FC Barcelona

Full name	Fútbol Club Barcelona
Nickname(s)	Barça (team) L'equip blaugrana (team) Culers or Culés (supporters) Blaugranes (supporters)
Founded	November 29, 1899 (as Foot-Ball Club Barcelona)
Ground	Camp Nou, Barcelona (Capacity: 98,772)
Chairman	Joan Laporta
Manager	Josep Guardiola
League	La Liga

Fútbol Club Barcelona (Catalan pronunciation: [fudˈbɔɫ ˌklup bəɾsəˈlonə], Spanish: [ˈfutβol ˌkluβ barθeˈlona]), also known simply as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça (Catalan: [ˈbaɾsə], Spanish: [ˈbarsa]), 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's anthem is El Cant del Barça by Josep Maria Espinàs.

FC Barcelona is one of three clubs that have never been relegated from La Liga and the second 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, incluses 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 162,979 socis (members) in August 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 1st, 2009, FC Barcelona were ranked first in UEFA team ranking. According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), Barça has been the most consistently successful club in the world since the organisation began collecting statistics, in the period 1991-2008.

Sponsorship

Barça has an attitude to shirt sponsorship that is historically noteworthy. It has continuously refused to advertise corporate sponsors on the shirt since its founding. On 14 July 2006, the club announced a five year agreement with UNICEF, which includes having the UNICEF logo on their shirts. The agreement will see Barça donating US$1.9 million per year to UNICEF (0.7 per cent of its ordinary income, equal to the UN International Aid Target, cf. ODA) via the FC Barcelona Foundation, and rejecting significant money offers to be the first shirt sponsor of the football team.

The club has done this in order to set up international cooperation programmes for development, supports the UN Millennium Development Goals and has made a commitment to UNICEF’s humanitarian aid programs through the donation of one and a half million euro for the next five years.

Companies that Barça currently has sponsorship deals which include:

• Nike: Official sponsors
• Audi: Official sponsors
• Estrella Damm: Official sponsors
• La Caixa: Official sponsors
• TV3: Official sponsors
• Telefónica: Official sponsors
• Coca-Cola: Official provider
• Gas Natural: Official provider
• MediaPro: Official provider
• NH Hoteles: Official provider

Shirt sponsors and manufacturers

Period	Kit manufacturer	Shirt partner
1982–1992	Meyba	None
1992–1998	Kappa
1998–2006	Nike
2006–Present		UNICEF

See also
History of FC Barcelona
Legendary Players of FC Barcelona
Managers of FC Barcelona
Presidents of FC Barcelona
Honours of FC Barcelona
Records of FC Barcelona
Squad of FC Barcelona
More Than a Club (Mes Que un Club)