FC Barcelona
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| Full name | Futbol Club Barcelona | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Barça | ||
| Founded | 1899 | ||
| Ground | Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain | ||
| Capacity | 98,600 | ||
| Chairman |  Joan Laporta | ||
| Head Coach |  Frank Rijkaard | ||
| League | First Division | ||
| 2004-05 | First Division, 1st | ||
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Template:Sport in the Catalan-speaking world
FC Barcelona is a polideportivo that operates a number of sports teams in Barcelona, Catalonia, Founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, British and Spanish footballers led by Joan Gamper. Its motto is El Barça és més que un club (Barça is more than a club). Its main stadium is the Nou Estadi del Futbol Club Barcelona, popularly known as the Camp Nou.
Although best known for its La Liga football team and its reserve football team FC Barcelona B, 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 recent 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. Even their kit manufacturer, Nike's swoosh was controversial. However since 2005 Barça have worn the TV3 logo of Televisió de Catalunya on the left arm.
History
Early Years
On October 22 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, his home canton of Zurich and Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby, 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 Barca 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 like Paulino Alcántara, 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 14th 1909, the 6,000 seat stadium of Carrer Industria opened its door. In 1922 the club moved to a new home at Les Corts. This stadium had an initial capacity of 30,000, later expanded to an impressive 60,000. It was during these early years in these stadiums that Barça fans acquired their nickname the culés (pronounced /kuˈles/). Roughly translated from Catalan, it means arses. Far from being offensive, the name refers to fans seated in the highest row of the stadium. From outside passers-by could only see their arses. Barça fans have been referred to culés ever since. As of November 2005, there are about 1730 officially registered supporters clubs of FC Barcelona around the world.
Rivalry with Real Madrid
The rivalry between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid is legendary. 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 contrast Josep Samitier and Ricardo Zamora openly supported Franco.
In 1940 Enric Pineyro, a Franco collaborator, was appointed club president. The rivalry with Real intensified further after the 1943 Copa del Generalismo semi-final between the two clubs. The first leg at Les Corts ended in a 3-0 victory to Barca, but the return leg saw them defeated 11-1. It has been alleged by some that the Barca players were pressured into losing the game and even Pineyro resigned in protest. The rivalry with Real also surfaced again in the 1950's 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 Futbal 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 Latino. 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 Latino 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 1960. 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 Atletico 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 from their cantera and the club winning the Copa del Generalisimo in 1963 and the Fairs Cup in 1966. In 1968 the club restored some pride by beating Real Madrid 1-0 in the Copa del Generalisimo final at the Bernabeu.
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 Barca 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, Aitor Beguiristain, Goikoetxea, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup and Hristo Stoichkov. The latter was also voted European Footballer of the Year in 1994. 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
Despite having no previous connection with the club, Josep Lluís Nuñez was elected president of FC Barcelona in 1978. His main objectives were to establish Barca 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 Barca was short-lived and unsuccessful and he soon left for Napoli. In 1985 under Terry Venables Barca 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. Part of that team was goalkeeper Vitor Baia, on his way to become one of the only 10 players to have won all the European club cups. As a result, FC Barcelona was awarded as the world's best football team of 1997 by the IFFHS (International Federation of Football History and Statistics)[1]. 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 Inter Milan. However, new heros like Luis Figo, Luis 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 Barca 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 resigning in 2000.
2000 also saw the resignation of Nuñez after 22 years as club president. Although not always popular, as evidenced by dozens of votes of no-confidence, players’ rebellions and the open opposition led by Johan Cruyff, Nuñez has been Barca’s most successful president in terms of winning trophies. During his presidency the club’s four professional teams amassed 176 trophies – 30 in football, 36 in basketball, 65 in handball and 45 in roller hockey. This included a remarkable quartet in 1999, the club’s centenary year, when the four teams where all crowned champions of Spain.
The Departure Of Figo
The departures of Nuñez and Van Gaal were nothing compared to that of Luis 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 Barca 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. The next three years saw the club in decline and managers came and go, 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 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 in recent seasons.
On the field an influx of talented players (Henrik Larsson, Ronaldinho, Deco, Ludovic Giuly and Samuel Eto'o) and experienced professionals (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 Barca players voted European Footballer of the Year. The only disappointment was their defeat against Chelsea in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League 2004-05.
Strengthened by the arrival of Mark van Bommel and the emergence of Lionel Messi the current season has seen Barça continue where they left off. Highlights of the season so far have included an emphatic 3-0 victory over Real Madrid at the Bernabéu on November 19th 2005, when even the home fans applauded two-goal hero Ronaldinho, an 18 game winning streak in all competitions, and advancing to play the final of the Champions League against Arsenal F.C. in Paris' Stade de France on 17 May 2006.
