F.C. Barcelona

• Full Name : Foot Ball Club Barcelona.
• Founded : 29 November 1899.
• Ground : Camp Nou, Barcelona
• Chairman : Joan Laporta
• Manager : Josep Guardiola
• League : La Liga

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, 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 the only three clubs that have never been relegated from La Liga and the second most successful club in Spanish football having won nineteen La Liga titles, a record twenty-five Spanish Cups, seven Spanish Super Cups and two League Cups. They are also one of the most successful clubs in European football having won nine official major European trophies in total. They have won three UEFA Champions League titles, a record four UEFA Cup Winners' Cups and two UEFA Super Cups. They also have a record three Inter-Cities Fairs 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'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 156,366 socis (members) 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 team, FC Barcelona Atlètic, while there was a youth team until 2007, FC Barcelona C.
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History