Barcelona Soccer Club

The Fútbol Club Barcelona (in Catalan, Futbol Club Barcelona), popularly known as Barça, is a sports entity based in Barcelona, Spain. It was founded as a football club on November 29, 1899 and officially registered on January 5, 1903.

Both the club and its fans are nicknamed "culers" (pronounced culés), and also, in reference to their colors, "azulgranas" or " Blaugranas”, as it appears in their anthem, the “cant del Barça”, which in its second line mentions “som la gent blaugrana » (in Spanish, «we are the blaugrana people»). The Barcelona supporter's service office provides assistance in the three official languages of the club, which are Catalan, Spanish and English.

At an institutional level, it is one of the four professional soccer clubs in the country whose legal entity is not that of a sports corporation (S.A.D.), since its ownership rests with its more than 143,000 members. Another caveat is shared with Athletic Club and Real Madrid Club de Fútbol by participating without interruption in the highest category of the National Professional Soccer League, the First Division of Spain, since its establishment in 1929. In it he has the honors of having been the first historic champion of the competition, his second club with the most titles, and the one with the highest score in a single edition.

Adding national and international tournaments, it is the second most successful Spanish club, at the national level it dominates the record with seventy-six championships, and at the international level it holds twenty-two trophies, ranking second in Europe. Same position It ranks as the sports club with the most European Cups counting all its professional sections —behind CSKA Moscow—, with 45.

According to the statistics compiled by the IFFHS, F.C. Barcelona is the best European and world soccer team of the first and second decades of the 21st century, and leads the global ranking of the century with 5,228 points, with a difference of 365 points above second place (Real Madrid C. F.). It is also the soccer team that has appeared on the FIFA World Player (19) and Ballon d'Or (34) podiums the most times.

One of the main characteristics of F. C. Barcelona is its multi-sports nature. It is distinguished for being one of the most successful multi-sports institutions, among which its soccer, basketball, handball and hockey sections stand out, all of them with a wide European record of honors. It is the first European club to be continental champion in the men's branch and women's, and the first to achieve a triplet with both. Likewise, the Olympic medalists who have represented the blaugrana entity have won eleven gold, twenty-three silver and twenty-eight bronze medals in different sports disciplines.

Nine former members of the club were included in the International Soccer Hall of Fame, a project dedicated to preserving the memory of important figures in soccer history. Among them are Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona, Ricardo Zamora, Luís Figo, Ronaldo Nazário, Hristo Stoichkov, Pep Guardiola and Ronaldinho de Assis, who are joined by László Kubala as "dean", or of special importance.

Another of its distinctive features is its social mass of members and fans. The club has managed to strategically integrate political, religious, cultural and social issues, which are framed within the sports field, this allows members and fans to respond to all social events of the club, also to have greater participation in administrative activities and the links between the supporters clubs are strengthened. In 2022 it had approximately 143,083 members. There are also 1,273 Barcelona supporters clubs throughout the world.

Its two historic rivals are Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, against which it plays "El Clásico", and Real Club Deportivo Espanyol, with whom it faces in the "Barcelona derby", the former being one of the matches of greatest rivalry and interest in world football.

22% of soccer fans surveyed in 2021 in Spain by the market statistics and opinion portal Statista point to it as the second most popular club. The number of supporters favors that it has a market value estimated at just over 3,500 million euros and obtained in 2020-21 an amount of income of 631 million without counting player transfers, although since the last decades it has had a heavy debt estimated at 1,350 million as of 2021 according to the club, not counting the Espai Barça project, under a loan of 815 million from the investment bank Goldman Sachs. A good indicator of the critical economic situation of the club is reflected in the net assets, an indicator of the club's own resources. It is the accounting measure of its value, that is, the funds that, together with external resources, finance its needs for the development of its activities. As of 2021, it is negative at 451 million, while its working capital is negative at 553 million, for which reason it requested a waiver from banks and financial funds at the beginning of 2021 to avoid bankruptcy.

History

Birth (1899-1922)

The announcement published in Sports.

1903 bluish formation.

Walter Wild, first president of the club (1899-1901). His main achievement was to get the Barça his first house.

A training of FC Barcelona in 1903

Fútbol Club Barcelona was founded on November 29, 1899 by a group of twelve soccer fans, summoned by the Swiss Hans Gamper through an advertisement published in Los Deportes magazine on October 22. of the same year. Among the twelve founders of the club were six Spaniards, three Swiss, two English and one German. The original name chosen was "Foot-ball Club Barcelona", in English, and the Swiss Walter Wild was designated as the first president of the club for being the oldest person among those present.

At the end of his first decade he won his first titles, a Spanish Cup and a Pyrenees Cup.

During the 1910s, the club made a great leap forward, both sporting and social: it won two Spanish Cups and three Pyrenees Cups, and reached 3,000 members, becoming one of the most popular societies in Catalonia. It was in those years that the nickname "culés" became popular, referring to the club's fans. The team played its matches in a field located on Calle Industria in Barcelona, which was massively crowded when Barcelona played, and from the street you could see how the fans located in the back were sitting in the galleries made of wood, with their backs turned. highest in the stands. The image from the street was that of a large number of behinds (cules), for this reason, Barcelona fans began to be called "culés". From that decade it should also be noted that, in In 1914, the club created its first multi-sports section, athletics.

On January 1, 1913, the club accepted a woman as a member for the first time, Edelmira Calvetó. In 1934 the journalist and athlete Ana María Martínez Sagi became the first woman to serve on the board of directors.

Primo de Rivera, Republic and Civil War (1923-1957)

F. C. Barcelona in 1928.

The 1920s went down in history as the club's first golden age. It went from 3,000 to 12,000 members and, in 1922, the club's first major stadium was opened, Campo de Las Corts, with a capacity for 30,000 spectators. Those were years in which the The club won four Spanish Cups and, in 1929, the first Spanish League in history. It is also worth noting the incidents that occurred in 1925 when the government of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship closed the Las Corts stadium for six months and forced the resignation of president Hans Gamper because of the whistles with which the Barcelona fans received the interpretation of the Royal March in the run-up to a match. During that decade, it should be noted that the club advanced in the line of expanding its multi-sports nature, and created sections for field hockey, basketball and rugby.

The Campo de Las Corts was the F. C. Barcelona stadium from 1922 to 1957. Picture of 1930.

The 1930s were one of great crisis for the club. The decade began with the suicide of Hans Gamper, probably due to the catastrophic economic situation in which he found himself plunged after the collapse of the Wall Street stock market in 1929. In the 1933-34 season, FC Barcelona finished penultimate, avoiding the last place that until the previous season meant relegation. That season they would be ahead of Arenas de Guecho by a difference of six points, although the Biscayan team avoided relegation thanks to the expansion of the First Division to twelve teams planned by the Spanish Federation before the start of the season and which meant that that season there would be no relegation place.

Subsequently, with the advent of the Second Republic, there was a drop in the number of members that worsened with the outbreak of the Spanish civil war in 1936. That year, in addition, the club's president Josep Suñol, who was a politician from Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, was shot by national troops in the Sierra de Guadarrama. The club ended the decade with only 2,500 members.

During the 1940s, the club gradually overcame its social and sporting crisis. The club was taken over by the authorities of the new Franco regime who, from then on and until 1953, would directly designate the president of the club. The new rectors made all the club's levels Spanish, eliminating any Catalan or Anglo-Saxon connotation. In 1940 the club was renamed «Club de Fútbol Barcelona» instead of «Football Club Barcelona», and the shield was modified: the four bars of the Catalan flag were removed to put in their place the Spanish flag, although in 1949, on the occasion of the club's golden wedding anniversary, the government authorized the replacement of the Catalan flag. On the sporting front, the team was recomposed after the war crisis and they ended up winning three Spanish leagues, one Spanish Cup and two Eva Duarte Cups. In addition, in the 1940s, new multi-sports sections were created, among which those for handball and roller hockey stood out.

The Barça of "Les 5 Copes" and the arrival at the Camp Nou

The 1950s were one of the best decades in the club's history, both sporting and social. The signing of Ladislao Kubala, in 1950, was the cornerstone on which a team was built that, in that decade, won 3 Spanish Leagues, 5 Generalissimo Cups, 4 Eva Duarte Cups, 3 Duward Cup, 1 Latin Cup, 2 Martini&Rossi Cup and 1 Small World Cup for Clubs.

In the 1951-1952 season, Kubala led Barcelona to one of the club's most victorious seasons. League, Cup, Latin Cup (official precedent of European competitions at club level and precursor competition of the European Cup) and the Eva Duarte trophies (for achieving the double, as League and Cup champion) and Martini & Rossi arrive at the club's showcases. It is the so-called "Les 5 Copes" team.

The social mass grew to 38,000 members that left the field of Las Corts too small, so a new stadium was built, the Camp Nou, inaugurated in September 1957 thanks to the reclassification of urban land granted by the regime Francoist. Another notable event of that decade was the holding of the first democratic elections for the presidency of the club in 1953, although only male members voted.

Barcelona Football Club (1957-1978)

Alignment of the CF Barcelona in 1961, at the European Cup.

The stadium of F. C. Barcelona became one of the few public scenarios where fans expressed themselves freely, and the club became the best ambassador of Catalonia abroad^{[chuckles]required]}. In those years President Narcís de Carreras in his inauguration speech in 1968, said that Barcelona was "more than a club" in the sense of fans, a phrase that was linked to the club.

After the successes of the 1950s came the crisis of the 1960s, in which the soccer team won 2 Generalissimo Cups and 2 Fairs Cups. These titles, however, failed to compensate for the defeat in the 1961 European Cup final or the social crisis generated by the departures of Helenio Herrera and Luis Suárez to Inter Milan, with which the Italian team would win two Cups of Europe.

In 1962 Franco's government authorized the second urban redevelopment and ended with a debt of 230 million pesetas and the more than possible disappearance of the Barça club.

During the 1970s, the unstoppable increase in the club's members continued: it went from 55,000 to 80,000. Those were the years in which Spanish soccer opened its doors to foreign players and the club signed international players as Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Hugo Sotil, Hansi Krankl and Allan Simonsen. In that decade, the soccer team won a Spanish League, 2 Copas del Rey, 1 Fair Champions Cup and 1 European Cup Winners' Cup. In 1978, José Luis Núñez became president, who would lead the club for the next two decades.

Núñez and the years of stability (1978-2000)

Johan Cruyff won four consecutive League titles (1991-1994) and the 1992 European Cup as Barcelona coach.

