FC Barcelona History

Early years (1899-1908)

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 Solé on November 29. Eleven players attended: Walter 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 was inspired to choose the club colours, blaugrana, by FC Basel's crest. However, the other Swiss teams Gamper played for, his home canton of Zurich, and Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby, England have all been credited with or claimed to be the inspiration.

FC Barcelona quickly emerged as one of the leading clubs of both Catalonia and Spain, competing in both the Campeonato de Cataluña and the Copa del Rey. In 1902, the club won its first trophy, the Copa Macaya, and also played in the first Copa del Rey final, losing 2-1 to Club Vizcaya.

With Gamper's seal (1908-1923)

In 1908 Joan Gamper became club president for the first time. Gamper took over the presidency as the club was on the verge of folding. The club had not won anything since the Campeonato de Cataluña of 1905 and its finances suffered as a result. Gamper was subsequently club president on five separate occasions between 1908 and 1925 and spent 25 years at the helm. One of his main achievements was to help Barça acquire its own stadium.

On March 14, 1909, it moved into the Carrer Indústria, a stadium with a capacity of 8,000. Gamper also launched a campaign to recruit more club members and by 1922 the club had over 10,000. This led to the club moving again, this time to Las Cortes, which inaugurated in the same year. This stadium had an initial capacity of 22,000, later expanded to an impressive 60,000.

Gamper also recruited Paulino Alcántara, the club's all time top-scorer with 356 goals, and in 1917 appointed Jack Greenwell as manager. This saw the club's fortunes begin to improve on the field. During the Gamper era FC Barcelona won eleven Campeonato de Cataluña, six Copa del Rey and four Coupe de Pyrenées and enjoyed its first "golden age." As well as Alcántara the Barça team under Greenwall also included Sagi-Barba, Ricardo Zamora, Josep Samitier, Félix Sesúmaga and Franz Platko.

Rivera, Republic and Civil War (1923-1939)

In the middle of the glorious 1920s, Barça suffered from non-sporting conflicts which were to mark the following decade. On 14 June 1925, the crowd at a game in homage to the Orfeó Català jeered the Royal March, a spontaneous reaction against Primo de Rivera's dictatorship. As a reprisal the ground closed for six months, later reduced to three, and forced Gamper to give up the presidency of the club. The club's founder, after a period of depression brought on by personal and money problems committed suicide on July 30, 1930.

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 sport throughout society. Barça faced a crisis on three fronts: financial, social, with the number of members dropping constantly, and sporting, where although the team won the Campionat de Catalunya in 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936 and 1938, success at Spanish level (with the exception of the 1937 disputed title) evaded them.

A month after the civil war began, Barça's left-wing president Josep Sunyol was murdered by Francisco Franco's soldiers near to Guadalajara. In the summer of 1937, the squad was on a tour in Mexico and USA in which it was received as an ambassador of the fighting Second Spanish Republic. That travel proved the financial saving of the club and also resulted in half the team seeking exile in Mexico and France. On 16 March 1938, the fascists dropped a bomb on the club's social club and caused big damages. A few months later, Barcelona was under fascist occupation and as a symbol of the 'undisciplined' Catalanism, the club, now down to just 3,486 members, was facing a number of serious problems.

Club de Fútbol Barcelona (1939-1974)

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 having its name forcibly changed to Club de Fútbol Barcelona and the removal of the Catalan flag from the club shield. During the Franco dictatorship one of the few places that Catalan could be spoken freely was within the club's stadium.

In 1943, at Les Corts, for the first leg of the semi-finals of the Copa del Generalísimo against Real Madrid, the result was a 3-0 win for Barça. 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'. Madrid side won that game 11-1.

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 first time since 1929. They added two more titles in 1948 and 1949. In 1949 they also won the first Copa Latina.

In 1951, a tram strike which took place in Barcelona, received the support of blaugrana fans surprising the Francoist authorities who could not understand why, on that Sunday in the pouring rain, the crowd left Les Corts stadium after beating Santander 2-1 by foot and refused to catch any trams. Moments like these show how FC Barcelona represents much more than just Catalonia for so many progressive Spaniards.

Coach Fernando Daucik and Ladislao Kubala, regarded by many as the club's best ever player, inspired 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 they helped the club win La Liga and the Copa del Generalísimo again. The club also won the Copa del Generalísimo 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, Sándor 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 eliminatory, thus ending their monopoly of the competition. To little avail, anyway- they lost 3-2 to Benfica in the final.

