Birth of FC Barcelona (1899–1922)
Sports Notice: Our friend and companion Hans Gamper... former Swiss [football] champion, being keen on organising some football games in the city asks anyone who feels enthusiastic enough about the sport to present themselves at the office of this newspaper any Tuesday or Friday evening between the hours of 9 and 11pm.
Gamper's advertisement in
Los Deportes[3] On 22 October 1899,
Joan Gamper 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.
[3]
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.
[5]
On 14 March 1909, the team moved into the
Camp de la Indústria, a larger stadium with a seating capacity of 8,000 people. From 1910 to 1914 Barcelona participated in the
Pyrenees Cup, which consisted of the best teams of
Languedoc,
Midi,
Aquitaine (Southern France), the
Basque Country, and Catalonia. At that time it was considered the finest competition open for participation.
[6][7] During the same period, the club changed its official language from
Castilian to
Catalan and gradually evolved into an important symbol of Catalan identity. For many fans, supporting the club had less to do with the game itself and more with being a part of the club's collective identity.
[8]
Gamper launched a campaign to recruit more club members, and by 1922 the club had over 20,000 members and was able to finance a new stadium. The club to moved to the new
Les Corts, inaugurated the same year.
[9] Les Corts had an initial capacity of 22,000, which was later expanded to 60,000.
[10] Jack Greenwell was recruited as the first full-time
manager, and the club's fortunes began to improve on the field. During the Gamper era, FC Barcelona won eleven Campionat de Catalunya, six Copas del Rey, and four Pyrenees Cups, its first "golden age".
[5]
Rivera, Republic and Civil War (1923–1957)
The aerial bombardment of Barcelona in 1938
On 14 June 1925, the crowd in the stadium jeered the national anthem in a spontaneous protest against
Miguel Primo de Rivera's dictatorship. The ground was closed for six months as a reprisal, and Gamper was forced to relinquish the club presidency.
[11] This coincided with the club's transition to professionalism; in 1926 the directors of Barcelona publicly declared Barcelona a professional side for the first time.
[9] The club's 1928 victory in the
Spanish Cup was celebrated with a poem titled "Oda a
Platko", written by a member of the
Generation of '27, poet Rafael Alberti, who was inspired by the "heroic performance" of the Barcelona keeper.
[12] On 30 July 1930, Gamper committed suicide after a period of depression brought on by personal and financial problems.
[5]
Although they continued to have players of the standing of
Josep Escolà, the club entered a period of decline in which political conflict overshadowed sport throughout society.
[13] Although the team won the Campionat de Catalunya in 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936, and 1938, success at a national level (with the exception of a
disputed title in 1937) evaded them. A month after the
Spanish Civil War began in 1936, several players from Barcelona and
Athletic Bilbao enlisted in the ranks of those who fought against the military uprising.
[14] On 6 August,
Josep Sunyol, the club president and representative of a pro-independence political party, was murdered by
Falangist soldiers near
Guadarrama.
[15] Dubbed the martyrdom of
barcelonisme, the murder was a defining moment in the history of FC Barcelona.
[16] In the summer of 1937, the squad went on tour in Mexico and the United States, where it was received as an ambassador of the
Second Spanish Republic. That tour secured the club financially, but also resulted in half the team seeking
asylum in Mexico and France. On 16 March 1938, Barcelona came under aerial bombardment, resulting in over 3,000 deaths; one of the bombs hit the club's offices.
[17] Catalonia came under occupation a few months later. As a symbol of 'undisciplined'
Catalanism, the club, down to just 3,486 members, faced a number of restrictions.
[18] After the Civil War, the
Catalan flag was banned and football clubs were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures forced the club to change its name to
Club de Fútbol Barcelona and to remove the Catalan flag from its club shield.
[10]
In 1943, Barcelona faced rivals Real Madrid in the semi-finals of
Copa del Generalísimo. Their first match at Les Corts was won by Barcelona 3–0. Before the second leg, Barcelona's players had a changing room visit from
Franco's director of state security. He "reminded" them that they were only playing due to the "generosity of the regime". Real Madrid dominated the match, winning 11–1.
[19] Despite the difficult political situation, CF Barcelona enjoyed considerable success during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1945, with
Josep Samitier as managers and players like
César,
Ramallets, and
Velasco, they won La Liga for the first time since 1929. They added to this total in 1948 and again in 1949. They also won the first
Copa Latina that year. In June 1950, Barcelona signed
Ladislao Kubala, who was to be an influential figure at the club.
On a rainy Sunday in 1951, the crowd left Les Corts stadium after a 2–1 win against
Santander on foot, refusing to catch any trams and surprising the
Francoist authorities. A tram strike was taking place in
Barcelona, which received the support of
blaugrana fans. Events such as this made the club represent much more than just Catalonia; many progressive Spaniards saw the club as a staunch defender of rights and freedoms.
[20][21]
Managers
Ferdinand Daučík and
László Kubala led the team to five different trophies including La Liga, the Copa del Generalísimo (now the Copa del Rey), the
Copa Latina, the
Copa Eva Duarte, and the Copa Martini Rossi in 1952. In 1953, the club won La Liga and the Copa del Generalísimo again.
[10]
Club de Fútbol Barcelona (1957–1978)
With
Helenio Herrera as manager, a young
Luis Suárez, the
European Footballer of the Year in 1960, and two influential
Hungarians recommended by Kubala,
Sándor Kocsis and
Zoltán Czibor, the team won another national
double in 1959 and a La Liga and
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup double in 1960. In 1961 they became the first club to beat Real Madrid in
European Cup competition, but lost 3–2 to
Benfica in the final.
[23][24][25]
The 1960s were less successful for the club, with Real Madrid monopolising La Liga. The building of the
Camp Nou, completed in 1957, meant the club had little money to spend on new players.
[25] On the positive side, the decade saw the emergence of
Josep Fusté and
Carles Rexach, and the club won the Copa del Generalísimo in 1963 and the Fairs Cup in 1966. Barça restored some of its former pride by beating Real Madrid 1–0 in the 1968 Copa del Generalísimo final at the
Bernabéu, in front of Franco, with former
republican pilot
Salvador Artigas as manager. The end of Franco's dictatorship in 1974 saw the club changing its official name back to Futbol Club Barcelona and reverting the crest to its original design, again including the original letters.
[26]
The 1973–74 season saw the arrival of
Johan Cruyff, who was bought for a world record £920,000 from
Ajax.
[27] Already an established player in Holland, Cruyff quickly won over the Barça fans when he told the European press he chose Barça over Real Madrid because he could not play for a club associated with Franco. He further endeared himself when he chose the Catalan name
Jordi, after the local saint, for his son.
[28] Next to players of quality like
Juan Manuel Asensi,
Carles Rexach, and
Hugo Sotil, he helped the club win the La Liga title in 1973–74 for the first time since 1960, defeating Real Madrid 5–0 at the Bernabéu along the way.
[29] He was crowned
European Footballer of the Year in 1973 during his first season with Barcelona (his second Ballon d'Or win; he won his first while playing for Ajax in 1971). Cruyff received this prestigious award a third time (the first player ever to do so) in 1974 while he was still with Barcelona.
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