A cartoon sketch of F.C Barcelona’s 2007/2008 squad
The squad after winning The champions league
"Fútbol Club Barcelona (Catalan pronunciation: [fud'b?? ?klup b??s?'lon?], Spanish:
['fuðßol ?kluß bar?e'lona]), also known simply as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça
(Catalan: ['ba?s?], Spanish: ['barsa]), is a sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia,
Spain. It is best known for its football team, which was founded in 1899 by a group of
Swiss, English and Spanish men led by Joan Gamper. The club has become a Catalan institution,
hence the motto "Més que un club" (More than a club). The official Barça anthem is El Cant del
Barça by Josep Maria Espinàs.
FC Barcelona is one of three clubs never to have been relegated from La Liga and the
most successful club in Spanish football after Real Madrid, having won nineteen La Liga titles,
a record twenty-five Spanish Cups, eight Spanish Super Cups, four Eva Duarte Cups and two League Cups.
They are also one of the most successful clubs in European football having won thirteen official major European
trophies in total, including ten UEFA competitions. They have won three UEFA Champions League titles, a record
four UEFA Cup Winners' Cups, a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cups (the forerunner to the UEFA Cup) and three UEFA
Super Cups. In 2009, Barcelona became the first club in Spain to win the treble of La Liga, Copa del
Rey and UEFA Champions League. The club is also the only European side to have played continental football
in every season since its inception in 1955.
The club's stadium is the Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe with a capacity of
98,772 seats. Barcelona enjoys a high rate of popularity; about 25.7% of Spanish population
support the club, while according to a recent survey Barcelona is the most popular football
club in Europe with around 44.2 million fans. With 170,000 socis (members) in September 2009,
the Catalan club is also placed among the top football clubs in the world with the most registered
members, and the number of penyes, the officially-registered supporter clubs, reached the number
of 1,888 worldwide in August 2009. The fans of FC Barcelona are known as culés. The club shares a
great rivalry with Real Madrid and contest in one of the most famous football matches worldwide,
known as El Clásico.
During the 2007–08 season, FC Barcelona was the third richest club in the world with a
revenue of €308.8 million. It was also one of the founding members of the now-defunct G-14
group of the leading European football clubs and its modern replacement, the European Club
Association. The club also operates a reserve team, FC Barcelona Atlètic, while there was a
youth team until 2007, FC Barcelona C.
As of July 1, 2009, FC Barcelona was ranked first in UEFA team ranking.According to the
consistently successful club in the world since the organisation began collecting statistics,
in the period 1991-2008."[1]
As of 2 September 2009.[31]
[1] This information is gathered from Wikipedia.com
