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FC
Barcelona History |
FC
Barcelona, also known as Barça, is a sports club in Barcelona,
Catalonia, Spain with sections in many different sports. Founded
in 1899 by a group of twelve, led by Joan Gamper, its motto is
"El Barça és més que un club" (Catalan for Barça is more than a
club). Its main stadium is the Nou Estadi del Futbol Club
Barcelona, popularly known as the Camp Nou, in Barcelona.
FC Barcelona and long-standing rival Real Madrid remain the most
representative teams of Spain. FC Barcelona fans are also called
culés.
FC Barcelona - Early Years
FC Barcelona was founded by Swiss businessman Hans Gamper, who
embraced Catalan nationalism so fervently that he changed his
name to Joan Gamper. Gamper changed the club's original name to
the current Catalan version. Everything started when he decided
to put a message in a local newspaper asking for players to join
him in a relatively unknown sport called football. Eleven
players attended this meeting: Gualteri Wild, Lluís d'Ossó,
Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere
Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John Parsons, and William
Parsons. The club's international nature has been a quality
since the first days of its existence, as shown by still holding
the original semi-anglicized version of its name Futbol Club
Barcelona, instead of the formal Spanish version Club de Futbol
Barcelona.
The team did not have to wait much time for their first trophy,
as in 1901 they won the Copa Macaya, later known as the
Campionat de Catalunya (Championship of Catalonia). Until 1909
the team played in different stadiums, none of them owned by the
club. On March 14 of that year, the 6,000 seat stadium of Carrer
Industria (Industry Street) opened its door. It was the first
field owned by FC Barcelona. During these years the club grew,
amassing trophies and a popular following.
FC Barcelona - The Golden Years
Legendary players like Alcantara, Zamora, and Samitier boosted
the club's success with brilliant playing style, bringing the
team to a Golden Age of expansion. By 1922, the club opened the
doors of its stadium of Les Corts, which had an initial capacity
of 30,000, later expanded to an impressive 60,000. Besides
dominating Spanish and Catalan championships, they won the first
edition of the Spanish League in 1929.
FC Barcelona - Crisis and the Civil War
The ongoing crisis, started in the late 1920s during the
dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, only got worse after the
start of the Spanish Civil War. The political problems of the
country affected the club, eventually leading to the
assassination of President Josep Suñol by soldiers of the
Franco's side and the bombing of the club's headquarters. After
these events, the club was forced to change its name to Club de
Futbol Barcelona, remove the catalan portion of the flag, and a
president friendly to Franco's regime was appointed.
The rivalry with Real Madrid was initiated by the political
climate during Franco's regime. As the Catalan flag and language
were banned, FC Barcelona became the sole outlet of Catalan
nationalism. Barcelona started performing better in the 1950s.
The club was set back through the government's intervention over
their purchase of Alfredo Di Stefano. The club's board of
directors resigned in protest of a farcical arrangement, where
Barcelona and their rivals Real Madrid were meant to "share" the
player. This had arisen because the two clubs both believed they
had signed Di Stefano, but from different clubs, one which owned
his contract, the other where he was on loan. This agreement
deteriorated to Real having sole use of the player - something
viewed widely as government favouritism to Real.
FC Barcelona - Kubala
By the second half of the 1940s the club began to recover from
its problems, which almost led the club to disband. Players like
Cesar, Ramallets, and Velasco won the First Division fifteen
years after the first and only time. With political issues
calming down, the style of football played, and titles being
brought, financial problems started to fade as more people
became members. In 1950 arrived one of the most important
players for FC Barcelona, Ladislao Kubala. During the first
years after his arrival the team won almost every competition
they played in, and its forwards, Cesar, Basora, and Kubala
himself are still remembered.
FC Barcelona - Camp Nou
In 1957, the Camp Nou opened its doors to the public. It is
adquate to keep in view that this project was personally
endorsed by General Franco himself, who approved an extremely
generous appraisal of the state where the Stadium was to be
built, therefore fostering the financing of the enterprise. With
a capacity for up to 90,000 spectators, the Camp Nou is one of
the biggest stadiums in the world. Unfortunately, a few years
after the inauguration, titles became scarce, as they only won
three official titles during the 1960s. But even then the club
did not stop growing, gaining social and economic power every
year.
Unlike the decade of the 50s, when Real Madrid bought
Argentinian player Alfredo Di Stefano from FC Barcelona, Dutch
legend Johan Cruyff signed a contract with the club in 1973. His
electric style of play, fast and smart, could not appeal more to
the fans. Even the record amount of £922,300 paid by FC
Barcelona for him seemed nothing after defeating Real Madrid 5-0
in their own stadium and winning the league. By the following
year the club had 70,000 members, making it one of the most
powerful in the world.
FC Barcelona - The second golden age (1988-1996)
Josep Luis Nuñez became president of FC Barcelona in 1978,
leading the club into an unprecedented period of social and
economic growth. Dozens of titles were won by all teams, and
other sections seen as less important than the football team
started to receive more attention. During 1990-1994, Johan
Cruyff's Dream Team , playing a Total Football system, won four
consecutive Leagues and for a first time the Champions League
(1992) among other trophies.
FC Barcelona - Late 1990s with satisfactory results
Bobby Robson took charge of the club for a single season in
96-97, he recruited Ronaldo from PSV Eindhoven (his previous
club) and delivered a Cup Winners' Cup and Spanish Kings cup.
Interestingly he also brought the famous Portuguese manager José
Mourinho to the club. José Mourinho at that time helped Robson
at training tasks and he was responsible for translating
Robson's press conferences to journalists.
Robson's time was short lived as the club had already made an
agreement with notorious Dutch manager Louis van Gaal. Despite
the loss of Ronaldo to Internazionale of Milan Rivaldo joined
the team and Barcelona twice won the Spanish League title.
Despite their great results at domestically, Barcelona failed to
win the Champions League. Due to heavy fan criticism after three
seasons in 2000, van Gaal resigned.
FC Barcelona - Years of turmoil
Joan Gaspart was elected as the successor of Josep Lluis Nuñez
in 2000. It was not an easy task considering his achievements
and a lot of pressure was put on the new board of directors.
Still, Joan Gaspart's perceived bad management led the club to a
financial crisis. Poor judgement when using the club's funds,
the absence of any important victory, and underperforming
players made the social pressure unbearable, forcing him to
resign in 2003. A temporary commission took over until current
president Joan Laporta was elected in the same year.
FC Barcelona - Revival
Joan Laporta proved to be a better choice for FC Barcelona. With
his arrival, and that of football superstar Ronaldinho and
former Dutch international Frank Rijkaard as manager (who was
actually Laporta's third choice, Ronald Koeman of Ajax being his
first and Guus Hiddink now of PSV Eindhoven his second) amongst
others, the new style of management has restored success to the
club. Massive inherited debts have been reduced, and only two
players remain from the original team that did not win a major
title in five years. In 2003/2004 Barcelona made a spectacular
return to form, finishing second after being near the bottom of
the table for much of the season. It was only because the
revival started too late that Barcelona didn't claim the title
that season. During 2004/2005, Barcelona led the table from the
first day to the last to claim its 17th Spanish La Liga title on
May 14th, 2005 and its 6th Spanish Supercup title on August
20th, 2005. Despite their exit from the Champions League at the
hands of Chelsea, supporters and players alike are starting to
believe that a third golden age is beginning. The young,
ambitous team is playing the attractive, attacking football the
fans demand and the results to date are promising. |
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