Major Trophies
- UEFA Champions League:1
- 1991-92
- FC Barcelona 1 - 0 Sampdoria
- 1991-92
- Cup Winners' Cup: 4
- 1979
- FC Barcelona 4 - 3 Fortuna Düsseldorf
- 1982
- FC Barcelona 2 - 1 Standard de Liège
- 1989
- FC Barcelona 2 - 0 Sampdoria
- 1997
- FC Barcelona 1 - 0 Paris Saint-Germain
- 1979
- Inter-Cities Fairs Cup / UEFA Cup: 3
- 1958
- 1960
- FC Barcelona 4 - 1 Birmingham City
- Birmingham City F.C. 0 - 0 FC Barcelona
- 1966
- Real Zaragoza 2 - 4 FC Barcelona
- FC Barcelona 0 - 1 Real Zaragoza
- European Super Cup: 2
- 1992
- Werder Bremen 1 - 1 FC Barcelona
- FC Barcelona 2 - 1 Werder Bremen
- 1997
- FC Barcelona 2 - 0 Borussia Dortmund
- Borussia Dortmund 1 - 1 FC Barcelona
- 1992
- 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, 1933-34, 1935-36, 1937-38
- Copa Catalunya : 5
- 1990-91, 1992-93, 1999-2000, 2003-04, 2004-05
- Copa de la Liga: 2
- 1983, 1986
- Copa Latina: 2
- 1949, 1952
As of the beginning of the 2005-2006 season, Barcelona have competed in:
- 15 participations in the UEFA Champions League
- 22 Participations in the UEFA Cup
- 5 participations in the European Super Cup
- 1 participation in the Intercontinental Cup
Squad
Current squad 2005/06
The numbers are established according to the official website:www.fcbarcelona.com and www.lfp.es
As of February 1 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.
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Squad changes during 2005/06 season
In:
- Santiago Ezquerro - Signed From Athletic de Bilbao
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Mark van Bommel - Signed From PSV Eindhoven
Out:
- Damià Abella - On Loan To Racing de Santander
Javier Saviola - On Loan To Sevilla FC- Fernando Navarro - On Loan To RCD Mallorca
Rüştü Reçber - On Loan To Fenerbahce- Sergio Santamaría - On Loan To Albacete Balompie
- Oscar Lopez - On Loan To Real Betis
- Ramón Ros - On Loan To UE Lleida
- Pedro Mario - On Loan To Real Valladolid
- Dani Tortolero - Transferred To Gimnàstic de Tarragona
Fabio Rochemback - Transferred To Middlesbrough F.C.- Gerard López Segú - Transferred To AS Monaco FC
- Juan Roman Riquelme - Transferred To Villarreal CF
- Sergio García - Transferred To Real Zaragoza
- David Sánchez Rodríguez - Transferred To Albacete Balompie
Demetrio Albertini - Retired
Statistics 2004/05
| First Division | Position | Pts | P | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FC Barcelona | 1 | 84 | 38 | 25 | 9 | 4 | 73 | 29 |
- Top Scorers:
- Eto'o - 25 goals
- Giuly - 11 goals
- Ronaldinho - 10 goals
- Top Goalkeepers
- Victor Valdes - 28 goals conceded In 36 Matches
- Ruben - 1 goal conceded In 2 Matches
Managers & Players
Selected Managers
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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- Cesar 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
Radomir Antic, 2003- Frank Rijkaard, 2003-present
see also Category:FC Barcelona Managers
Top players
see also Category:FC Barcelona footballers
Stadium Information
- Name - Camp Nou
- City - Barcelona
- Capacity - 98,000
- Inauguration - 1957
- Pitch size - 105 x 72 metres
- Other Facilities: La Masia
External links
- Template:Ca icon Template:Es icon Template:En icon Template:Ja icon Template:Zh icon FC Barcelona Official Website
- English speaking Barça fans
- FC Barcelona English Speaking Supporters
- Template:No icon FC Barcelona Norwegian Supporters
- FC Barcelona Russian Supporters
- FC Barcelona Arabic Supporters
- Template:Pl icon Visca el Barça! - Unofficial Polish Site
- Template:Pl icon Barça Serwis - Unofficial Polish Site
- FC Barcelona Tickets
- FC Barcelona Videos
- Template:Fr icon FC Barcelona Clan Penya Officielle Francophone
- Template:No icon FC Barcelona Web - norwegian/danish Barça supporters
- United Athletes Magazine Article on the lively atmosphere at a Barça’s match.
- Template:He icon FC Barcelona Israeli Supporters