Tuesday, May 5, 2009

MY WORLD MY BARCELONA




Futbol Club Barcelona (Catalan IPA[fudˈbɔɫ ˌklup bəɾsəˈlonə]Spanish IPA[ˈfutβol ˌkluβ baɾθeˈlona]), also known simply as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça(Catalan IPA[ˈbaɾsə], Spanish IPA[ˈbaɾsa]), is a sports club based in Barcelona,CataloniaSpain. It is best known for its football team, which was founded in 1899 by a group of SwissEnglish 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).

FC Barcelona is one of the only three clubs that have never been relegated from La Liga and the second most successful club in Spanish football having won eighteen La Liga titles, a record twenty-four Spanish Cups, seven Spanish Super Cups and two League Cups. They are also one of the most successful clubs in European football having won eight official major European trophies in total.[1] They have won two European Cups, a record four UEFA Cup Winners' Cups and two UEFA Super Cups. They also have a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cups.

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,[2] while according to a recent survey Barcelona is the most popular football club in Europe with around 44.2 million fans.[3] With 156,366socis in June 2007, 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 1,782 worldwide in June 2006. 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 season 2007–08, 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 teamFC Barcelona Atlètic, while there was a youth team until 2007, FC Barcelona C.

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