History of FC Barcelona

[FCB-Mo]

The Beginning

In the late 1800's Hans Gamper and ten other enthusiasts were playing an unknown sport called 'foot-ball'. When Gamper went on to found Barcelona Football Club on 29 November 1899, he could hardly have imagined the momentous events that would follow!
Throughout some of Catalunya's most difficult years, the flag represented the people's hopes for freedom, and today that very flag is the symbolic link which continues to represent the ties between a very special club and its' supporters.
Over the course of over 100 years, the club has lived through moments of glory and tragedy, through good times and bad, through epic victories and crushing defeats. Each one of these moments has contributed to shaping Barcelona into the absolutely unique club that it is today.
Barcelona's renown can be attributed, in part, to impressive statistics but another factor is certainly that Barcelona is one of the most highly decorated teams in the world. With the exception of the Inter- continental Cup, the showcases of the Barcelona museum contain every trophy possible. Topping off the impressive collection is the European Cup, the crowning glory of a Wembley final that went into the history books.
Quite apart from winning the supreme continental prize, Barcelona is also in the extremely enviable position of being the only team in Europe to have participated in every European Cup since 1955 the first year the tournament began. Their massive European trophy collection also includes the Cup Winners' Cup, which the club has won no less than four times - making it undisputed king. Barcelona has also collected four UEFA Cups, two of these when the tournament was still known as the Industrial Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
Of course, Barcelona reigns in Spain as well as in Europe and no other Spanish team can equal Barcelona's 24 championship titles in the Copa del Rey.
As for the Spanish championship league (historically one of the toughest competition grounds for the club), Barcelona celebrated the centenary birthday with 16 league titles to its name. Six of these were amassed over the last ten years alone.

The Franco era

In the midst of the glorious 20s, Barca suffered a precursor of the non-sporting conflicts which were to mark the following decade. On 14th June 1925, during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, the crowd at a game in homage to the Orfeo Catalan jeered the Spanish national anthem and as a reprisal the government closed the ground for six months, later reduced to three, and forced Gamper to give up the presidency of ten club. Five years later, on 30th July 1930, the club's founder died. Although they continued to have players of the standing of Ventolrà, Raich or Escolà, the club now entered a period of decline in a period when political conflict overshadowed sport throughout society. Barca faced a crisis on three fronts: financial, social, with the number of members dropping constantly, and sporting, where although the team won Catalan Championships in 1929-30, 1930-31, 1931-32, 1934-34, 1935-36 and 1937-38, success at Spanish level evaded them.
A month after the civil war began, Barca president Josep Suñol was murdered by Franco's soldiers near to Guadalajara. Fortunately, the squad was on a tour of Mexico and USA, which although it proved the financial saving of the club, also resulted in half the team seeking exile in Mexico and France. On 16th March 1938 the fascists dropped a bomb on the club's social club and caused serious damage. A few months later, Barcelona was under fascist occupation and as a symbol of Catalan nationalism, the club, now down to just 3,486 members, was facing a number of serious problems. In March 1940 a close collaborator with the Franco regime, Enric Piñeyro, marquès de la Mesa de Asta was appointed President. At the same time, the name of the club was changed from its anglicized original Futbol Club Barcelona, to the more Spanish Club de Fútbol Barcelona,(a change which was finally reversed in 1973), and the four red bars of the Catalan flag on the coat of arms were reduced to two, the original not being put back until 1949.
During the 40s, the club gradually recovered from a crisis which had seen them nearly relegated in 1942, although they did win the Spanish Cup in the same season. During the next season, the scandalous game against Madrid, saw the Barca players threatened by referee and police and Piñeyro, a fascist supporter, but honestly disgusted at the treatment his team had received, resigned from the presidency of the club. With the conquest of the Spanish Leagues of 1944-45, 1947-48 and 1948-49, as well as the Copa Llatina in 1949, the club finally seemed to have turned the corner and put the problems of the previous few years behind them. With figures as important as César, Basora, Velasco, Curta, the Gonzalvo brothers, Seguer, Biosca and Ramallets on the books, Barca celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1949 boosted by member numbers of 24,893 and boasting a total of 21 Catalan Championships, 9 cups and 4 Spanish League titles.