The 1980s saw great investments in the signing of great stars such as Maradona, Schuster or Lineker, but the soccer team could only win one league, three Copas del Rey, one Super Cup and two League Cups in Spain. At the European level, two Cup Winners' Cups were won, but they fell again in a European Cup final, the one played in Seville in 1986 against Steaua Bucharest. After a serious sporting and social crisis, in 1988 the club hired Johan Cruyff as coach, a fact that would mark the destiny of the club during the following decade. and the successes of the basketball, handball and roller hockey sections, which won important Spanish and European titles.

The "Dream Team"

The decade of the 1990s was the second best decade in the history of Fútbol Club Barcelona. They were ten years of success for the club in all orders, both in the football field and in the sports sections. The soccer team, coached by Johan Cruyff, and with players like Koeman, Guardiola, Amor, Stoichkov, Romário, Laudrup, Zubizarreta and Bakero, won four consecutive league titles between 1991 and 1994, one Cup, three Spanish Super Cups, one Recopa of Europe and a European Super Cup; and on May 20, 1992 he won the club's most precious title: the European Cup, at Wembley Stadium, against Italian Sampdoria with a score by Koeman. During these years, the The team played a great game and was popularly known as the "Dream Team", imitating the terminology used with the United States National Basketball Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Cruyff then began working on a new generation of homegrown players. The so-called "Quinta del Mini" needed time to settle in, and Barcelona did not win titles in the 1994-95 season. The team hired Luís Figo in 1995 to replace Michael Laudrup, who joined Real Madrid. However, the team's sporting situation deteriorated to the point of a deep social division between supporters of the coach, Johan Cruyff and supporters of the President, José Luis Núñez. Finally, Cruyff was fired with two days left to finish the 1995-96 season, and Núñez cleaned the squad of any trace of the Dutchman. This created a great social crisis in the club, which did not disappear despite the titles won by Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal, and ended up leading to the resignation of José Luis Núñez in 2000.

The 1990s were also a great decade for other professional sections. The basketball team consolidated itself in the elite of Spanish and European basketball, despite failing to win the European Cup, the final of which they played four times in that decade. The handball team became the best handball team in the world: they won all the titles, including six European Cups.

Plaque commemorative of the 100 years of the Barcelona Football Club (1899-1999).

Resignation of Núñez and arrival of Laporta (2000-2008)

The 2000s can be clearly divided into two stages. After Núñez's resignation in May 2000, Joan Gaspart was elected president. The club invested 180 million euros in the signings of footballers such as Marc Overmars, Javier Saviola and Juan Román Riquelme. Despite this, Gaspart's three years as president ended without football titles, and with a frequent rotation of coaches. The only sporting successes were brought by the sections, especially the basketball team that in 2003 managed to win the Euroleague.

After Gaspart's resignation, Joan Laporta became president, who faced a profound sporting, economic and social renewal.

The club signed players like Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Rafael Márquez and Deco; and Lionel Messi who made his debut in an official match on October 16, 2004. The new coach became Frank Rijkaard. The team ended the streak of six years without winning titles by proclaiming themselves champion of the 2004-05 League; and also managed to win two consecutive Spanish Leagues by repeating success in 2006 and the second Champions League, and the social mass of the club surpassed for the first time in history the figure of 140,000 members.

This period ended at the end of the 2007-2008 season, after two years without titles, with the dismissal of the then coach Frank Rijkaard (June 30, 2008) and the presentation of a motion of no confidence against Joan Laporta and his Board of Directors (May 9, 2008).

The "Guardiola Era" (2008-2012)

The Barça won all the competitions he played in 2009.

With the arrival of Pep Guardiola in charge of the team, Barcelona went down in history in the 2008-09 season after achieving the "triplete" winning the League, the Cup and the Champions League. It was thanks to the 2-0 victory in the final in Rome against Manchester United that the "Pep Team" achieved the treble, becoming the first and only Spanish team to have achieved such a feat, and joining the select circle of European clubs that They have done it before (Celtic, Ajax, PSV and Manchester United). In addition, Barcelona were proclaimed European champions with seven homegrown players in the final. Pep Guardiola's team, in addition to winning the three main titles, managed to surpass the feats of the "Dream Team" in terms of figures achieved in the League, breaking various records for goals, games won as visitors, etc.

Achieving the sextet

At the start of the 2009-10 season, the team won the Spanish Super Cup by beating Athletic Club in both games. They also won the European Super Cup by beating Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0. The team led by Josep Guardiola, after winning the Club World Cup against Estudiantes de La Plata 2-1, definitely went down in the history of world football, winning six official titles in the same year, a feat that had not been achieved never before by any other club. Guardiola's Barcelona achieved its second consecutive League in May 2010, with a total of 99 points, a figure that no other club had reached before.

Preponderance of the Blaugrana academy

On January 10, 2011, the podium for the 2010 Ballon d'Or was completely blaugrana: Leo Messi (the second Ballon d'Or of the seven he has won), Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández received recognition from all over the world football as the three best players of the previous year. An acknowledgment, not only to the three footballers but also to La Masía, since all three had been trained in the Barcelona youth academy.

On July 11, 2010, the Spanish team won the World Cup final by fielding seven Barcelona players in the starting squad, six of them trained at La Masía.

On February 5, 2011, the team achieved a new record by achieving its sixteenth consecutive victory in the League, against Atlético de Madrid, surpassing that of Real Madrid, which had fifteen consecutive victories during the 1960 season -61. On March 2, 2011, Barcelona reached another historical record by beating Valencia, that victory would allow them to reach twenty unbeaten games away from home, surpassing the Real Sociedad team record which he had reached in the 1978-79 season, nineteen games without losing.

The 2010-11 season would end with Barcelona winning the League for the third consecutive year and twenty-first time, and winning the UEFA Champions League for the fourth time.

After winning the Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, Club World Cup and Copa del Rey in the 2011-12 season, the Guardiola era ended with fourteen titles won out of a possible eighteen.

Presidency of Bartomeu (2012-2021)

The 2012-13 campaign begins with a change in the bench, that of Josep Guardiola for Tito Vilanova. The team maintains its level and achieves the best first round in history (18 wins and 1 draw), which is seen clouded by the relapse of Tito Vilanova due to cancer of the parotid gland in December for which he must undergo surgery in New York, only until April did he manage to rejoin the bench. They are proclaimed League champions, equaling the record for points (100) and victories (32), beating the club's record for goals (115) and with 15 points over Real Madrid, the biggest difference to date between the champion and the runner-up. After a season on the bench, on July 19, 2013 Vilanova decided to leave the club due to his cancer, which had afflicted him several months before.

On January 23, 2014, Sandro Rosell resigned from his position as president due to the complaint for alleged misappropriation as a result of the transfer of Neymar. Josep Maria Bartomeu replaced him until the end of his term, in 2016.

Dépor 2-1 Barça en Riazor por la Liga 2016-17.

Achieving the second triplet

Luis Enrique's Barcelona began the League obtaining 7 victories and a draw (without conceding a single goal) in the first 8 days. Luis Enrique's methods, with frequent rotations to dose his players, faced him with part of the squad, more notably with Lionel Messi, and the dismissal of the Asturian coach was even considered after a defeat against Real Sociedad. From that moment on, the numbers and the game of the Catalan team improved substantially, qualifying for the final of the Copa del Rey and the Champions League and regaining the lead in the League. On May 17, 2015, Barcelona were proclaimed champions of the League, and two weeks later, they also won the Copa del Rey. Rey. Barça finished the season by becoming Champions League champions for the fifth time in their history, thus becoming the only team to achieve two trebles.

The 2015-16 season began with the conquest of the fourth title of the year, the European Super Cup. and ended with the League title and the Copa del Rey, achieving their seventh national double.

The 2016-17 season was the last for Luis Enrique on the Barça bench due to his resignation as a result of the wear and tear that the job implies, according to the coach himself. He won the Spanish Super Cup against Sevilla F.C by an overall score of 5 -0. In the Champions League, after leaving first in their group with a single away defeat against Manchester City, on March 8, 2017 there was a historic comeback. After losing 4-0 in Paris against Paris Saint-Germain, the team was able to turn the score around at the Camp Nou with a 6-1 scoreline with goals from Suárez, Messi, Neymar and Sergi Roberto plus an own goal from Kurzawa, which accounted for the greatest comeback to date in the history of the competition. It became popular in France, being included in the famous Larousse dictionary. Finally, it would end up winning the twenty-ninth Copa del Rey title.

On May 29, 2017, the arrival of Ernesto Valverde to the technical direction of the club was confirmed, having to overcome the signing of Neymar by PSG. However, in La Liga Santander his start was overwhelming, getting 7 victories in the first 7 dates. On April 14, 2018, he surpassed Real Sociedad's record of 38 consecutive games without losing in the league (in force for 38 years), leaving the record at 43 games. On the 21st of the same month, he won his 30th Copa del Rey, achieving the double, the eighth in its history.

The 2018-19 season begins with the winning of the 2018 Spanish Super Cup in what was the first final played outside of Spanish territory. With this title, Messi became the most successful player in the competition with eight titles, and the club with thirty-three, surpassing Iniesta. In May 2019 the team won its 26th League.

Sixth Ballon d'Or for Lionel Messi (record)

On December 2, 2019, Lionel Messi won the Ballon d'Or for the sixth time in his career, thus becoming the most successful player by winning it in the editions of: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019.

Return of Joan Laporta

Luis Suárez said goodbye to the club after having scored 198 goals in 283 games played in six seasons, ranking at the time as the club's third all-time top scorer. At the start of the 2020-21 season, the figure of Ansu Fati stood out, one of the new revelations of the team who became the youngest player to score two goals in the Champions League before the age of 18, a mark that added to others achieved the previous year regarding his precocity, surpassing the records of Bojan Krkić, Kylian Mbappé or Raúl González among others.

With a pressing economic crisis, which ended up affecting the sporting sphere, the management board scheduled elections for the presidency for the month of January 2021. Due to the still persistent effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Elections were delayed to March 7, and Joan Laporta was elected again. In sports, the team managed to win the cup with a victory against Athletic Club.

Departure of Lionel Messi

At the end of the season, the captain and emblem of the club, Lionel Messi, left. The player, who finished his contract in June 2021, went to play in the Copa América confident that his future was not in greater danger, be at the expense of a renovation that both parties wanted. Despite this, the current LaLiga regulations regarding financial fair-play came into conflict with the economic situation of the Catalan club and that turned out to be the main stumbling block in the matter. An emotional press conference closed Messi's entire sporting life in Barcelona, where he played 778 games in which he scored 672 goals, the top scorer in the club's history, and where he achieved 35 official titles, being the second player with the most titles in the same club (second only to Ryan Giggs, Manchester United player).

