FC Barcelona - Football Club Barcelona
More Than a Club
The FC Barcelona, also known as “Barça”, is a sport club located in Barcelona Spain. With more than one hundred years of history, the Barcelona Football Club is known around the world because of the soccer team.
The Camp Nou Stadium complex, The Museum and the Barcelona Soccer Team are among the most important Barcelona attractions and are present in almost every Barcelona Tourist Guide.
The FCB, besides of having a Junior Football Team, is also present in other sport disciplines like Basketball, Handball, Field Hockey, Ice Hockey, Futsal, Baseball, Volleyball, Athletics, Rugby, Wheelchair Basketball, Cycling, Figure Skating, ...
See the Camp Nou stadium and the Barça Museum:
Book a Tour to the Barcelona Football Club
In case you will stay at some place in the Costa Brava, no problem. There is a very nice option available for you:
Book a Barcelona Sports Tour
Want to see the Barça in action at the Camp Nou? Buy your ticket here:
FC Barcelona Tickets
The Beginning, 1899-1922
FCB - Coat of Arms
The founder of the Barcelona Football Club was Hans Gamper, born in Winterthur, Switzerland, on November 22, 1877. Gamper was a sportsman and founder of the FC Zurich. He moved to Barcelona on 1898, because of business reasons.
On October 22, 1899, he put an ad on a local sport magazine calling for football players, with the aim to organize football matches in Barcelona Spain.
On November 29, 1899, Gamper presided the first club meeting. The English player Gualten Wild was elected as the first President of the club. Hans Gamper was a very good player and he scored a high number of goals, until he stopped playing football in 1903. Gamper became president of the club in 1908.
The shirt colors, have been blue and red wine colors from the beginning. The present club coat of arms was adopted in 1910.
The first ground was officially opened on March, 1909, and had a capacity for six thousand people. The team won several championships from 1901 to 1922, giving thus a very good momentum for the expansion of the FC Barcelona.
The Golden Era, 1922-1957
The FC Barcelona lived ten good years, known as the golden era, from 1919 until the world crisis of 1930. On May 20, 1922, was inaugurated the new Les Corts ground and stadium, with an initial capacity of round thirty thousand people, which was later enlarged to double.
In 1930, the stadium was closed by the dictator Primo de Rivera and was used for military purposes during the Spanish Civil War. The founder, Hans Gamper, died in 1930.
There were difficult times during this period and the number of members dropped dramatically. The difficult times became a past history from 1940 onwards. The FC Barcelona began a new era.
In 1949, the Barcelona Football Club had almost twenty five thousand members, won a total of 21 Catalan Championships, four Spanish Leagues and nine cups.
In 1950, the number of members increased to round thirty thousand. Until 1953, the FC Barcelona won five cups. At this time, the Les Corts stadium was not big enough for the growing club.
The Camp Nou Stadium Building, 1957-1974
The Barcelona Soccer Team was improving its performance and the FC Barcelona was growing to the point, that a bigger stadium became necessary.
On September 24, 1957, the new stadium known as Camp Nou, was inaugurated when Francesc Miro-Sans was president of the Barcelona Football Club.
The new stadium had a capacity for ninety thousand people. By that times, the number of members was steadily increasing.
In 1974, the 75th anniversary of the Barça was celebrated with a poster made by the artist Joan Miro, and other famous names of the Catalan society who participated of this event.
The “Dream Team” and The European Cup, 1974-1992
After the dictatorship of Francisco Franco in Spain, democracy was established in the country, and of course, also in the Barcelona Football Club.
Josep Lluis Nuñez was elected president. During his long presidency, the Barça experimented a substantial financial growth, mainly due to the television rights.
In 1979, the Barcelona Soccer Team won the Winners Cup in Basel. This would repeat both, in 1982 and 1989. The club continued growing steadily and the number of Barcelona supporters increased. In 1982, the Camp Nou stadium was enlarged and the Miniestadi (small stadium), was built.
Johan Cruyff created a totally new team known as the “Dream Team” that succeeded and won four consecutive league titles from 1991 to 1994. In May 20, 1992, at the Wembley stadium, the FC Barcelona won its first European Cup.
Want to see the Barça in action at the Camp Nou?
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To the Future Camp Nou, 1992-2007
In 1994, the Barça was defeated during the European Cup final in Athens. This year, marked the end of the Dream Team´s era. In 1996, the most successful manager of the FC Barcelona until now, Johan Cruyff, left the Barça.
He was followed by the new president, Josep Lluis Nuñez. Under his management, the Barcelona Soccer Team obtained some good results during 1996-1997, but then declined its performance. The members were not satisfied with the new management.
The centenary celebrations of the Barça started on November, 1998 and were finalized on November, 1999. This was perhaps a good motivation year for the Barcelona Football Club. During this year, the Barça won league titles, not only in football, but also in handball, roller hockey and basketball.
In 2000, Joan Gaspart was elected president. The club did not succeed under his management, and he resigned in 2003, when Joan Laporta was elected as the new president of the Barça. The club started a new enthusiastic era with superstars, like Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Deco. The club started to win titles again, and the number of members increased dramatically.
The year 2006 was perhaps one of the most important years in the history of the FC Barcelona, not only for the won cups. A new sport complex was opened, and the agreement with Unicef was signed.
In June, 2007, the Barça counted already with more than 156,000 members. In September, 2007, the British architect Norman Foster, was commissioned to restructure the Camp Nou stadium, which is one of the Barcelona Attractions.
The future Camp Nou will undoubtedly mark a new growing era of the FC Barcelona...
According to Forbes, in April 2008, the Barcelona Football Club was in the 7th place of the most valuable European teams, with a team value of 580 millions Euros. In terms of Revenue, the FCB is in 3rd place in the rank, with 290 millions Euros.
See the Camp Nou stadium and the Barça Museum:
Book a Tour to the Barcelona Football Club
In case you will stay at some place in the Costa Brava, no problem. There is a very nice option available for you:
Book a Barcelona Sports Tour
Want to see the Barça in action at the Camp Nou?
Buy your Barcelona Tickets
The best team of the world, 2008-2009
Josep Guardiola, known as "Pep" Guardiola, was the new coach who took charge of the team during the season 2008-2009. He brought new ideas and contributed with his knowledge and experience to organize a team that will became virtually unbeatable.
Guardiola formed a fresh FC Barcelona team with some players from La Masia, like Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, and Pedro. La Masia (see pictures above and upper right in this page), is the name given to a house near the Camp Nou which is a residence of young players from outside of Barcelona and that also provides training facilities.
With this fresh blood the team begun then a new series of successes by winning the Spanish League, the Spanish Cup, the Champions League, both the European and Spanish Super Cups and the World Club Cup. This has been the first time in the world football´s history that a team has won all of the six titles.
The success of the FC Barcelona rose its popularity and media projection, which in turn resulted in an increase in the number of members, by reaching the figure of almost 173.000 in November 2009.
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