B is for Barcelona
History
On Christmas Eve 1899, eleven men stepped out on to a race track in the neighbourhood of Bonanova to play a game of football wearing the blue and red colours of what in time would grow into one of the biggest sporting institutions in the world - FC Barcelona.
While their opponents that day, FC Catala, was made up mainly of Catalans, the majority of Barcelona’s players were foreigners, notably Englishman. The Anglo-Saxon influence included the goalkeeper, known only as Brown; the club’s first President, William Wild; and two Liverpool born brothers , Arthur and Ernest Witty. 100 spectators watched on as Barcelona beat their counterparts 3-1.
The Englishmen had responded to an advertisement in a local paper, placed by a Swiss businessman, Hans Kamper, who was keen to organise matches in Barcelona. Kamper had played in his native Switzerland as captain of FC Excelsior aswell as being one of the founding members of FC Zurich. Kamper later adopted the Catalan name Joan Gamper, the title under which he has been acknowledged as the true founder of FC Barcelona.
Colours
While the Barca crest is eminently Catalan - the cross of Saint Jordi, the patron saint of Catalonia, and the red and yellow stripes of the Catalan nation, there has been much discussion over the true significance of the shirt colours. Some have linked the colours to Gamper’s links to FC Basle. However, the popular train of thought is that the Liverpool born Witty brothers influenced the selection, drawing on their old school colours for the maroon and blue. As youngsters, The Wittys attended Merchant Taylor school in Crosby which had close links to Waterloo Rugby Club. Waterloo was made up entirely of Merchant’s Old Boys and in 1882, the Rugby Club adopted the maroon and blue colours.
Stadium
For many years Barcelona rented various fields across the city, the most salubrious being on the Horta Road. An adjoining farmhouse was converted into a clubhouse with changing rooms for the players, while special parking spaces and entrances were added to accommodate the supporters. The occasion was marked in December 1904, when the first international match to be played in Barcelona took place. The club took on Stade Olympique of France. Barca won 4-0 with Gamper netting two.
On March 14 1909, they moved into the Carrer Industria, a stadium with a capacity of 6,000 and a two tier stand which was unique at the time.
Camp de Les Corts, was the home ground for FC Barcelona until the club moved to the Camp Nou in 1957.
Les Corts was built as a result of a long-term plan by the club president, Joan Gamper, to provide FC Barcelona with its own stadium and it replaced the Carrer Indústria. Inaugurated in 1922, the initial capacity was 20,000. The first game played at the ground was between FC Barcelona and St. Mirren. On May 13 1923 the stadium hosted the Copa del Rey final between Athletic Bilbao and CE Europa and on December 21 1924, Les Corts hosted a game between Spain and Austria.
On June 24 1925 the stadium was the scene of an incident that saw it closed for six months. During a game, FC Barcelona fans jeered the Spanish national anthem and then applauded God Save The Queen, performed by a visiting British Royal Marine band. The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera accused Joan Gamper of promoting Catalan nationalism. Les Corts was shut down and Gamper was expelled from Spain.
By the late 1940s FC Barcelona had outgrown Les Corts. The stadium had been extended on several occasions reaching a final capacity of 60,000. but the demand for extra seating saw an unprecedented rise with the signing of the Hungarian, Kubala, in the 1950s. As there was no room for further expansion the club began to make plans for a new stadium, the Camp Nou.
Taking 3 years to construct, The Camp Nou opened in 1957. The inauguration began with a solemn mass and the blessing of the stadium by the Archbishop of Barcelona. The terraces of the Camp Nou, still not quite complete, were opened to more than 90,000 people. Barca played a Polish team from Warsaw. The game ended with Barcelona winning 4-2 with goals from Eulogio MartÃnez (who, in the 11th minute scored the first ever goal at the Camp Nou), Tejada, Sampedro and Evaristo. During the break, 1,500 members of the Agrupació Cultural Folklòrica de Barcelona danced an enormous sardana and 10,000 doves were set free. And so began a new era in the history of FC Barcelona.
With a current capacity of 97,000, the Camp Nou is the second largest football stadium in the world and the largest in Europe. On November 17, 1982, FC Barcelona was honoured by the visit of Pope John Paul II, who performed a solemn mass at the Camp Nou before 120.000 believers, who stoically tolerated the heavy rain that fell that day. President Josep LluÃs Núñez presented His Holiness with membership card number 108,000. The capacity of the ground had been raised earlier that summer for the World Cup.
I’ve had the pleasure of attending the Nou Camp on two occasions. The first was for my 30th birthday where I went on a tour of the stadium. The museum is outstanding and clearly outclasses the one at the Santiago Bernabeu. My second visit was to see our match in the semi final of the UEFA Cup in 2001. Unfortunately, being stuck up in the Gods, very drunk and watching one of the most boring matches I’ve ever witnessed, made it not so memorable. The highlight of the day was some poor Spanish kid walking past about a thousand inebriated Liverpool fans, bewildered as to why everyone was pointing at him shouting abuse. Maybe the Man Utd shirt he was wearing had something to do with it.