Tenth European Handball Cup

In the 2020-21 season, the handball section was proclaimed champion of the EHF Champions League for the tenth time, after having an absolutely flawless season, winning the 6 titles it played (Catalan Super Cup, Spanish Super Cup, Copa del Rey, Asobal League, Asobal Cup and European Cup) and winning all the games played (61 victories in 61 games). The coach Xavi Pascual left the culé bench, after 12 years, with 61 titles in his private record.

Women's treble

In this same season the women's team wins its first UEFA Women's Champions League after beating Chelsea Football Club Women by a score of 4-0. Adding the league title and the 2021 Queen's Cup, the women's Barcelona became the first Spanish institution and the third European institution to achieve the treble in women's football. Five Blaugrana players were nominated for the 2021 Women's Ballon d'Or, an award won by Alexia Putellas, with Jennifer Hermoso coming second.

On March 30, 2022, they qualified for the semifinals of the Champions League, after beating Real Madrid 5-2, becoming the women's match with the most spectators in the entire history of football: 91,553 people attended at the Camp Nou, surpassing the record of 90,915 people who watched the 1999 World Cup final between the United States and China live at the Rose Bowl stadium in Los Angeles. On April 22 of the same year, they surpassed that figure in the same Champions League semifinal in a 5-1 against VfL Wolfsburg, gathering 91,648 attendees.

News

With Ronald Koeman ratified as manager, the club faced a new season, one of the most critical in its history due to its financial situation. Ranked ninth in the league, and in real danger of not going through the group stage of the Liga de Champions, the team settled into a sporting crisis that ended in the dismissal of the hero of the club's first European Cup. These were the preludes to the return of Xavi Hernández to the club, replacing the interim Sergi Barjuán.

In April 2021, according to a list published by Forbes, Barcelona became the most valuable soccer club in the world with a valuation of $4.76 billion.

Symbols

Shield

Escudo de la Villa de Barcelona that inspired the first shield of the club (1900-1910).

The Barcelona Football Club shield is shaped like a pot, divided into three quarters. In the two upper ones, the Barcelona flag is reproduced, that is, the Cross of Saint George and the Catalan flag. In the lower quarter there is a ball on the blue and scarlet colors of the club. In the center of the shield, in a strip, the initials of the club appear, «F. C.B.».

After its foundation, the club used that of the city of Barcelona as its own emblem as a way of expressing its relationship with the city. Said shield remained in use until 1910, two years after Hans Gamper saved the club from the deep crisis, in an attempt to provide the club with its own and differentiated shield. The entity called a contest open to all members to send their proposals, winning the design by Carles Comamala, a club player between 1903 and 1912.

The shield has changed little since that 1910 design and the changes introduced have been, to a large extent, of an aesthetic nature, with small modifications in the outline of its profile. However, there were important changes due to political conditions, since, during the Franco regime, the initials «F. C.B.» They were replaced by "C. F.B.», Club de Fútbol Barcelona, in line with the Spanish version of the club's name, and the number of bars in the upper barracks was reduced to two until they were recovered in 1949, taking advantage of the fiftieth anniversary events of the entity. The club did not recover its name in Catalan until November 8, 1973, after receiving the pertinent authorization from the Royal Spanish Football Federation, and at the end of 1974 the initial initials were reincorporated into the shield, with which it returned to the content original from 1910.

The modern design of the shield is the work of an adaptation by the designer Claret Serrahima carried out in 2002, which includes more stylized lines, suppresses the dots that separated the club's initials, shortens the name and reduces the number of points. The shield has had ten versions since the foundation of the club.

There are two versions of the origins of the club's crest. The first version tells that in the year 1900, one year after the club was founded, there was a meeting to decide on the shield (until then, Barcelona had used the city shield). It seems that there was no agreement on the shape and content of the shield and at one point during the meeting the secretary, Luis d'Ossó, visibly angry, exclaimed "this is a pot", so some historians believe that this it was the starting point for "drawing the sketch of a pot".

First coat of arms taken from the corporate seal (1899-00). The own shield taken from the emblem of the city (1900-10). Escudo de Femenia vicedor del contest creativo (1910-20).

Anthem

The official anthem of F. C. Barcelona, officially called Cant del Barça (in Spanish, Canto del Barça) was created and premiered in 1974, on the occasion of the acts of celebration of the club's 75th anniversary. The lyrics were written by Jaume Picas and Josep María Espinàs, and the music was composed by Manuel Valls i Gorina. It is entirely written in Catalan, and in the official version it is performed by the Coral Sant Jordi.

In recent years it has been performed by renowned singers such as Joan Manuel Serrat, on the occasion of different events such as the commemoration of the club's centenary. In addition, the board of directors chaired by Joan Laporta has encouraged various performers and musical groups to interpret it in the Camp Nou stadium, in the run-up to football matches, covering and adapting it to the most varied musical styles: pop, rock, rap, samba, rumba, among others.

One of the details that characterizes the hymn is the reference to the open and integrating character of the club, which does not differentiate the geographical origin of the followers; as one of the stanzas says, "it doesn't matter where we come from, if from the south or from the north, a flag unites us".

Clothing

Puyol, 2008-09.

The distinctive colors of F. C. Barcelona are blue and scarlet, from which comes the nickname "azulgrana" ("blaugrana" in Catalan) by which the club's players and fans are known.

There are various theories about the causes that led the founders of the club to choose these colors, although there is none that is sufficiently proven to be considered valid, although the most widespread and documented indicates that it was Hans Gamper himself, founder of the club, who decided the colors. In fact, it is proven that in the first football match that Gamper played in the city of Barcelona before the club was founded, he already wore these colors. It is claimed that Gamper chose these colors because they were the ones that identified F. C. Basel, a Swiss team in which Gamper had played before arriving in Barcelona, since he had become a member of F. C. Basel in 1896, wearing Barcelona for the first time in three years. before founding Barça. The theory that Joan Gamper was directly inspired by the colors of his former Swiss team when choosing Barça's is one of the most reasonable and well-founded, but even so there is no documentary evidence to support it and on the other hand it must cohabit with many more. In the founding meeting of F. C. Barcelona on November 29, 1899, which took place in the weapons room of the Solé Gymnasium, on the matter of choosing the blue and scarlet colors, Narciso Masferrer quotes: «It He discussed at length the name and colors that the club would adopt, being agreed, as the title of the company is Football Club Barcelona and the colors are blue and scarlet, which are, if we are not mistaken, the same as FC Basel, to which he has belonged until recently former Swiss champion Hans Gamper, our dear friend."

The term "azulgrana" comes from the combination of the colors blue and scarlet. These colors have always been present in the team's home jersey. However, for the first ten years of the club's history the pants were white, later black, and from the 1920s blue. In the 2005-06 season, the team wore scarlet pants, something unprecedented up to now, due to commercial reasons. In the 2011-12 season, the innovation in the first kit is that the shirt has the thinnest vertical stripes in history.

The team has had an alternative uniform or second kit at an official level since 1913, when white was chosen for the shirt and blue for the pants. This kit lasted for more than sixty years, until the 1975-76 season, when a yellow shirt with a diagonal blue stripe entered the scene. It was varying in colors such as yellow, blue or red, in the different shirts with a vertical blue stripe on the right side until from the 1998-99 season Nike became the supplier, choosing a wide range of colors from then.

In November 2012, the club reports that, as part of its agreement with Qatar Sports Investment, Qatar Airways will replace the Qatar Foundation as the main shirt sponsor from the 2013-14 season.

First

(evolution)

Actual

Infrastructure

Stadium

The stadium of F. C. Barcelona is the Camp Nou, owned by the club itself. Opened in 1957, it has a capacity of 99,354 spectators, all seated. It is one of the four stadiums in Spain classified as "Five Star Stadium" by UEFA, which enables it to host the Champions League, European Super Cup and UEFA Cup finals, as has happened on 15 occasions. It is located in the Las Corts neighborhood of Barcelona, next to other club facilities, such as the Mini Estadi (Barcelona B stadium) and the Palau Blaugrana, home of the basketball team. In the Camp Nou facilities is the F.C. Barcelona Museum, the most visited museum in Catalonia.

At the beginning of its foundation, on November 29, 1899, F. C. Barcelona did not have its own stadium. Due to not having a pitch of its own, F.C. Barcelona has to play its matches as a local team on other people's pitches, from the first inaugural match as a club on December 8, 1899 until the March 14, 1909 dispute their first game as a local in their own field, in the Campo de la Industria street. This lack of their own stadium forces them to play in different stadiums in which they have to move due to different circumstances and in which they remain in some for a few years and in others only for a few games. You can count six different stadiums before having your own stadium. Its first stadium was the former Bonanova Velodrome in 1899, the second stadium was the Campo del Hotel Casanovas in 1900, the third stadium was La Plaza de las Armas in 1901, the fourth stadium was La Carretera de Horta between 1901 and 1905, the fifth stadium was La Calle Muntaner between 1905 and 1909 and the sixth stadium was Campo de la Fuxarda, where only two games were played in 1909 before moving to the Campo's own stadium on Calle Industria Before Camp Nou, F.C. Barcelona had two stadiums, also owned by them. Between 1909 and 1922 he played at the Camp del Carrer Indústria in Barcelona, commonly called La Escopidora, with a capacity of 6,000 spectators, although the figures at the time were not very precise and the first in Barcelona, which had a two-story grandstand., which aroused admiration at that time, in the city. One of the versions about the etymology of the word "culés" comes from the field stadium on Calle Industria, since the stands allowed the fans' buttocks to be seen from outside the venue. Between 1922 and 1957 they played their matches at Campo de Las Corts, inaugurated to accommodate 30,000 spectators, and which had a capacity of 60,000 people. Campo de Las Corts was the field where FC Barcelona played on 24 September 1926, he began to play at home on a grass field, when he had done so to date on a dirt field.

At the expense of municipal planning permits, the remodeling of the stadium was planned, which should have started in the last third of 2008 and its completion was expected for the year 2012. The architect assigned was the British Norman Foster, who was the winner after a contest in which only ten projects became finalists. sir Norman Foster said he was inspired by Gaudí to create the new skin that will surround the stadium. The presidency of F.C. Barcelona and the College of Architects of Catalonia were the jury in charge of choosing the winning project.

