, but the return leg saw them defeated 11-1. It has been alleged by some that the FC Barcelona players were pressured into losing the game and even Pineyro resigned in protest. The rivalry with Real also surfaced again in the 1950s after the dispute over Alfredo Di Stefano.
CF Barcelona
After the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan language and flag were banned and football clubs were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures led to the club changing its name to Club de Fútbol Barcelona and the removal of two of the four red bars from its shield. Despite the restrictions imposed by Franco, CF Barcelona enjoyed considerable success during the 1940s.
In 1945, with Josep Samitier as coach and players like César, Ramallets and Velasco, they won La Liga for first time since 1929. They added two more titles in 1948 and 1949. In 1949 they also won the first Copa Latina. Coach Fernando Daucik and Ladislao Kubala, regarded by many as the club's best ever player, inspired the team to win five different trophies including La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Copa Latina and the Copa Eva Duarte in 1952. In 1953 they helped the club win La Liga and the Copa del Generalisimo again. The club also won the Copa del Generalisimo again in 1957 and the Fairs Cup in 1958.
With Helenio Herrera as coach, a young Luis Suárez, the European Footballer of the Year in 1960, and two influential Hungarians recommended by Kubala, Sandor Kocsis and Zoltán Czibor, the team won another national double in 1959 and a La Liga/Fairs Cup double in 1958. In 1961 they became the first club to beat Real Madrid in a European Cup game, thus ending their monopoly of the competition.
The 1960s were less successful for the club, with Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid monopolising La Liga. The completion of the Camp Nou, finished in 1957, meant the club had little money to spend on new players. However the decade also saw the emergence of Josep Fuste and Carles Rexach and the club winning the Copa del Generalisimo in 1963 and the Fairs Cup in 1966. The club restored some pride by beating Real Madrid 1-0 in the 1968 Copa del Generalisimo final at the Bernabéu.
The Cruyff years
The 1973/74 season saw the arrival of a new Barça legend – Johan Cruyff. Already an established player with Ajax, Cruyff quickly won over the Barça fans when he told the European press he chose Barça over Real because he could not play for a club associated with Franco. He further endeared himself when he chose a Catalan name, Jordi, for his son. He helped the club win La Liga for the first time since 1960, along the way defeating Real Madrid 5-0 at the Bernabéu. He was also crowned European Footballer of the Year twice in a row while at club.
Cruyff returned to the club as manager in 1988, assembling the so-called Dream Team, named after the US basketball team that played at the 1992 Olympic Games hosted by Barcelona. Cruyff introduced players like Josep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero, Txiki Beguiristain, Goikoetxea, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário and Hristo Stoichkov. This team won La Liga four times between 1991 and 1994 and beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 European 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 has been the club's most successful manager to date. He is also the club's longest serving manager. However in his final two seasons, he failed to win any trophies and fell out with Josep Lluís Nuñez. This resulted in his departure.
The Nuñez years
Josep Lluís Nuñez was elected president of FC Barcelona in 1978. His main objectives were to establish Barça as a world class sports club and to give the club financial stability.
In 1979 and 1982 the club won two of four European Cup Winners' Cups won in the Nuñez era. In 1982 Diego Maradona was signed for a world record fee from Boca Juniors. However his time with Barça was short-lived and unsuccessful and he soon left for Napoli. In 1985 under Terry Venables Barça won La Liga and in 1986 he took the team to their second European Cup final, only to lose on penalties to Steaua Bucharest.
In 1988 Nuñez appointed Johan Cruyff as manager. Despite the latter's success with the Dream Team, personal differences saw Nuñez sacking him in 1996. He was temporarily 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 Eindhoven and delivered a cup treble winning the Copa del Rey, European Cup Winners Cup and the Supercopa de España. Among Robson’s non-playing staff was José Mourinho who assisted with training and acted as translator.
Despite his success, Robson was only ever seen as a short-term solution while the club waited for Louis van Gaal to become available. Like Maradona, Ronaldo only stayed a short time and he left for Internazionale. However, new heros like Luís Figo, Luís Enrique and Rivaldo emerged and the team won a Copa del Rey/La Liga double in 1998. In 1999 they retained the La Liga and Rivaldo became the fourth Barça player to be awarded European Footballer of the Year. Despite this domestic success, the failure to emulate Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League led to Van Gaal and Nuñez resigning in 2000.