Rivalry
There is often a fierce rivalry between the two strongest teams in a national league and this is particularly the case in La Liga, between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. From the start the clubs were seen as representatives of the two rival regions of Spain, Catalonia and Castile, as well as the two cities themselves. However the rivalry reached a new level during the Franco years when Real Madrid was considered to be the "regime team" while FC Barcelona was regarded as the team of the opposition. The apparent interference from Franco in blocking the transfer of Di Stefano to Barca so that he instead joined Real didn’t help matters.
After the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan language and flag were banned and football clubs were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures led to the club having its name changed to Club de Fútbol Barcelona and the removal of the Catalan flag from the club shield. During the Franco era one of the few places that Catalan could be spoken freely was within the club's ground.
These problems extended into the 1970s. A few days before Barcelona’s historic 5-0 victory over Real Madrid, Johan Cruyff’s first and only son was born. Cruyff went to the Francoist authorities in Barcelona and insisted on having his son’s name registered as Jordi, the Catalan for George and the local patron saint. Initially the authorities refused, stating it wasn’t a Spanish name. Eventually, the duty registrar agreed on the name, seemingly after being advised by his superiors that it wasn’t worth risking a major political row with the most popular man in Catalonia.
Honours
Spanish Champions: 18
UEFA Champions League: 2
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 4
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: 3
European Super Cup: 2
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Trophy Play-Off: 1
Copa Latina: 2
Copa del Rey: 24
Supercopa de España: 11
La Liga del Mediterráneo:1
Copa Macaya/Catalan Champions: 22
Copa Catalunya : 5
Copa de la Liga: 2
The British and Irish Connection
Managers
Jack Greenwell, England, 1917-24, 1931-33: Campionat de Catalunya (6), Copa Del Rey (2)
Patrick O'Connell, ROI, 1935-42: La Liga del Mediterráneo (1), La Liga Catalana (1), Campionat de Catalunya (1)
Vic Buckingham, England, 1970-1971
Terry Venables, England, 1984-1987: La Liga (1), Copa de la Liga (1)
Bobby Robson: England, 1996-1997: Copa Del Rey (1), Supercopa de España (1), European Cup Winners Cup (1)
Players
Steve Archibald, Scotland, 1984-1988. I can't find how many appearances or goals for Archibald no matter how hard I try. Well, it is a rough guide after all!
Mark Hughes, Wales, 1986-1987, 28 league appearances 4 goals
Gary Lineker, England, 1986-1989, 99 league appearances 44 goals
History
On Christmas Eve 1899, eleven men stepped out on to a race track in the neighbourhood of Bonanova to play a game of football wearing the blue and red colours of what in time would grow into one of the biggest sporting institutions in the world - FC Barcelona.
While their opponents that day, FC Catala, was made up mainly of Catalans, the majority of Barcelona’s players were foreigners, notably Englishman. The Anglo-Saxon influence included the goalkeeper, known only as Brown; the club’s first President, William Wild; and two Liverpool born brothers , Arthur and Ernest Witty. 100 spectators watched on as Barcelona beat their counterparts 3-1.
The Englishmen had responded to an advertisement in a local paper, placed by a Swiss businessman, Hans Kamper, who was keen to organise matches in Barcelona. Kamper had played in his native Switzerland as captain of FC Excelsior aswell as being one of the founding members of FC Zurich. Kamper later adopted the Catalan name Joan Gamper, the title under which he has been acknowledged as the true founder of FC Barcelona.
Colours
While the Barca crest is eminently Catalan - the cross of Saint Jordi, the patron saint of Catalonia, and the red and yellow stripes of the Catalan nation, there has been much discussion over the true significance of the shirt colours. Some have linked the colours to Gamper’s links to FC Basle. However, the popular train of thought is that the Liverpool born Witty brothers influenced the selection, drawing on their old school colours for the maroon and blue. As youngsters, The Wittys attended Merchant Taylor school in Crosby which had close links to Waterloo Rugby Club. Waterloo was made up entirely of Merchant’s Old Boys and in 1882, the Rugby Club adopted the maroon and blue colours.
Stadium
For many years Barcelona rented various fields across the city, the most salubrious being on the Horta Road. An adjoining farmhouse was converted into a clubhouse with changing rooms for the players, while special parking spaces and entrances were added to accommodate the supporters. The occasion was marked in December 1904, when the first international match to be played in Barcelona took place. The club took on Stade Olympique of France. Barca won 4-0 with Gamper netting two.
On March 14 1909, they moved into the Carrer Industria, a stadium with a capacity of 6,000 and a two tier stand which was unique at the time.
Camp de Les Corts, was the home ground for FC Barcelona until the club moved to the Camp Nou in 1957.
Les Corts was built as a result of a long-term plan by the club president, Joan Gamper, to provide FC Barcelona with its own stadium and it replaced the Carrer Indústria. Inaugurated in 1922, the initial capacity was 20,000. The first game played at the ground was between FC Barcelona and St. Mirren. On May 13 1923 the stadium hosted the Copa del Rey final between Athletic Bilbao and CE Europa and on December 21 1924, Les Corts hosted a game between Spain and Austria.