The remodeling is based on updating a stadium that is over 50 years old and creating a roof to protect spectators from inclement weather. The fundamental requirements were: to cause the minimum inconvenience to the members, that the remodeling be compatible with the sports competition and that it adhere to a certain budget. As well as the creation of an attractive, modern and functional design.

In May 2010, the written press reported that Norman Foster's Camp Nou remodeling project, which he presented in September 2007, may be forgotten and be reconsidered for another remodeling project.

On the last day of the electoral campaign, June 11, 2010, two days before Sandro Rosell was elected president of FC Barcelona, two members of his team, Jordi Moix and Jordi Cardoner, presented the Espai Barça project, in Spanish, Espacio Barça, within which, among other works, the new reform model of the Camp Nou is included, according to a news item on the club's website. The Espai Barça project for its execution will depend on being approved in the assembly of delegates, since according to Rosell: "The member is the owner of the club and therefore the assembly will determine if this proposal goes ahead". The written press also reports approximately on the same dates that the Foster project will not be carried out and about the Espai Barça project an overall cost estimate of 150 million euros is reported. The Camp Nou will be remodeled internally, improving accessibility, covering the stands and expanding it with more seats. This reform will allocate an item of 30 million euros from the cost of the project. If the project is approved, the works will last between six and eight years.

The inner panoramic of the stadium from the west tribune.

Other facilities

• Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper in San Juan Despí
• Massa
• Stadium Johan Cruyff
• Palau Blaugrana
• Palau Blaugrana 2
• Space Memorial Football Club Barcelona, columbarium wrapped in polemics for not having completed in the conditions initially agreed upon

Club details

For statistical details of the club see Barcelona Football Club Statistics

Denominations

Throughout its history, the entity has seen how its name varied due to various circumstances up to the current Fútbol Club Barcelona, in force since 1973. The club was founded under the name of Foot-ball Club Barcelona, and being made official formally in 1903.

The following are the different denominations that the club has had throughout its history:

• Foot-ball Club Barcelona: (1899-41) Name after birth.
• Club de Fútbol Barcelona: (1941-73) After the establishment of the Spanish State, a chaplainization of the Anglicisms occurs.
• Club Barcelona: (1973-Act.) There was a liberalisation of terms that could adopt denominations in other languages.

Honours of Prizes

Fútbol Club Barcelona is one of the most successful institutions worldwide, totaling in its more than one hundred and ten years of history a total of one hundred and thirty-two official regional, national and international titles, which places it as the — «Spanish club with the most official titles». Among them, five Champions Leagues, five UEFA Super Cups, four European Cup Winners' Cups, three Fairs Cups, two Latin Cups, and three Club World Cups, adding twenty-two official international titles making it the second most successful European club and third in the world. In national competitions it holds the record for trophies with seventy-six —eight more than Real Madrid C.F.—, broken down into twenty-six Leagues, thirty-one Cups of Spain, fourteen Spanish Super Cups, three Eva Duarte Cups and two League Cups —national record in all the aforementioned cup competitions—. In terms of titles in its autonomous community, it has twenty-three Catalan Championships, seven Catalan Cups and two Catalan Super Cups.

In 2009 led by Josep Guardiola, the club won all the competitions it played in: the League, the Cup, the Spanish Super Cup, the Champions League, the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup, being the first and The only Spanish team and the first European team to achieve a "sextet", by winning six official titles in the same year —along with Bayern Munich. In 2015, under the command of Luis Enrique, they won the "triplete" for second time in their history, becoming the first European club to achieve such a feat.

It was considered by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) as the best club in the world in the years 1997, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015, being the institution that has led the ranking the most times.

It owns five League trophies for having won the competition three consecutive times or for five alternate times, and seven Copa del Rey trophies, in turn totaling the highest number of awards owned by soccer clubs in Spain with a total of twelve.

Note: in bold current competitions. Indicated the tournament record

National Tournaments (76)

National competition	Titles	Subcamponatos
First Division of Spain (26)	1929, 1945, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1959, 1960, 1974, 1985, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019.	1930, 1946, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2020, 2022. (27)
King's Cup (31)	1910, 1912, 1913, 1920, 1922, 1925, 1926, 1928, 1942, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1997, 1998, 2009, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021.	1919, 1932, 1936, 1954, 1974, 1984, 1986, 1996, 2011, 2014, 2019. (11)
Supercopa de España (14)	1983, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2023.	1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2021. (11)
League Cup (2)	1983, 1986.
Eva Duarte Cup (3)	1948, 1952, 1953.	1949, 1951. (2)

International Tournaments (22)

International competition	Titles	Subcamponatos
Club World Cup (3)	2009, 2011, 2015.	2006. (1)
Champions League (5)	1992, 2006, 2011, 2015.	1961, 1986, 1994. (3)
European Super Cup (5)	1992, 1997, 2011, 2015.	1979, 1982, 1989, 2006. (4)
Coup Europe (4)	1979, 1982, 1989, 1997.	1969, 1991. (2)
Fair Cup (3)	1958, 1960, 1966.	1962. (1)
Latin Cup (2)	1949, 1952.
Intercontinental Cup (0)		1992. (1)

IFFHS Club of the Year in 1997, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015.

Regional tournaments (34)

Regional competition	Titles	Subcamponatos
Championship of Catalonia (23)	1902, 19031905, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1935, 1936, 1938.	1907, 1908, 1915,1923, 1933, 1937. (6)
Catalonia Cup (7)	1991, 1993, 2004, 2005, 2013.	1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2011. (9)
Super Cup of Catalonia (2)	2014, 2018.	2016, 2019. (2)
Mediterranean League (1)	1937.
Catalan League (1)	1938.

Trajectory

For more details, consult Trayectoria del Fútbol Club Barcelona and Statistics from Football Club Barcelona

Since its founding in 1899 until the 2022-23 season, the entity has achieved a history of one hundred and twenty-three seasons, ninety-two of them in the professional field. During that period he has played sixteen official regional, national and international competitions organized by FIFA, UEFA, the RFEF and the FCF.

Fútbol Club Barcelona is one of the only three clubs that has always played in the Primera División —the highest club competition in Spain and the highest category of the league system— since its foundation in the 1928-29 season, adding a total of ninety and two presences. He occupies second place in the classification among the sixty-three historical participants in addition to being the second most successful with twenty-six and the first champion that the competition had. His worst recorded position occurred in the 1941-42 season when he finished in twelfth place. As for the rest of the national official competitions, he has a total of one hundred thirty-five appearances, in the Copa del Rey —a competition in which he dominates the record—, he has one hundred and five appearances out of one hundred and eighteen total, and only twelve absences.

In international competitions, it participates in the European Cup —currently the Champions League—, in which it has played a total of thirty-three seasons with absences in thirty-five editions; it is, therefore, the tenth club with the most presences and the third in the historical classification. In them it added a total of five titles that place it as the fifth most successful team in the competition among its 531 historical participants. Total fifty and three appearances in the rest of international official competitions for twelve absences in UEFA competition seasons. Among the most relevant, thirteen in the UEFA Cup / Europa League and thirteen in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Note: In bold active competitions.

Competition P.J. P.G. P.E. P.P. G.F. G.C. Better result First Division League Championship 2953 1705 603 645 6328 3293 Champion Promotion of descent 1 1 0 0 5 1 - Spanish Cup Championship 608 380 100 128 1494 678 Champion President Cup FEF / Eva Duarte Cup / Supercopa de España 58 22 9 27 91 103 Champion Spanish League Cup 24 10 8 6 39 27 Champion European Cup / UEFA Champions League 333 195 75 63 655 331 Champion Intercontinental Cup / Club World Cup 9 7 0 2 24 5 Champion UEFA Cup / UEFA European League 84 42 20 22 159 83 Semifinals EUFA Super Cup 14 6 4 4 17 17 Champion EUFA Recoup 85 50 18 17 178 87 Champion Latin Cup 4 4 0 0 12 3 Champion Fair Cup 70 35 17 18 141 85 Champion Total 4243 2457 854 932 9143 4713 98 Titles See full statistics Updated statistics up to the last game played the 13 August 2022. Sources: Professional Football League (LFP) - UEFA

The six trophies conquered in 2009.

Evolution

Note: the 1936-37, 1937-38 and 1938-39 seasons were not contested due to the Civil War.

Sports organization chart

Players

Lionel Messi, the most decisive player in the history of the club.

More than a thousand footballers have worn the Fútbol Club Barcelona first team jersey throughout its 123-year history. Players of foreign origin (although some are Spanish nationals) have always had a great weight in the club's history, and have marked the most brilliant times for the Catalan team. Founded by a group of foreigners living in Barcelona, the team initially consisted of players of mostly English, Swiss and German origin. Most historians consider that the Hungarian Ladislao Kubala was, in the 1950s, the first great figure of international stature to play for the Barcelona team. However, it was from the 1970s when Spanish football regularized the participation of foreign players, and therefore when the club began to sign great international figures. Since then, F.C. Barcelona has had various players who, playing for the Barça club, have won the most prestigious individual trophies in world football.

Five players from the club were awarded the FIFA World Player of the Year award, which accredited them as the best soccer players in the world: Romário, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho on two consecutive occasions, and Lionel Messi; and six were awarded the Ballon d'Or, which accredited them as the best players in European football: Luis Suárez, Johan Cruyff on three occasions, Hristo Stoichkov, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Messi, who made history at the club by being the first youth squad to achieve it.. A player from the club has won the Ballon d'Or, Silver or Bronze on up to twenty occasions, in addition to four other occasions in which a player has won one of these awards, having played the first part of that year at the Barça club; Ronaldo in 1997 and being a player for Inter Milan, and Luís Figo in 2000 belonging to Real Madrid. In addition, the club has had players with other major international distinctions such as Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández, Michael Laudrup, Samuel Eto'o, Allan Simonsen, Hansi Krankl, Diego Maradona, Gary Lineker or Zlatan Ibrahimović among others.

After the merger of the FIFA World Player of the Year with the Ballon d'Or, the FIFA Ballon d'Or was created, where the club has had nine nominations (Neymar once, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández twice and Lionel Messi four times) and three first places (all by Lionel Messi, who adds a total of six, the player with the most awards of the award).

The footballers who have played the most official matches for F. C. Barcelona are: Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Sergio Busquets, Andrés Iniesta, Gerard Piqué and Carles Puyol. The Argentine Lionel Messi with seven hundred and seventy-eight is the Barcelona member with the most games played.

