Sports Stars Info: Barcelona Football Club

Futbol Club Barcelona (English: Football Club Barcelona), also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. They are the current European and Spanish football champions, and the most successful club in Spanish football in terms of domestic and overall trophies, having won 21 La Liga, 25 Copa del Rey, 10 Supercopa de España, 3 Copa Eva Duarte and 2 Copa de la Liga trophies, as well as being the record holder for the latter four competitions.

It is also one of the most successful clubs in European and international club football, having won four UEFA Champions League, a record four UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, four UEFA Super Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup trophies. They also won a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cup trophies, considered the predecessor to the UEFA Cup.

It is the only European club to have played continental football every season since 1955, and one of the only three clubs to have never been relegated from La Liga, along with Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid. In 2009, Barcelona became the first club in Spain to win the treble consisting of La Liga, Copa del Rey, and the Champions League. That same year, it also became the first football club ever to win six out of six competitions in a single year, thus completing the sextuple, comprising the aforementioned treble and the Spanish Super Cup, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.

Founded as Foot-Ball Club Barcelona in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Catalan footballers led by Joan Gamper, the club has become a symbol of Catalan culture and Catalanism, hence the motto "Més que un club" (English: More than a club).

The official Barça anthem is the "Cant del Barça" written by Jaume Picas and Josep Maria Espinàs. Unlike many other football clubs, the supporters own and operate Barcelona. It is the world's second richest football club in terms of revenue, with an annual turnover of €398 million. The club holds a long-standing rivalry with Real Madrid, and matches between the two teams are referred to as "El Clásico".

On 22 October 1899, Hans Kamper placed an advertisement in Los Deportes declaring his wish to form a football club; a positive response resulted in a meeting at the Gimnasio Solé on 29 November. Eleven players attended Walter Wild (the first director of the club), Lluís d'Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John Parsons, and William Parsons—and Foot-Ball Club Barcelona was born.

FC Barcelona had a successful start in regional and national cups, competing in the Campionat de Catalunya and the Copa del Rey. In 1902, the club won its first trophy, the Copa Macaya, and participated in the first Copa del Rey, losing 1–2 to Bizcaya in the final. Gamper became club president in 1908, the club in financial difficulty after not winning a competition since the Campionat de Catalunya in 1905. Club president on five separate occasions between 1908 and 1925, he spent 25 years in total at the helm. One of his main achievements was ensuring Barça acquire its own stadium and thus generate a stable income.

Beginning with Josep Lluís Núñez in 1978, the president of FC Barcelona has been elected by the club members. This decision was closely tied to Spain's transition to democracy in 1974 and the end of Franco's dictatorship. Núñez's main objective was to develop Barça into a world-class club by giving it stability both on and off the pitch. On recommendation from Cruyff, Núñez inaugurated La Masia as Barcelona's youth academy on 20 October 1979. His presidency was to last for 22 years and it deeply affected the image of Barcelona, as Núñez held to a strict policy regarding wages and discipline, letting players such as Diego Maradona, Romário and Ronaldo go rather than meeting their demands.

The departures of Núñez and van Gaal were nothing compared to that of Luís Figo. As well as club vice-captain, Figo had become a cult hero and was considered by Catalans to be one of their own. Barça fans were distraught by Figo's decision to join arch-rivals Real Madrid, and during subsequent visits to the Camp Nou, he was given an extremely hostile reception. Upon his first return a piglet's head and a full bottle of whiskey were thrown at him from the crowd. President Núñez was replaced by Joan Gaspart in 2000, and the three years he was in charge, saw the club decline and managers came and went; van Gaal served a second term. Gaspart did not inspire confidence off the field either and in 2003, he and van Gaal resigned.

The 2007–08 season was unsuccessful, and as Barça failed to emulate the success of previous years, Barça B youth manager Josep Guardiola took over Frank Rijkaard's duties at the conclusion of the season. Josep Guardiola brought with him the now famous tiki-taka style of play which he had been taught during his time in the Barcelona youth teams. In the proces Guardiola sold Ronaldinho and Deco, and started building the Barcelona team around Xavi, Iniesta and Messi.