On June 24 1925 the stadium was the scene of an incident that saw it closed for six months. During a game, FC Barcelona fans jeered the Spanish national anthem and then applauded God Save The Queen, performed by a visiting British Royal Marine band. The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera accused Joan Gamper of promoting Catalan nationalism. Les Corts was shut down and Gamper was expelled from Spain.
By the late 1940s FC Barcelona had outgrown Les Corts. The stadium had been extended on several occasions reaching a final capacity of 60,000. but the demand for extra seating saw an unprecedented rise with the signing of the Hungarian, Kubala, in the 1950s. As there was no room for further expansion the club began to make plans for a new stadium, the Camp Nou.
Taking 3 years to construct, The Camp Nou opened in 1957. The inauguration began with a solemn mass and the blessing of the stadium by the Archbishop of Barcelona. The terraces of the Camp Nou, still not quite complete, were opened to more than 90,000 people. Barca played a Polish team from Warsaw. The game ended with Barcelona winning 4-2 with goals from Eulogio MartÃnez (who, in the 11th minute scored the first ever goal at the Camp Nou), Tejada, Sampedro and Evaristo. During the break, 1,500 members of the Agrupació Cultural Folklòrica de Barcelona danced an enormous sardana and 10,000 doves were set free. And so began a new era in the history of FC Barcelona.
With a current capacity of 97,000, the Camp Nou is the second largest football stadium in the world and the largest in Europe. On November 17, 1982, FC Barcelona was honoured by the visit of Pope John Paul II, who performed a solemn mass at the Camp Nou before 120.000 believers, who stoically tolerated the heavy rain that fell that day. President Josep LluÃs Núñez presented His Holiness with membership card number 108,000. The capacity of the ground had been raised earlier that summer for the World Cup.
I’ve had the pleasure of attending the Nou Camp on two occasions. The first was for my 30th birthday where I went on a tour of the stadium. The museum is outstanding and clearly outclasses the one at the Santiago Bernabeu. My second visit was to see our match in the semi final of the UEFA Cup in 2001. Unfortunately, being stuck up in the Gods, very drunk and watching one of the most boring matches I’ve ever witnessed, made it not so memorable. The highlight of the day was some poor Spanish kid walking past about a thousand inebriated Liverpool fans, bewildered as to why everyone was pointing at him shouting abuse. Maybe the Man Utd shirt he was wearing had something to do with it.
Rivalry
There is often a fierce rivalry between the two strongest teams in a national league and this is particularly the case in La Liga, between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. From the start the clubs were seen as representatives of the two rival regions of Spain, Catalonia and Castile, as well as the two cities themselves. However the rivalry reached a new level during the Franco years when Real Madrid was considered to be the "regime team" while FC Barcelona was regarded as the team of the opposition. The apparent interference from Franco in blocking the transfer of Di Stefano to Barca so that he instead joined Real didn’t help matters.
After the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan language and flag were banned and football clubs were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures led to the club having its name changed to Club de Fútbol Barcelona and the removal of the Catalan flag from the club shield. During the Franco era one of the few places that Catalan could be spoken freely was within the club's ground.
These problems extended into the 1970s. A few days before Barcelona’s historic 5-0 victory over Real Madrid, Johan Cruyff’s first and only son was born. Cruyff went to the Francoist authorities in Barcelona and insisted on having his son’s name registered as Jordi, the Catalan for George and the local patron saint. Initially the authorities refused, stating it wasn’t a Spanish name. Eventually, the duty registrar agreed on the name, seemingly after being advised by his superiors that it wasn’t worth risking a major political row with the most popular man in Catalonia.
Honours
Spanish Champions: 18
UEFA Champions League: 2
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 4
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: 3
European Super Cup: 2
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Trophy Play-Off: 1
Copa Latina: 2
Copa del Rey: 24
Supercopa de España: 11
La Liga del Mediterráneo:1
Copa Macaya/Catalan Champions: 22
Copa Catalunya : 5
Copa de la Liga: 2
The British and Irish Connection
Managers
Jack Greenwell, England, 1917-24, 1931-33: Campionat de Catalunya (6), Copa Del Rey (2)
Patrick O'Connell, ROI, 1935-42: La Liga del Mediterráneo (1), La Liga Catalana (1), Campionat de Catalunya (1)
Vic Buckingham, England, 1970-1971
Terry Venables, England, 1984-1987: La Liga (1), Copa de la Liga (1)
Bobby Robson: England, 1996-1997: Copa Del Rey (1), Supercopa de España (1), European Cup Winners Cup (1)
Players
Steve Archibald, Scotland, 1984-1988. I can't find how many appearances or goals for Archibald no matter how hard I try. Well, it is a rough guide after all!
Mark Hughes, Wales, 1986-1987, 28 league appearances 4 goals
Gary Lineker, England, 1986-1989, 99 league appearances 44 goals