The players who have scored the most goals in official competitions are: Lionel Messi, César Rodríguez, Luis Suárez, Ladislao Kubala, and José Samitier. The Argentine Lionel Messi stands out as the all-time top scorer with six hundred and seventy-two goals, and the footballer who has garnered the most titles during his stay at the entity with thirty-four.

Historically, F. C. Barcelona has been, along with Real Madrid, one of the teams that has contributed the most to nurture the Spanish team. The club's player with the most caps for the Spanish team was midfielder Xavi Hernández, who played one hundred and thirty-three games until being surpassed by Sergio Busquets, and along with Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Gerard Piqué and Carles Puyol belong to the selective Barcelona footballers of the "FIFA Century Club" for having played one hundred or more matches with their absolute national team.

Note: In bold the active players in the club. Seasons accounted for with the first team record.

Squad 2022-23

Players	Technical body		More used tactical scheme
N.o Nac. Pass. Pos. Name Age Eq. provenance Cont. INT. Porteros 1 Germany! 0BY Marc-André ter Stegen 30 years B. Mönchengladbach 2025 Absolute 13 Spain! 0BY Iñaki Peña 23 years quarry 2023 Sub-21 Defense 4 Uruguay! 1DEF Ronald Araújo 23 years quarry 2026 Absolute 15 Denmark! 1DEF Andreas Christensen 26 years Chelsea F.C. 2026 Absolute 17 Spain! 1DEF Marcos Alonso 32 years Chelsea F.C. 2023 Absolute 18 Spain! 1DEF Jordi Alba 33 years Valencia C. F. 2024 Absolute 20 Spain! 1DEF Sergi Roberto 31 years quarry 2023 Absolute 23 France! 1DEF Jules Koundé 24 years Sevilla F. C. 2027 Absolute 24 Spain! 1DEF Eric García 22 years Manchester City F. C. 2026 Absolute 28 Spain! 1DEF Alejandro Balde 19 years quarry 2024 Absolute Campers 5 Spain! 2MED Sergio Busquets 34 years quarry 2023 Absolute 6 Spain! 2MED Gavi 18 years quarry 2023 Absolute 8 Spain! 2MED Pedri 20 years U. D. Las Palmas 2026 Absolute 19 Ivory Coast! 2MED Franck Kessié 26 years A. C. Milan 2026 Absolute 21 Netherlands! 2MED Frenkie from Jong 25 years A. F. C. Ajax 2026 Absolute 32 Spain! 2MED Pablo Torre 19 years quarry 2026 Sub-21 Delanteros 7 France! 3OF THE Ousmane Dembélé 25 years Borussia Dortmund 2024 Absolute 9 Poland! 3OF THE Robert Lewandowski 34 years F. C. Bayern München 2026 Absolute 10 Spain! 3OF THE Ansu Fati 20 years quarry 2027 Absolute 11 Spain! 3OF THE Ferran Torres 23 years Manchester City F. C. 2027 Absolute 22 Brazil! 3OF THE Raphinha 26 years Leeds United F. C. 2027 Absolute Cessions -- France! 1DEF Clément Lenglet 27 years → Tottenham Hotspur F. C. 2026 Absolute -- Portugal! 3OF THE Francisco Trincão 23 years → Sporting C. P. 2025 Absolute -- Spain! 2MED Nico González 21 years → Valencia C. F. 2026 Sub-21 -- Spain! 2MED Alex Collado 23 years → Elche C. F. 2024 Sub-19 -- France! 1DEF Samuel Umtiti 29 years → U. S. Lecce 2026 Absolute -- United States! 1DEF Sergiño Dest 22 years → A. C. Milan 2025 Absolute -- Morocco! 3OF THE Abde Ezzalzouli 21 years → C. A. Osasuna 2026 Absolute	Coach(s) Xavi Deputy(s) Óscar Hernández Sergio Physical Preparer(s) Iván Torres Andrés Martín Coach(s) of porters José de la Fuente Assistant(s) / Analyst(s) Sergio García Toni Lobo David Prats Delegate(s) Carlos Naval Physical therapist(s) Carlos Nogueira Jordi Mesalles David Díaz Cueli Jaume Munill Doctor(s) Ricard Pruna Toni Tramullas Silvia Tremoleda Legend Captain Mission quarry (club-trained) Training (association-trained) European passport Aliens Extracommunity without restriction Lost to the club Granted to another club Discarded / No chip Updated on January 31, 2023 Official web template		4-3-3 GER! BY 1 DEF 4 DEF 23 DEF 15 DEF 28 MED 6 MED 5 MED 8 OF THE 22 OF THE 7 OF THE 9 Incorporation 2022-23 Franck Kessié ( A. C. Milan) Andreas Christensen ( Chelsea F. C.) Raphinha Dias ( Leeds United F. C.) Ousmane Dembélé ( Borussia Dortmund) Robert Lewandowski ( F. C. Bayern) Jules Koundé ( Sevilla F. C.) Héctor Bellerín ( Arsenal F. C.) Marcos Alonso ( Chelsea F. C.) Filials with participation Gavi (Debut 29-8-2021) Alejandro Balde (Debut 20-9-2021) Ilias Akhomach (Debut on 20-11-2021) Alvaro Sanz (Debut 2-1-2022) Estanis Pedrola (Debut 2-1-2022) Mika Marmol (Debut 15-5-2022) Pablo Torre (Debut 7-9-2022) UEFA Cupslocally-trained) Sergio Busquets (Canteran) Ansu Fati (Canteran) Sergi Roberto (Canteran) Iñaki Peña (Canteran) Other 4 players (federation) Implemented minimum 8 players locally-trained and minimum of 4 of them club-trained

• As the LFP rules require, the first-staff players will have to carry the dorsals from 1 to 25. From the 26th they will be players of the subsidiary team, to which they belong to all the effects, and as such, they will be able to match matches with the first and second team, and up to a maximum of ten, when they will automatically pass to exclusive discipline of the first team, not being able to participate more in the subsidiary.
• According to UEFA regulations, each club can only have a maximum of three extra-community players, who occupy a foreign position, while a canteran must remain at least three years of training age at the club (15-21 years) to be considered as such. The list includes only the main nationality of each player, some of the non-European players have dual nationality from some EU country:
  • Raphinha Belloli has dual Brazilian and Italian nationality.
  • Franck Kessié has the double nationality of Marshal and Italian.

Ups and downs 2022-23

This section is an excerpt from Annex:Futbolistas del Fútbol Club Barcelona § high FCB202223.[chuckles]edit]

Note: Price does not include VAT or target sums as they have not been effective.

Costs of tiles: 162 000 €

Sales income: 39 500 000 €

Altas
Player	Age	Position	Proceedings	Contract	Type	Cost
Emre Demir	18 years	Mediocampista	Kayseri S. K.	2027	Transfer	2 000 000 €
Pablo Torre	19 years	Mediocampista	Racing of Santander	2026	Transfer	5 000 000 €
Robert Lewandowski	33 years	Delantero	F. C. Bayern	2027	Transfer	45 000 000 € *
Jules Koundé	23 years	Defence	Sevilla F. C.	2027	Transfer	50 000 €
Raphinha Dias	25 years	Delantero	Leeds United F. C.	2027	Transfer	60 000 000 € **
Franck Kessié	25 years	Mediocampista	A. C. Milan	2026	Free	0 €
Andreas Christensen	26 years	Defence	Chelsea F.C.	2026	Free	0 €
Ousmane Dembélé ***	25 years	Delantero	Free agent	2024	Free	0 €
Miralem Pjanić	32 years	Mediocampista	Beşiktaş J. K.	2024	Return of cession	-
Alex Collado	23 years	Mediocampista	Grenada C. F.	2023	Return of cession	-
Iñaki Peña	23 years	Porter	Galatasaray S. K.	2023	Return of cession	-
Note *: transfer price does not include variables (5M € per lens + 10M € per card bonus + 20M € agent commission). Note **: figures vary from sources between €58M and €75M, all confirm about £60M. (Indicated 60M €). Note ***: caused down to then incorporated as high.

Low
Player	Age	Position	Destination	Type	Collection
Philippe Coutinho	30 years	Mediocampista	Aston Villa F. C.	Transfer	20 000 000 €
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	33 years	Delantero	Chelsea F.C.	Transfer	12 000 €
Ferran Jutglà	23 years	Delantero	Club Bruges	Transfer	5 000 000 €
King Manaj	25 years	Delantero	Watford F. C.	Transfer	2 500 000 €
Moussa Wagué	23 years	Defence	H. N. K. Gorica	Transfer	0 €
Net	33 years	Porter	AFC Bournemouth	Contract termination	-
Oscar Mingueza	23 years	Defence	Vigo Celt	Contract termination	-
Riqui Puig	23 years	Mediocampista	Los Angeles Galaxy	Contract termination	-
Dani Alves	39 years	Defence	U.N.A.M. Pumas	End of contract	-
Ousmane Dembélé **	25 years	Delantero		End of contract	-
Luuk de Jong	32 years	Delantero	Sevilla F. C.	End of assignment	-
Adama Traoré	26 years	Delantero	Wolverhampton Wanderers F. C.	End of assignment	-
Martin Braithwaite	31 years	Mediocampista	Espanyol	Contract termination
Antoine Griezmann	31 years	Delantero	Atletico de Madrid	Purchase option
Miralem Pjanić	32 years	Mediocampista	Sharja F. C.	Contract termination	-
Gerard Piqué	35 years	Defence		Withdraw	-
Note *: reserved 50% of your rights. Note **: caused lower to then enter as high.

Cessions
Player	Age	Position	Destination	Home	Term
Clément Lenglet	27 years	Defence	Tottenham Hotspur F. C.	9/7/2022	30/6/2023
Francisco Trincão	22 years	Delantero	Sporting de Lisboa	13/7/2022	30/6/2023
Nico González	20 years	Mediocampista	Valencia C. F.	12/8/2022	30/6/2023
Alex Collado	23 years	Delantero	Elche C. F.	15/8/2022	30/6/2023
Samuel Umtiti	28 years	Defence	U. S. Lecce	26/8/2022	30/6/2023
Sergiño Dest	21 years	Defence	A. C. Milan	1/9/2022	30/6/2023
Ez Abde	20 years	Delantero	C. A. Osasuna	1/9/2022	30/6/2023

Coaches

F. C. Barcelona has had, counting its current coach, a total of 61 soccer coaches throughout its history. The first coach the club had was the Englishman Billy Lambe, who led the team from January to September 1912, acting as both player and coach. Previously, the club did not have a manager. It was common practice in football teams that, until the early 1910s, the squad was drawn up by the president and the board of directors, who decided on signings, transfers and, in most cases, the line-ups for the matches.. Training sessions, which at that time were few since football was not professional, were usually self-managed by the players themselves.