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 Fusté and Carles Rexach and the club winning the Copa del Generalísimo in 1963 and the Fairs Cup in 1966. Barça restored some pride by beating Real Madrid 1-0 in the 1968 Copa del Generalísimo final at the Bernabéu. The club changed its official name back to Futbol Club Barcelona in 1974.^[4]

Cruyff's first pass (1974-1978)

The 1973/74 season saw the arrival, as player, 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 Madrid because he could not play for a club associated with Franco.^[5][6] 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 in his first year at the club.

The Núñez era (1978-2000)

Josep Lluís Núñez 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. Besides, in 1979 and 1982 the club won two of four European Cup Winners' Cups won in the Núñez era.

In June 1982 Diego Maradona was signed for a world record fee from Boca Juniors. In the following season, under coach César Luis Menotti, Barcelona and Maradona in an unforgettable final won the Copa del Rey, beating Real Madrid. However Diego's time with Barça 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 stellar 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.

After the 1986 World Cup, English top scorer Gary Lineker was signed along with goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta but the team could not achieve success while Schuster was excluded from the team. Terry Venables was subsequently fired at the beginning of the 1987/88 season and replaced with Luis Aragonés. That season finished with a rebellion of the players against president Núñez known as the Motín del Hesperia and the 1-0 victory at the Copa del Rey final against Real Sociedad.

In 1988 Johan Cruyff returned to the club as manager and assembled the so-called Dream Team, named after the US basketball team that played at the 1992 Summer Olympics hosted by Barcelona. He introduced players like Josep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero, Txiki Beguiristáin, Jon Andoni Goikoetxea, Gheorghe Hagi, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário and Hristo Stoichkov.

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 legendary 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. With 11 trophies, Cruijff became the club's most successful manager to date. He also became the club's longest serving manager. However, in his final two seasons, he failed to win any trophies (not to mention the disastrous 4-0 defeat in the UEFA Champions League 1994 final against AC Milan) and fell out with president Núñez, resulting in Cruijff's departure.

Cruijff was briefly replaced by Bobby Robson who took charge of the club for a single season in 1996/97. He is quoted as saying, "Catalonia is a country and FC Barcelona is their army". He recruited Ronaldo from his previous club, PSV Eindhoven 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.

Like Maradona, Ronaldo only stayed a short time and he left for Inter Milan. However, new heroes such as Luís Figo, Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, Luis Enrique Martínez and Rivaldo emerged and the team won a Copa del Rey/La Liga double in 1998. In 1999 the club celebrated its 'centenari' winning the Primera División title 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 Núñez resigning in 2000.

FC Barcelona

Futbol Club Barcelona (Catalan IPA: [fudˈbɔɫ ˌklup bəɾsəˈlonə], Spanish IPA: [ˈfutβol ˌkluβ baɾθeˈlona]), known familiarly as Barça (Spanish IPA: [ˈbaɾsa], Catalan IPA: [ˈbaɾsə]), is a sports club based in Barcelona, Spain. It is best known for its football team, which was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English, and Catalan men led by Joan Gamper. The club has become a Catalan institution, hence the motto Més que un club (More than a club).

They were founding members of La Liga in 1928, and, together with Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, they have never been relegated from the top division. The club were also the first La Liga champions, winning a total of 18 La Liga, 24 Copa del Rey, 7 Supercopa de España, 2 UEFA Champions League, 4 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, 3 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and 2 European Super Cup trophies.

The club's main stadium is the Camp Nou and the fans of FC Barcelona are known as culers or culés. In Spain, about 25% of the population are said to be Barça supporters. In June 2007, the number of socis (club members/owners) reached 156,366, while in June 2006 the number of penyes (officially-registered supporter clubs) reached 1782 worldwide.

The club also operates a reserve team, FC Barcelona Atlètic, and four other professional sports teams, Regal FC Barcelona, FC Barcelona, FC Barcelona Futsal and FC Barcelona Sorli Discau that compete at basketball, handball, futsal and rink hockey respectively. Until 2007 there was also a youth team, FC Barcelona C.

There are also a number of prominent amateur sports teams that compete at rugby union, women's football and wheelchair basketball. These include FCB Rugby and FC Barcelona-Institut Guttman. Other amateur teams represent the club at ice hockey, athletics, baseball, cycling, field hockey, figure skating, and volleyball.

During the 2006-07 season, FC Barcelona was the third richest club in the world with a revenue of €291.1 million

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