In 2010, Forbes evaluated Barcelona's worth to be around €752 million (USD $1 billion), ranking them fourth after Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Arsenal, based on figures from the 2008–09 season. According to Deloitte, Barcelona had a recorded revenue of €366 million in the same period, ranking second to Real Madrid, who generated €401 million in revenue.Along with Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, and Osasuna, Barcelona is organised as a registered association. Unlike a limited company, it is not possible to purchase shares in the club, but only membership. The members of Barcelona, called socis, form an assembly of delegates which is the highest governing body of the club. As of 2010 the club has 170,000 socis.

An audit by Deloitte in July 2010 showed that Barcelona had a net debt of €442 million, currently 58% of net worth as evaluated by Forbes. The new management of Barcelona, which had ordered the audit, cited "structural problems" as the cause of the debt. News had emerged that the club had recorded a loss of €79 million over the course of the year, despite having defended their La Liga title.ESPN reported that for 2011, Barcelona's gross debt stands at around €483m and the net debt is at €364. Barcelona was found by ESPN to have the highest average salary per player of all professional sports teams in the world, just ahead of rival Real Madrid.

Xavi presently holds the team records for number of total games played (580) and La Liga appearances (383).FC Barcelona's all-time highest goalscorer in all competitions (including friendlies) is Paulino Alcántara with 357 goals. The record league scorer is César Rodríguez , who scored 195 goals in La Liga between 1942 and 1955. That record is likely to be broken soon as the current leading league scorer Lionel Messi has scored 119 goals. Only four people have managed to score over 100 league goals at Barcelona: César Rodríguez (195), Ladislao Kubala (131), Lionel Messi (119) and Samuel Eto'o (108) . On 2 February 2009, Barcelona reached a total of 5,000 La Liga goals.

The goal was converted by Messi in a game against Racing Santander, which Barça won 2–1. On 18 December 2009 Barcelona beat Estudiantes 2–1 to win their sixth title in a year and became the first ever football team to complete the sextuple. Barcelona holds the record for most Copa del Rey titles (25) and for the most Spanish Supercups with 9 titles. Barcelona's highest home attendance was 120,000, for a European Cup quarter-final against Juventus on 3 March 1986. The modernisation of Camp Nou during the 1990s and the introduction of all-seater stands means the record will not be broken for the foreseeable future as the current legal capacity of the stadium is 98,772.

Barcelona initially played in the Camp de la Indústria. The capacity was about 10,000, and club officials deemed the facilities inadequate for a club with growing membership.In 1922, the number of supporters had surpassed 20,000 and by lending money to the club, Barça was able to build the larger Camp de Les Corts, which had an initial capacity of 20,000 spectators. After the Spanish Civil War the club started attracting more members and a larger number of spectators at matches. This led to several expansion projects: the grandstand in 1944, the southern stand in 1946, and finally the northern stand in 1950. After the last expansion, Les Corts could hold 60,000 spectators.

After the construction was complete there was no further room for expansion at Les Corts. Back-to-back La Liga titles in 1948 and 1949 and the signing of in June 1950 of László Kubala, who would later go on to score 196 goals in 256 matches, drew larger crowds to the games. The club began to make plans for a new stadium. The building of Camp Nou commenced on 28 March 1954, before a crowd of 60,000 Barça fans. The first stone of the future stadium was laid in place under the auspices of Governor Felipe Acedo Colunga and with the blessing of Archbishop of Barcelona Gregorio Modrego. Construction took three years and ended on 24 September 1957 with a final cost of 288 million pesetas, 336% over budget.

In 1980, when the stadium was in need of redesign to meet UEFA criteria, the club raised money by offering supporters the opportunity to inscribe their name on the bricks for a small fee. The idea was popular with supporters, and thousands of people paid the fee. Later this became the centre of controversy when media in Madrid picked up reports that one of the stones was inscribed with the name of long-time Real Madrid chairman and Franco supporter Santiago Bernabéu. In preparation for the 1992 Summer Games two tiers of seating were installed above the previous roofline. It has a current capacity of 99,354 making it the largest stadium in Europe.