Like Billy Lambe, most of the coaches that F.C. Barcelona has had have been foreigners. Of the club's 61 coaches, 29 have been Spanish (17 of them Catalan). In most cases, the Spanish coaches have been ex-players of the club who took over after the departure of the head coach. There have only been seven cases of Spanish coaches who had not previously worn the club's shirt as a player: Enric Rabassa, Enrique Orizaola, Vicente Sasot, Laureano Ruiz, Luis Aragonés, Lorenzo Serra Ferrer and Quique Setién.

The main nationalities of non-Spanish coaches have been English (10), Dutch (5), Argentine (4) and Hungarian (3). The club has also had two German coaches, two Serbs, an Austrian, a Slovak, a French, an Irish, an Italian and a Uruguayan. There have only been five non-European coaches in the club's history: four Argentines (Helenio Herrera, Roque Olsen, César Luis Menotti and Gerardo Martino) and one Uruguayan (Enrique Fernández).

The coach who held the position for the longest consecutive years was the Englishman Jack Greenwell, who led the team in two different periods, between 1913 and 1923, and between 1931 and 1933. The second longest-serving coach in charge was Dutchman Johan Cruyff, who spent eight consecutive years, between 1988 and 1996. Cruyff is also the coach who has led the club in the most games with four hundred and thirty, the one with the most victories with two hundred and fifty, and with his eleven trophies obtained the second in most titles after Josep Guardiola; He also stands out as the coach with the longest winning streak of League titles in the entity's history with four between 1991 and 1994, and the first to win the European Cup. The third coach in number of games managed is the Dutchman Rinus Michels, who led the team in three hundred and sixty-one games spread over two stages: between 1971 and 1975, and between 1976 and 1978.

Another outstanding coach was the Dutchman Frank Rijkaard, who was in charge from June 2003 to May 2008. With an offensive style, he performed an outstanding job, winning two Leagues, two Spanish Super Cups and the Champions League in the 2005-2006 season, the second in the entire history of the club. On May 8, 2008, the team's board of directors announced the dismissal of coach Frank Rijkaard once the season was over, on June 30, one year before the end of his contract, being replaced by the subsidiary team's coach Josep Guardiola.

On June 5, 2008, Josep Guardiola was officially presented as coach of F. C. Barcelona. After the Catalan club's board of directors announced on May 8, 2008 that Guardiola would take over the reins of the team from June 30, Pep formalized the agreement at Barça's facilities on June 5 2008. Guardiola made history by achieving the "sextuplet" winning the Cup, League, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup and Club World Cup in his debut year on the team's bench. He also achieved other outstanding achievements, such as chaining three consecutive leagues (equaling Johan Cruyff) and winning the fourth European Cup. Furthermore, with fourteen titles he is the most successful coach in the club's history.

On April 27, 2012, it was announced that Tito Vilanova would be Guardiola's replacement at the helm of the first team next season, he manages to keep up the pace, achieving great results, especially in the League, getting the best first round of the league history. But in December he suffered a relapse of his parotid gland cancer, separating him from the bench for 4 months. Already on his return, the season continues on the right track, but ends up being eliminated from the Copa del Rey and the Champions League in the semifinals. Instead, they were proclaimed League champions with 100 points and 115 goals, a record. On July 19, 2013, Vilanova's own resignation was announced, after relapsing from his illness. Four days later, it was confirmed that Gerardo Martino would be the new coach, signing for 2 seasons. On April 25, 2014, the former coach of the club, Tito Vilanova, died of cancer in the city of Barcelona. After just one season at the club, Martino left the entity after getting only one title, the Spanish Super Cup.

On May 19, 2014, Luis Enrique took over as the new coach with a contract until 2016, which was extended for one more season after its completion, having won 9 titles including a treble, a quintuplet and a double, to later be relieved by Ernesto Valverde, who until his dismissal in January 2020 and his replacement by Quique Setién had won two Leagues, a Copa del Rey and a Spanish Super Cup. Setién had 16 wins, four draws and five losses in the seven months in which he led the team, being replaced on August 19, 2020 by the Dutchman Ronald Koeman.

Presidency

Joan Laporta, last president-elect of F. C. Barcelona.

Fútbol Club Barcelona has had, counting the current one, 41 presidents throughout its history. In addition, the club has been run by a committee of employees, which managed the club during the civil war, and various management commissions. At the club's constitution assembly, the Swiss Walter Wild was elected as its first president, who had closely helped his friend and compatriot Hans Gamper in the founding process. Gamper, however, was later president in up to five different stages. The longest-serving president in the club's history was José Luis Núñez, who held the position for 22 years, between 1978 and 2000.

The presidency of F. C. Barcelona is elected by its members, through universal suffrage elections, held every four seasons, in which all members of the club over the age of 18 have the right to elect and be elected, with one year of seniority as members of the club.

The president chooses the members of his Board of Directors, who are ratified by an assembly of delegated members: 300 members over the age of 18 chosen by lottery and who, for a period of two years, participate in the annual assemblies of members, with voice and vote, representing all club members.

The current president of F. C. Barcelona is Joan Laporta, who has been in office for his second term (the first was between 2003 and 2010) since March 17, 2021, 10 days after defeating 2 other candidates in the elections presidential. He succeeded Josep Maria Bartomeu, a businessman who was vice president of Sandro Rosell's board of directors and who became president after Rosell's resignation in January 2014.

On March 26, 2010, Johan Cruyff was unanimously appointed by the Board of Directors of F. C. Barcelona as Honorary President of the Club, this title being treated as a "protocol rank", an appointment that agrees, according to the news on the club's website, with article 16 of the F.C. Barcelona Statutes. On July 2, 2010, Johan Cruyff returns the badge that distinguished him as honorary president of F.C. Barcelona. According to Sandro Rosell, the figure of Honorary President is illegal, since it does not exist and we must wait for the Assembly of Committed Members to debate the creation of a statutory change that contemplates this figure and the decision, if approved, to who should be chosen for the position.

Sports sections

Soccer, the reason for the club's foundation, continues to be the main sport of F. C. Barcelona, and the activity that accounts for more than seventy-five percent of the club's budget.

The first soccer team plays in Spain's Primera División, and is one of the three clubs that have always competed in this category since the first edition of La Liga, in 1929. The other two clubs that hold this honor are Athletic Club and Real Madrid. Barcelona have won the league championship a total of twenty-six times, the last in the 2018-19 season.

In the 2009-10 season, the team finished in the League in first place, which allowed it to qualify directly to play the next season in the UEFA Champions League. Barcelona has managed to win this trophy four times, in 1992, 2006, 2009 and 2011. In addition, Barça is the only club in history to win the triplet twice: winning the League, Copa del Rey and European Cup in the same year.

Fútbol Club Barcelona holds the record for being the only European soccer team that has participated uninterruptedly in continental competitions since its creation in 1955. It is also the team with the most titles in the extinct European Cup Winners' Cup with four titles and the one with the most wins in the Spanish Cup in its different denominations with thirty conquests.

The club has an important pool of players, from the junior category. The subsidiary of the first soccer team is Barcelona "B", which plays in the Second Division of Spain.

In addition to its main section, soccer, the club has four other professional sections: basketball, handball, roller hockey and futsal. Among the five professional sections, F.C. Barcelona has thirty-nine Leagues of Champions (or Euroleagues in the case of basketball) which makes it the second most successful sports club in Europe and, along with Dinamo Moscow and CSKA Moscow, the only one that has achieved the maximum continental title in five different sports.

One of the relevant data of the club was the achievement of the Champions League consecutively for seventeen years, from the 1995-96 season to the 2011-12 season with some of its professional sections, it has also won a European treble with the Football, Handball and Roller Hockey sections in the 2014-15 season and six European "doublets" with the Handball and Roller Hockey sections in the 1996-97, 1999-2000 and 2004-05 seasons with the Basketball and Skate Hockey in the 2009-10 season, with the Football and Handball sections in the 2010-11 season and with the Futsal and Skate Hockey sections in the 2013-14 season. Also noteworthy is the fact that since the 1988-1988 season 89 that begins with the victory of the soccer team, in the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup in Bern against Sampdoria until 2011-12, each season for 24 years, one of the club's sports won a European title. as far as seasons are concerned, in the comp As a global record of titles won by all sections without counting the regional ones, the 2011-12 season was the most successful for the club, as it won seventeen championships (a historical record for the club), followed by the 2010- 11 with 14 and 2009-10 with 13.

In addition to these five professional sections, the club has amateur sections in other sports disciplines: men's and women's field hockey, men's and women's athletics, men's and women's skating, ice hockey, men's and women's volleyball, rugby, soccer beach, indoor soccer, women's soccer and wheelchair basketball.

Since 1966, Barcelona has organized an annual friendly football tournament, the Joan Gamper Trophy, which is usually held in August as part of the pre-season.

Fútbol Club Barcelona is a multi-sports institution that, in addition to soccer teams, has teams in twelve other sports disciplines. These disciplines are structured as sports sections within the club. F. C. Barcelona distinguishes, from a structural point of view, between the professional men's sections, the non-professional men's sections and the women's sections. From José Samitier to Neymar there are 62 Olympic medals (11 gold, 23 silver and 28 bronze) that have been achieved by athletes from the entity with a current contract.

Professional men's sections

Aspect of the Palau Blaugrana during the contest of the basketball meeting that confronted F. C. Barcelona and the Lottomatica Roma of Euroliga in February 2008.

Players of the F. C. Barcelona during a football European Cup match at the Palau Blaugrana in October 2008.

There are four professional sections: basketball, handball, roller hockey and futsal. They are the four most professionalized and prestigious sections, which participate in the highest category competitions of their respective disciplines in Spain. In addition, the men's teams in these four sections are part of the elite of the best clubs in Europe, due to the number of continental titles they have won. Among these four sections, F.C. Barcelona has won 32 European Cups. The teams from these three sections have their headquarters and play their matches at the Palau Blaugrana, a sports hall attached to the Camp Nou with a capacity for 7,585 spectators.

F. C. Barcelona basketball (section created in 1926) is the second club in Spain in basketball in number of titles won, and one of the most prestigious in Europe. The basketball section lived its best years in the 1980s and 1990s, in which it won various Spanish and European titles. His most precious title, however, the Euroleague (or European Cup), was not achieved until the 2002-2003 season, when he won the final phase held in the city of Barcelona itself. The current technical secretary (general manager) of the basketball section is Juan Carlos Navarro, and the team's coach is Šarūnas Jasikevičius.

