FC Barcelona: more than a football club
While on my trip to Barcelona, I could not resist a visit to Camp Nou, the home stadium of my favourite football team FC Barcelona.
FC Barcelona is one of the oldest football clubs in Europe. Founded in 1899 by Joan Gamper and a group of players from Switzerland, England and Spain it became one of the most famous clubs of the old continent. But FC Barcelona is “more than a club” – it is an icon of contemporary football and broadly understood sports, social and political culture.
One cannot underestimate the fact that FC Barcelona is a club from the capital of Catalonia. Catalonia has been fighting for its independence for many years, and the club itself is rather Catalan than Spanish. Maybe that’s why “El Clásico”, the football clash of titans – Real Madrid and Barça – causes so much emotion. The last match, which took place on May 6, gathered nearly 100,000 people on Camp Nou (the stadium can accommodate as many as 99 354 fans).
FC Barcelona is the most successful European club. Barcelona has not missed a single year of European games since 1955, that is from the very beginning. Barça has won 25 Spanish championships, 30 Copa del Rey, 5 UEFA Champions League, 4 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and 3 FIFA Club World Cup. FC Barcelona plays in Primera División – Spanish top league – since it started in 1929. Blaugranas have never fallen into the lower league.
All over the world there are more than a thousand fan clubs of the Catalan team and the number of socios, or members of the Barça club, exceeds 144,000 people. Footballers such as Ronaldinho, Kluivert, Romario, Guardiola, Zubizarreta, Maradona, Cruyff and Kocsis played for the blaugrana team.
If you look deep into FC Barcelona’s history you will also find a Polish connection. In the inaugural match of the Camp Nou stadium in 1956, Barça played against Legia Warsaw, defeating the Warsaw club 4:2.
Personally, I like FC Barcelona mostly for two things: their incredible game always at their best and always nice to watch as well as for their charitable commitment to UNICEF. Every year since 2006 this organisation has received 1.5 million euros from the club.