Life after Franco

The unfortunate climax of the Di Stefano affair, which saw the Argentinean star finally sign for Real Madrid, led to the dismissal of Barca President Enric Martí Carreto. His successor, Francesc Miró-Sans put all his energies into the building of the Nou Camp Stadium, which was opened on 24th September 1957. The new stadium had a 90,000 capacity and was the perfect setting for a team who'd just won their latest Spanish Cup and now had 40,000 members. With boss Helenio Herrera in charge, the team, with such excellent players as Kocsis, Czibor, Evaristo, Kubala, Eulogio Martínez, Suárez, Villaverde, Olivella, Gensana, Segarra, Gràcia, Vergés and Tejada. won the Spanish League in 1958-59 and 1959-60 as well as the Fairs Cup in 1957-58 and 1959-60. Unfortunately the sixties didn't see a continuation of their success and the team won only three trophies during the decade: the Spanish Cup in 1963 and 1968 and the Fairs Cup in 1966. Despite this, the club became more and more identified with the Catalan society of that time and began to be known as 'more than a club' because of its social importance. The club again became a focus for nationalist sentiments during a period of dictatorship which came down hard on any other popular manifestations of Catalan identity.
Barca won the Spanish Cup in 1971 and began work in October on the Palau Blaugrana and the ice skating rink. Two years later, in 1973, the signing of Dutch legend Johan Cruyff put the finishing touches to a wonderful forward line of Rexach, Asensi, Cruyff, Sotil and Marcial, who led the league winning side of 1973-74.Coinciding with the club's 75th anniversary, there were now 69,566 members, making it the most powerful sporting club in the World.
With the team winning the Spanish Cup in 1978, Josep Lluis Nuñez became President on 6th May, with a clear message of renovation and rebuilding. The club then began a considerable period of expansion and financial stability linked to an increase in members, ground improvements and, most importantly sporting success. With 30,000 Catalans present at the final, Barca won the Cup Winners Cup in 1979 and then the Spanish League in 1984, under Terry Venables, before the wonderful era of Cruyff's 'dream team' which won four consecutive Spanish Leagues between 1990 and 1994 and the European Cup on 20th May 1992 at Wembley. Then came Bobby Robson, who won the Cup Winners Cup, the Spanish Cup and the Spanish Super Cup in the 1996-97 season and Louis van Gaal's consecutive league titles in 1997-98 and 1998-99, when the team won the double for the first time in 39 years.
Names such as Migueli, Sánchez, Carrasco, Schuster, Urruti, Maradona, Zubizarreta, Lineker, Bakero, Begiristain, Amor, Koeman, Laudrup, Ferrer, Stòitxkov, Guardiola, Romario, Sergi, Abelardo, Ronaldo, Luis Enrique, Figo, Rivaldo, Kluivert, Puyol and Saviola have all been involved in this wonderful era of success. The celebration of the club's centenary coincided with the arrival of new President Joan Gaspart, whose efforts have been directed to the completion of the new training facilities 'Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper' in Sant Joan Despí.


Source: FCBarcelona.com, edited by FCB-Mo

[FCB-Mo]

The background (1948-1954)

Even though the first voices to call for the construction of a new stadium were heard in 1948, it was the huge expectation surrounding the arrival of Hungarian star Ladislau Kubala (June 1950) that suggested that Barca had outgrown the Les Corts stadium. The Old Ground had been founded back in 1922, and after several extensions, was able to hold 60,000 spectators, a figure that was practically impossible to increase any more. So, on September 19, 1950, FC Barcelonas Board of Directors, presided by Agusti Montal Galobart, purchased a plot of land next to the Maternitat, fairly close to the site of the old Les Corts ground.

A troublesome period followed, when the new stadiums commission (February 9, 1951) changed their minds about the site of the project, opting for an area at the top of the Diagonal. Negotiations with the Administrators bore little fruit and never reached a definitive agreement. The issue was left on hold until Francesc Miro-Sans was elected president of FC Barcelona (November 14, 1953). The new president was particularly insistent that the project for a new stadium should go ahead immediately and one of the first things he did after coming to power (February 18, 1954) was to situate the new site on the land purchased in 1950 and not at the top of the Diagonal. So it was that, on March 28, in front of 60,000 fans, he laid the first stone of the Camp Nou, watched by the president of the Civil Government, Felipe Acedo Colunga, and blessed by the Archbishop of Barcelona, Gregorio Modrego.

The construction (1954-1957)

The project for the new stadium was entrusted to the architects Francesc Mitjans Miro, Miro-Sans cousin, and Josep Soteras Mauri, under collaboration with Lorenzo GarciÃ*a Barbon. More than a year later, on July 11, 1955, the Club handed the construction rights to INGAR SA, who put forward an estimate for 66,620,000 pesetas for completion of the building in 18 months. However, the eventual cost was considerably higher than the original proposal, reaching 288 million pesetas, a figure that had to met by successive emissions of obligatory mortgages (100 million pesetas) and bank loans (60 million pesetas). This was enough to finance the construction of the stadium, but the Club would be repaying that debt for several years afterwards.

Source:FCBarcelona.com, edited by FCB-Mo