The handball section was founded in 1942, and is the one that has given the club the most titles. The Barça handball team is the team that has accumulated the most titles in Spain and Europe, with 10 European Cups. In 2021, they were once again crowned the best European team by winning their tenth European Cup. The current technical secretary of the handball section is Enric Masip, and the team's coach is Xavier Pascual.

The roller hockey section of F. C. Barcelona was also created in 1942, and is considered one of the best roller hockey clubs in the world. It is the most successful in Europe, accumulating 20 European Cups.

The futsal section has been considered professional since the return of the team to the Honorary Division of the LNFS. In the 2010/2011 season he won his first professional title: the Spanish Cup.

Non-professional men's sections

F.C. Barcelona hockey team during a match against HC Anglet Hormadi at the Palau de Gel.

In addition to the professional men's sections, the club has amateur sections in eight other sports disciplines: athletics, skating, ice hockey, volleyball, field hockey, wheelchair basketball, rugby and beach soccer. The director of the club's non-professional sections is former Argentine roller hockey player Gaby Cairo.

The club's athletics section has the honor of being, after soccer, the first section created in the club's history. It was officially formed in 1915, although in 1911 on the occasion of the closing of the football season an athletic festival was held and the chronicles say that athletics had already been practiced in the club since 1900. The men's athletics team of F. C. Barcelona It has always been considered one of the best in Spain, as witnessed by the numerous titles it has won, both in national and international competitions. His record includes more than 30 Spanish championships for clubs in different modalities. The team has historically included some of the best athletes in Spain, such as the Olympic medalists José Manuel Abascal and Javier García Chico (before winning a medal at the Games), and Spanish champions such as Antonio Corgos, Javier Moracho, Colomán Trabado or Gregorio Rojo who later continued to do his job as a coach in this section and came to be considered one of the best athletics coaches in Spain.

The rugby section of F. C. Barcelona is one of the oldest in the club: it was created in 1924. Its playing field is in the F. C. Barcelona Sports City. The senior A team began to compete in the 2006/2007 season in the Spanish Division of Honor, after reaching an agreement and merger with USAP Barcelona, occupying the place that this team had in the highest category of Spanish rugby, thus returning, after many years in the category. It is one of the most successful clubs in Spain thanks to the titles won between 1940 and 1960. Among the titles won by the rugby section, 16 Spanish championships, 2 Spanish Leagues and 1 Spanish Super Cup stand out.

Other non-professional sections of the club are:

• Basketball in wheelchair: F. C. Barcelona-Institut Gutman.
• Ice hockey: Created in 1972. Game Pavilion: Palau de Gel.
• Hockey weed: Created in the 1923-1924 season. The first team competes in the Honor A Division.
• Artistic Ice Skating. Created on January 25, 1972.
• Volleyball. Created in 1970.
• Football Beach. Created in March 2011.

Women's sections

F. C. Barcelona has been strengthening its women's sections in recent years, given the growing participation of women in sport, and the professionalization of competitive structures. The women's sections of the club are football, basketball, athletics, figure skating, volleyball and field hockey.

Women's soccer

The women's soccer section plays in the highest category, the First Division. His record includes six Leagues, eight Queen's Cups, one Spanish Super Cup, one UEFA Champions League and ten Catalan Cups.

The first women's soccer match played by a team from F.C. Barcelona was on Christmas Day in 1970 for a charity festival. The match pitted the Barça players, coached by Antoni Ramallets, against UE Centelles at the Camp Nou. Later he participated in the first unofficial Catalan women's football championship, held in the 1971-72 season.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the entity participated under the name Club Femení Barcelona, and used the Club's colours, emblems and facilities. During those years he obtained his greatest successes in the Copa de la Reina competition by reaching a runner-up (1991) and a championship (1994).

In 2001, FC Barcelona definitively incorporated women's soccer as an official section and continued to compete in the second category, the First National Women's Soccer Division. In the 2003-04 season, they were promoted to the Super League, but that did not translate into their consolidation. In the 2006-07 season, the team lost the category and it was even considered its disappearance.

With the arrival of Xavi Llorens on the bench in the 2007-08 season, the team returned to the Super League. Since 2010 the section has chained one success after another, achieving four consecutive Leagues (2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15), four Queen's Cups (2011, 2013, 2014 and 2017) and seven Cups of Catalonia (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016).

In 2021 Alexia Putellas was awarded the Ballon d'Or, the first Spanish player to do so.

Women's Basketball

The women's basketball team was called UB-Barça, since it was the result of the association between F. C. Barcelona and the basketball team of the University of Barcelona. He competed in the Spanish Women's Basketball League, which he won twice. The team disappeared in 2007, due to the financial debts of the club associated with Barça.

Subsequently, the club created an official section, fully integrated into the club. He currently competes in the 1st Catalan Division.^{[citation required]}

Women's athletics

The women's athletics team of F. C. Barcelona competes in the Division of Honor, the highest category of Spanish athletics. The team has been represented by international Spanish athletes Montse Mas, a specialist in the 800 meter dash, Rosa Morató, European cross country champion in 2005, and the walker María Vasco, bronze medalist at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Women's Skating

The women's figure skating team was founded, like the men's, on January 25, 1972,^{[citation required]} coinciding with the inauguration of the Palau de Gel, the club's ice rink, attached to the Palau Blaugrana, and which is the team's headquarters. The team has given the club numerous successes, including 10 Spanish Club Championship titles. One of the greatest figures in the section was Marta Andrade, considered the greatest figure in the history of Spanish figure skating, and who was a finalist at the Lillehammer and Nagano Winter Olympic Games.

Women's Volleyball

The women's volleyball team competes under the name CVB Barça and plays in the silver division of Spanish volleyball, Superliga 2.

Women's Field Hockey

The women's field hockey team competes in the national silver division, known as the First Women's Division.

FC Barcelona Legends

Until 2011, former Barça players used the Miniestadi facilities to train a couple of times a week. In said year, the Minister of Sports of Oman, with the objective of promoting sports tourism in the destination, tried to organize a classic between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Faced with different constraints to play the game with active players, the first Spanish classic outside of Spain took place, and the first classic between veteran soccer legends 11. This, thanks to the support of the businessman from Tenerife, and former player of the lower categories blaugrana, Rayco Garcia. Said match was the first stone in the creation of the FC Barcelona Legends department, which became official in 2016, and is managed directly by the club.

Through the organization of different sports experiences, around the world, and, either with formats of 3x3, 5, 6, 7 or 11 players, the former player Albert "Chapi" Ferrer is in charge of configuring the teams that participate in each activity.

FC Barcelona Legends has participated in exhibition matches in countries such as: Colombia, Morocco, Brazil, and many more; exporting the sports values of FC Barcelona. Since 2016, the FC Barcelona Legends has more than 80 former professional FC Barcelona players, and its squad includes players such as: Patrick Kluivert, Carles Puyol, Dani Alves, Andrés Iniesta, Hristo Stoichkov, Guillermo Amor, Rivaldo, Ronladinho, among others.

On March 28, 2020, a friendly will be played at Anfield Road, between FC Barcelona Legends and Liverpool FC Legends, to benefit the Liverpool F.C. Foundation, or L.F.C.Foundation. Said match was postponed due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19.

Sections missing

In addition to all the aforementioned sections, Fútbol Club Barcelona has had teams in up to eight other sports disciplines throughout its history. They are sections that, for one reason or another, were dissolved. Between 1924 and 8 the club had a Greco-Roman wrestling team whose figure was the Olympic champion Emili Ardèvol. Another of the great Spanish athletes who belonged to the club's discipline was Joaquín Blume, a member of the gymnastics section that the club had between 1957 and 1976.

Barça also had tennis (1926-1936), swimming (1942), roller skating (1952-1956) and judo (1961-1976) sections.

Other sections that have disappeared have been American football, which was part of the club between 2001 and 2003, after the disappearance of the Barcelona Dragons, a team that competed in the European division of the NFL (National Football League), and that of cycling which, after reappearing in 2004 under the direction of Melchor Mauri, went extinct again at the end of 2006 due to the lack of agreement on the way to direct this sport by the various international federations.

In 1941 the club created a baseball section that, despite being one of the least known in the club, had never ceased to exist. The section had men's teams in all categories, from juniors to seniors, who had their pitch at the Pérez de Rozas Stadium, located on the Montjuïc mountain in Barcelona. The senior team won the Spanish Baseball League four times in 1946, 1947, 1956 and 2011. It competed in the highest category of Spanish baseball, the División de Honor when its dissolution was announced in June 2011.

Social area and sociocultural dimension

F. C. Barcelona brings together members and fans of all political ideologies, religious beliefs and geographical origins. The club has managed to strategically integrate political, religious, cultural and social issues, which are framed within the sports field, this It allows members and fans to respond to all the social events of the club, also to have greater participation in administrative activities and to strengthen the links between the supporters clubs.

The club, considered the best-known social entity of Catalonia abroad, has fulfilled throughout its history, for many fans, a representative function of defending Catalan values, which the club has publicly defended in many times, as the English journalist Jimmy Burns points out in his book Barça, the passion of a people. The club has always stood for activities and gestures in defense of the Catalan language and culture, which has been the official language of all club documents, except in the years of the Franco dictatorship. Except in that same period, the team captain has also always worn the Catalan flag as a distinctive armband. The club, in addition, has also formally and publicly declared itself in support of the demands for greater autonomy for Catalonia and signed manifestos of support for the statutes of autonomy both in 1932 and in 1979 and 2006.

However, the club awarded Francisco Franco three times.

Players, technicians and the board, give the club offering on Catalonia Day.

His path of defense of Catalan values was recognized on December 21, 1992 when the Generalitat of Catalonia, chaired by Jordi Pujol, awarded him the Creu de Sant Jordi Award, the highest distinction awarded by the government of Catalonia.

Some historians and essayists, such as Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, went so far as to point out that, for many Catalans, F.C. Barcelona fulfills in Catalonia the substitute role of the Catalan team in the international arena, despite the long tradition of Spanish athletes of non-Catalan origin and foreigners that the club has had. These essayists point out that this is one of the reasons why the Barcelona club has teams in so many different sports disciplines such as basketball, handball, roller hockey, athletics, volleyball, etc.