The Departure of Figo
The departures of Nuñez and Van Gaal were nothing compared to that of Luís Figo. As well as club captain, Figo had become a cult hero and was considered by Catalans to be one of their own. It is widely believed that his dislike of the new president, Joan Gaspart, triggered his departure for arch-rivals Real Madrid. The Barça fans were distraught by Figo’s decision to join Real and during subsequent visits to the Camp Nou, Figo was given an extremely hostile reception, including one occasion when a pig's head was thrown at him from the crowd. The next three years saw the club in decline and managers came and went, including a short second spell by Louis van Gaal. Expensive players like Patrick Kluivert and Marc Overmars were regularly accused of not pulling their weight. Gaspart did not inspire confidence off the field either and in 2003 he along with Van Gaal resigned.
Recent events
A combination of a new young and enthusiastic president, Joan Laporta and a new manager, Frank Rijkaard has seen the club bounce back to its early 1990s peaks in the last three years.
On the field an influx of talented players (Ronaldinho, Deco, Ludovic Giuly and Samuel Eto'o) and experienced professionals (Henrik Larsson, Rafael Márquez and Giovanni van Bronckhorst) combined with a nucleus of home grown players (Carles Puyol, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi and Víctor Valdés) saw the club win La Liga and the Supercopa de España in 2005.
Ronaldinho was also added to the list of Barça players voted European Footballer of the Year. The only disappointment was the defeat against Chelsea in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League.
For 2005/06 the team was strengthened with arrival of Mark van Bommel and the emergence of Lionel Messi. They subsequently retained the La Liga title and won the UEFA Champions League.
During the 2006-2007 Barça will be playing in seven competitions: La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Copa Catalunya the UEFA Champions League, the Supercopa de España, the European Supercup and the FIFA World Club Championship.
Fans & Socis
The fans of FC Barcelona are known as culés. In Spain, about 20% of the population are said to be Barça sympathisers. FC Barcelona also has large support abroad, especially in South America, the Netherlands and Morocco. Since the 2003-2004 championship, club membership figures have seen a significant increase. In May 2006 the number of club members (socis in catalan language) surpassed 140,000 making the club third worldwide only to Manchester United and Benfica. In addition to this, there are about 1782 (as of June 2006) officially registered supporters clubs of FC Barcelona around the world.
Major Trophies
- European Cup / UEFA Champions League: 2
- 1992, 1-0 vs. Sampdoria
- 2006, 2-1 vs. Arsenal F.C.
- European Cup Winners Cup: 4
- 1979, 1982, 1989, 1997
- Inter-Cities Fairs Cup / UEFA Cup: 3
- 1958, 1960, 1966
- European Super Cup: 2
- 1992, 1997
- Copa Latina: 2
- 1949, 1952
see also FC Barcelona in Europe
- Spanish Champions: 18
- 1928-29, 1944-45, 1947-48, 1948-49, 1951-52, 1952-53, 1958-59, 1959-60, 1973-74, 1984-85, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1997-98, 1998-99, 2004-05, 2005-06
- Copa del Rey: 24
- 1909-10, 1911-12, 1912-13, 1919-20, 1921-22, 1924-25, 1925-26, 1927-28, 1941-42, 1950-51, 1951-52, 1952-53, 1956-57, 1958-59, 1962-63, 1967-68, 1970-71, 1977-78, 1980-81, 1982-83, 1987-88, 1989-90, 1996-97, 1997-98
- Supercopa de España: 10
- 1945, 1948, 1952, 1953, 1983, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2005
- La Liga del Mediterráneo:1
- 1937
- Copa Macaya/Catalan Champions: 22
- 1901-02, 1904-05, 1908-09, 1909-10, 1910-11, 1912-13, 1915-16, 1918-19, 1919-20, 1920-21, 1921-22, 1923-24, 1924-25, 1925-26, 1926-27, 1927-28, 1929-30, 1930-31, 1931-32, 1934-35, 1935-36, 1937-38
- Copa Catalunya : 5
- 1990-91, 1992-93, 1999-2000, 2003-04, 2004-05
- Copa de la Liga: 2
- 1983, 1986
Squad
Current squad 2006/07
The numbers are established according to the official website:www.fcbarcelona.cat and www.lfp.es As of 17 June 2006
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
|
Squad changes during 2006/07 season
|
Márquez Puyol Gio Oleguer Van Bommel Deco Edmílson Giuly Eto'o Ronaldinho |
| FC Barcelona's most common lineup during the 2005/2006 season |
In:
Javier Saviola - Return From Sevilla FC
Eiður Guðjohnsen - Signed From Chelsea F.C.
