The Star Football

Campionat de Catalunya

FC Barcelona was just one of several football clubs that emerged in Catalonia around this time. Others included Palamós CF, Catala SC(1899), Hispania AC (1900) and Sociedad Espanola de Football and later CE Europa. Soon there were enough clubs to organise a league and in December 1900 Alfons Macaya, president of Hispania AC, offered a trophy. The Copa Macaya eventually evolved into the Campionat de Catalunya. This was the first league championship ever played in Spain. FC Barcelona won their first trophy when they won the Copa Macaya in 1901. They subsequently won the Campionat de Catalunya a further 20 times before it was disbanded in 1940. In 1902 the club also played in the first Copa del Rey final, losing 2-1 to Club Vizcaya.

The Gamper Years

In 1908 Joan Gamper became club president for the first time. He subsequently held the position on five separate occasions (1908-09, 1910-12, 1917-19, 1921-23 and 1924-25) and spent 25 years at the helm. His main achievement as president was to give Barca their own stadium. He also launcehed a campaign to recruit more club members and by 1922 the club had over 10,000 members.

Until 1909 the team played in various stadiums, none of them owned by the club. On March 14th 1909, the 6,000 seat stadium of Carrer Industria opened its door. In 1922 the club moved to a new home at Les Corts. This stadium had an initial capacity of 30,000, later expanded to an impressive 60,000. It was it was during these early years in these stadiums that Barca fans acquired their nickname the culés (pronounced /ku'les/). Roughly translated from Catalan, it means arses. Far from being offensive, the name refers to fans seated in the highest row of the stadium. From outside passers-by could only see their arses. Barca fans have been referred to culés ever since. As of November 2005, there are about 1730 officially registered supporters clubs of FC Barcelona around the world.

Gamper also introduced legendary players like Paulino Alcántara, Ricardo Zamora, and Josep Samitier . These players helped the club dominate both the Championat de Catalunya and Copa del Rey and then win the first La Liga championship in 1929.

The Cruyff Years

The 1973/74 season saw the arrival of a new Barca legend – Johan Cruyff. Already an established player with Ajax, Cruyff quickly won over the Barca fans when he told the European press he chose Barca over Real because he could not play for a club associated with Franco. He further endeared himself when he chose a Catalan name, Jordi, for his son. He helped the club win La Liga for the first time since 1960, along the way defeating Real Madrid 5-0 at the Bernabéu. He was also crowned European Footballer of the Year twice in a row while at club.

Cruyff returned to the club as manager in the 1988, assembling the legendary Dream Team, named after the US basketball team that played at the 1992 Olympic Games hosted by Barcelona. Cruyff introduced players like Josep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero, Aitor Beguiristain, Goikoetxea, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup and Hristo Stoichkov. The latter was also voted European Footballer of the Year in 1994. This team won La Liga four times between 1991 and 1994 and beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 European Cup Winners Cup final and the 1992 European Cup final at Wembley. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the European Super Cup in 1992 and three Supercopa de España. With 11 trophies, Cruyff has been the club's most successful manager to date. He is also the club's longest serving manager. However in his final two seasons, he failed to win any trophies and fell out with Nuñez. This resulted in his departure.

The Nuñez Years

Despite having no previous connection with the club Josep Luis Nuñez was elected president of FC Barcelona in 1978. His main objectives were to establish Barca as a world class sports club and to give the club financial stability.

In 1979 and 1982 the club won two of four European Cup Winners Cups won in the Nuñez era. In 1982 Diego Maradona was signed for a world record fee from Boca Juniors. However his time with Barca was short-lived and unsuccessful and he soon left for Napoli. In 1985 under Terry Venables Barca won La Liga and in 1986 he took the team to their second European Cup final, only to lose on penalties to Steaua Bucharest.

In 1988 Nuñez appointed Johan Cruyff as manager. Despite the latter’s success with the Dream Team, personal differences saw Nuñez sacking him in 1996. He was temporarily replaced by Bobby Robson who took charge of the club for a single season in 1996/97. He recruited Ronaldo from his previous club, PSV Eindhoven and delivered a cup treble winning the Copa del Rey, European Cup Winners Cup and the Supercopa de España. As a result, FC Barcelona was awarded as the world's best football team of 1997 by the IFFHS (International Federation of Football History and Statistics)[1]. Among Robson’s non-playing staff was José Mourinho who assisted with training and acted as translator.

Despite his success, Robson was only ever seen as a short-term solution while the club waited for Louis van Gaal to become available. Like Maradona, Ronaldo only stayed a short time and he left for Inter Milan. However, new heros like Luis Figo, Luis Enrique and Rivaldo emerged and the team won a Copa del Rey/La Liga double in 1998. In 1999 they retained the La Liga and Rivaldo became the fourth Barca player to be awarded European Footballer of the Year. Despite this domestic success, the failure to emulate Real Madrid in the Champions League led to Van Gaal resigning in 2000.

2000 also saw the resignation of Nuñez after 22 years as club president. Although not always popular, as evidenced by dozens of votes of no-confidence, players’ rebellions and the open opposition led by Johan Cruyff, Nuñez has been Barca’s most successful president in terms of winning trophies. During his presidency the club’s four professional teams amassed 176 trophies – 30 in football, 36 in basketball, 65 in handball and 45 in roller hockey. This included a remarkable quartet in 1999, the club’s centenary year, when the four teams where all crowned champions of Spain.

The Departure Of Figo

The departures of Nuñez and Van Gaal were nothing compared to that of Luis Figo. As well as club captain, Figo had become a cult hero and was considered by Catalans to be one of their own. It is widely believed that his dislike of the new president, Joan Gaspart, triggered his departure for arch-rivals Real Madrid. The Barca fans were distraught by Figo’s decision to join Real and during subsequent visits to the Camp Nou, Figo was given an extremely hostile reception. The next three years saw the club in decline. Expensive players like Patrick Kluivert and Marc Overmars were regularly accused of not pulling their weight. Gaspart did not inspire confidence off the field either and in 2003 he resigned.