In this line, it is worth noting that F. C. Barcelona has publicly declared itself in favor of the international recognition of the Catalan sports teams. In recent years, it has not only promoted the organization of friendly matches between the Catalan national team and other international teams such as Brazil or Argentina, but it has given away its facilities as the venue for the matches and has lent all its athletes. In addition, the club has signed public manifestos in favor of the cause. During Joan Laporta's presidency, he himself and some player like Oleguer participated in an advertising campaign of the Pro-Selecciones Catalanas Platform which, under the slogan "one nation, one selection", occupied advertising spaces in a large number of media outlets. written and audiovisual of Catalonia.

Despite its links to Catalan ideas, the club has always had a large number of fans and even members throughout Spain, attracted by the values sports club^{[citation required]}, which details the club itself. Some historians^{[who? ]}, however, have pointed out that, in addition to their admiration for sporting values, many Spanish fans sympathized with Barcelona when they saw the Catalan club the alternative to the "political centralism" with which they identified Real Madrid^{[citation required]}, especially during the years of the Franco dictatorship, the foundation wrong, since it had repercussions in all the clubs in the country. It was in those years when the phrase was coined that F.C. i>), which became the slogan even better known of the entity.

On the other hand, and as various historians have pointed out, the club also brought together, especially during its first decades of life, sympathizers of republicanism. Since the beginning of the 20th century, different facts point to the complicity of the club leaders with republican ideals.

The club motto on Camp Nou stands.

The moment of greatest estrangement between the club and the Spanish monarchy took place under the reign of Alfonso XIII and during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. In the Las Corts stadium, Barcelona fans had expressed criticism of the dictatorship and displayed some banners against the regime. Finally, on June 14, 1925, the 14,000 fans at the stadium booed the "Royal March", performed by a music band. Days later, the Captain General and Civil Governor of Barcelona Joaquín Milans del Bosch issued an order that closed the stadium for six months and forced Hans Gamper to resign as president of the club and go into exile in Switzerland for a season. de la Patria", as recorded by the historian Jaume Sobrequés in his work F. C. Barcelona, One Hundred Years of History. It was the harshest penalty the club has received in its entire history. As Sobrequés himself points out, the culminating point of the club's commitment to republican principles took place from 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed and, above all, from the start of the Spanish Civil War when, in 1936, F. C. Barcelona voluntarily became an "Entity at the service of the legitimate government of the Republic".

After the restoration of democracy in Spain in 1977, the club has gradually lost that political connotation. It normalized its relations with the Spanish crown and on various occasions expeditions made up of club leaders and athletes have offered their trophies at the Palacio de la Zarzuela. The courtship and subsequent marriage of the Infanta Cristina with the handball player from F.C. Barcelona Iñaki Urdangarín In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the presence of members of the Spanish royal family at the Palau Blaugrana, including King Juan Carlos I, became frequent. The last gesture of complicity between the club and the Royal Household took place on May 17, 2006, on the occasion of the 2005-06 UEFA Champions League final, when the Kings went to Paris to show their support for the Barça team and, after the match, they went down to the pitch to congratulate the players of the team together with the president of the Spanish government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, a declared follower of the Barcelona team, and the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Pasqual Maragall.

In the religious field, and despite the fact that the founder of the club, Hans Gamper, and its first leaders were Protestants, the club acquired a markedly Catholic character from the 1940s, after the Spanish Civil War. The club's offerings to the Montserrat Monastery were common, and even the Camp Nou stadium has a chapel next to the changing rooms, with a reproduction of the Virgin of Montserrat. In 1982, Pope John Paul II received the membership card member number 108,000 of the club, on the occasion of a massive mass that he officiated at the Camp Nou.

In recent times the club has stood out for its solidarity gestures. At the beginning of the 1980s, he already organized a friendly match for the benefit of Unicef, in which Barça faced the Human Stars team, a selection of the best footballers in the world, at the Camp Nou. In the mid-1990s the experience was repeated again. Also in that decade the club was involved in the fight against drugs, organizing various matches in collaboration with the Fundación de Ayuda contra la Droga, whose profits went to Proyecto Hombre.

With the arrival of Joan Laporta as president, the club expressed its intention to increase its involvement in social causes, expressing the desire that the club be recognized worldwide for its charitable spirit. In this sense, at the end of 2005, F.C. Barcelona organized a friendly match at the Camp Nou against a joint selection of Israeli and Palestinian players, who for the first time shared a team.

The club allocates 0.7% of its annual budget to the Barcelona Football Club Foundation, aimed at humanitarian projects. Starting in 2006, the club promised to make a donation of no less than 1.5 million euros to Unicef, so that it allocates it to improve the living conditions of children around the world. The first joint project of both organizations was aimed at child victims of AIDS in Swaziland. In addition, it put the name of the organization on the central space of his first luggage, being the first time he wore advertising on the football team shirts.

On December 13, 2008, coinciding with the classic, the club began broadcasting its television channel Barça TV free of charge on DTT for all of Catalonia as a result of an agreement with the Godó Group. The thematic channel of the club was created almost a decade ago and continues its broadcasts in the payment modality for the rest of Spain.

The club is also present on social networks as part of its social management. It is found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, being the first club in Spain to reach "an agreement with YouTube".

Foundation

Logo of Fundación Fútbol Club Barcelona, entity created by the club.

The Barcelona Football Club Foundation is the social, humanitarian, cultural and sports entity created in 1994 with the aim of promoting and providing support to all those entities of a humanitarian nature. It also focuses on child and adult communities that are considered vulnerable.

Initially, the activities and works carried out by the foundation materialized through donations by members, supporters and business entities of the country that were made up of honorary members, collaborators and patron members. In 2006 the Foundation gained new impetus by receiving, since that year, 0.7% of the ordinary profits of the club (2.2 million euros in 2008). Likewise, it adhered to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals plan and incorporated UNICEF advertising on the soccer team's jersey for the first time.

As part of its social management, the foundation has collaborated with other government and social entities to promote early childhood education, sports, culture and health. Among its main allies are UNICEF, UNESCO, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), among others.

Social Mass

One of the main distinguishing characteristics of F. C. Barcelona is its legal nature: it is one of the only four professional clubs in Spain (along with Real Madrid, Athletic Club and CA Osasuna) that is not a Sports Public Limited Company (SAD), preserving from its origins its character as a non-profit sports association, whose ownership rests with its members. In this sense, the supreme governing body of the entity is the Assembly and the members elect the president by direct universal suffrage.

In June 2022, F. C. Barcelona registered around 143,000 members, a figure that places it as the football club with the tenth most associates in the world. Likewise, it is the Spanish club with the most subscribers: 83,116 in September 2019, ahead of the approximately 61,000 from Real Madrid.

In the 2010-11 season, the club achieved revenues of close to 51 million euros from members and subscribers.

The fans for the club have reached the point that a Belgian couple has given the name Barça as their first child, who they have also made a member of the club, on July 19, 2010 via the Internet with the number 185,508. This is Barça Beeckman, born on April 26, 2010 in Sint-Truiden, a city in Belgium. According to the F.C. Barcelona website, Barça Beeckman is the first member to be named after the team and they are not aware that anyone else in the world is called that.

Currently, according to a German study, Barcelona is the club with the most followers in Europe.

Soccers

F. C. Barcelona is one of the clubs with the greatest supporter club activity in the world. As of July 2014, the club had 152,004 supporters in 267 official supporters clubs, spread across the five continents.

The first groups of Barcelona fans were registered in the 1920s and 1930s. As they do not appear in any registry, there is no record of which was the first of these clubs, although historians usually point to the Penya Esquerra, created in 1923 in the Izquierda Bar, on Aribau street in Barcelona. La Mosca, All-i-oli, Colón, La Escombra, Continental and Casal Barcelonista are other pioneering clubs, along with Peña Sagi -Barba and the Peña Els Tres (tribute to Piera, Sastre and Samitier), which are the first dedicated to Barcelona players. All of them disappeared during the Spanish Civil War.

The first legally constituted supporters club of F. C. Barcelona bore the name of the Solera bar, where it was created in 1944 under the impulse of former player José Samitier, together with the then young Antoni Ramallets, Mariano Martín, César Rodríguez and Gustavo Biosca, who would later defend the Barça first team shirt. La Peña Solera gained its definitive momentum soon after, with the arrival of Nicolau Casaus, who opened several branches of the same in other Catalan towns. In 1972, under the presidency of Agustí Montal i Costa, the first Trobada Mundial de Penyes Barcelonistes took place, a meeting that has been held annually since 1977. At that time, the number of supporters clubs was around 150, a figure that grew exponentially during the 1980s, surpassing 1,000 at the end of the 1990s.

Rivalries

F. C. Barcelona maintains a strong football rivalry with Real Club Deportivo Espanyol, a team from the city of Barcelona. The Barcelona derby is the name that describes the matches between the two clubs, the most representative of the city. they have met 195 times, counting two European matches played in the Fairs Cup, with a balance of 122 matches won by Barcelona, compared to 44 by Spanish. Xavi Hernández is the footballer with the most matches played, with a total of 32, while the Argentine Lionel Messi is the top scorer, with 21 goals.

The rivalry was born in part by the continuous confrontations of yesteryear that, among other things, were fierce and had good players. Another of the facts is because they were pioneers of football in Barcelona, the most representative, to this we must also add that historically they were consolidated as the two best teams in the competitions organized by the Catalan Football Federation.

The culé team also plays the so-called Spanish soccer classic against Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, one of the most important and far-reaching matches in the world. The audience exceeds 500 million viewers and more than 750 journalists are accredited; it is often known by the specialized press as the Party of the Century. In the general balance, the Barcelona fans have won 97 games compared to 97 for the Madrid people, out of a total of 244 official matches. The first official duel took place in the 1916 Copa del Rey tie, with a favorable result for the Barcelona fans 2-1, while the second leg was favorable for the Madrid fans 4-1. The popularity and importance also lies in the number of trophies won and the quality of players from both clubs. At the national level, other teams such as Athletic Club and Club Atlético de Madrid stand out. Barcelona and Athletic are the two most successful clubs in the Copa del Rey and have played in seven finals, with a record of five wins and two losses for the Catalans.

On an international level, their confrontations with the Italian Associazione Calcio Milan stand out, as they are the international rival they have faced the most with 19 games, or Manchester United, a rival in two Champions League finals. Additionally, he also had intense confrontations with Chelsea Football Club, and Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, and due to recent sports disputes against Bayern Munich. Already with dyes almost disappeared in recent history, they occur with Celtic Football Club

Annexes

Filmography

• Jordi Feliú, Barça, 75 years of history of Fútbol Club Barcelona1974.