Out:
Henrik Larsson - Transferred To Helsingborgs IF- Gabri - Transferred To AFC Ajax
-
Maxi López - On Loan To RCD Mallorca - Francisco Martos - Transferred To PFC CSKA Sofia
- Fernando Navarro - Transferred To RCD Mallorca
- Daniel Fernandez - Transferred To Metalurh Donetsk
- Cristian Hidalgo González - Transferred To Deportivo La Coruña
Personnel
Selected Presidents
Joan Gamper (1908-09, 1910–13,1917-19,1921-23,1924-25)- Josep Sunyol (1935-36)
- Enrique Piñeyro (1940-43)
- Francesc Miró (1953–61)
- Josep Lluís Nuñez (1978–2000)
- Joan Gaspart (2000-03)
- Joan Laporta (2003-Present)
see also Category:FC Barcelona presidents
Selected Managers
Patrick O'Connell, 1935-42- Josep Samitier, 1944-47
Fernando Daucik, 1950-54-
Helenio Herrera, 1958-60, 1980, 1980-1981 
László Kubala, 1962-63, 1980
Vic Buckingham, 1969-71- Rinus Michels, 1971-1975, 1976-1978
Udo Lattek, 1981-1983- César Luis Menotti, 1983-1984
- Terry Venables, 1984-87
- Luis Aragonés, 1987-88
- Johan Cruyff, 1988-96
- Bobby Robson, 1996-97
- Louis Van Gaal, 1997-2000, 2002-2003
- Llorenç Serra Ferrer, 2000-2001
- Carles Rexach, 2001-2002
Radomir Antic, 2003- Frank Rijkaard, 2003-present
see also Category:FC Barcelona managers
Selected Players
see also Category:FC Barcelona footballers
See also
For other articles about the club see also Category:FC Barcelona
External links
see also Supporters of FC Barcelona for more links Template:Commons2
- Official Website Template:Ca icon/Template:Es icon/Template:En icon/Template:Ja icon/Template:Zh icon
- Sport (Barça fans newspaper website) Template:Es icon
- Mundo Deportivo (Barça fans newspaper website) Template:Es icon
- FC Barcelona Tickets from England
- Zona Barça - Unofficial Spanish Site
- FC Barcelona web Template:Ca icon
- English speaking Barça fans
- FC Barcelona English Speaking Supporters
- FC Barcelona Spanish Supporters
- FC Barcelona Norwegian Supporters Template:No icon
- FC Barcelona Russian Supporters
- FC Barcelona Arabic Supporters
- Visca el Barça! - Unofficial Polish Site Template:Pl icon
- Barça Serwis - Unofficial Polish Site Template:Pl icon
- FC Barcelona Clan Penya Officielle Francophone Template:Fr icon
- FC Barcelona Web - norwegian/danish Barça supporters Template:No icon
- FC Barcelona Israeli Supporters Template:He icon
- FC Barcelona Russian-speaking supporters club Template:Ru icon
| La Liga | |
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| 2024–25 clubs | |
| Former clubs |
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| Statistics and awards | |
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| Preceded byRed Star Belgrade | European Cup Champions 1991/92 |
Succeeded byOlympique de Marseille |
| Preceded byLiverpool F.C. | UEFA Champions League Champions 2005/06 |
Succeeded byCurrent winner |