financial

FC BARCELONA FINANCIAL BALANCE

SETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS 2007/08 SEASON

Trading income: 308.8 million euros
Operating costs: 292.6 million euros
Ebitda (Earnings before tax and depreciations): +68.8 million euros
Operating profit or loss: +16.1 million euros
Income / financial expenses: -8.0 million euros
Operational profit or loss: +8.2 million euros
Extraordinary income / expenses: +0.4 million euros
Before tax profit or loss: +8.6 million euros
Tax payments: +1.5 million euros
Net profit or loss: +10.1 million euros

BUDGET 2008/09 SEASON

Trading income: 380 million euros
Operating costs: 355 million euros
Operating profit or loss: +25 million euros
Financial and extraordinary profit or loss: -10 million euros
Before tax net profit or loss: +15 million euros

All these figures were passed at the Ordinary General Assembly held on September 24, 2008.

the colour

The colours

One of the most distinctive elements of FC Barcelona are the colours the players wear.

Scarlet and blue have featured on the club shirt for more than one hundred years and the club is widely known as the ‘Blaugrana’ in reference to the names of these colours in the Catalan language. However, although the shirt has remained relatively constant in design over the years, the team shorts were white for the first ten years of club history, then switched to black, and were only blue from the 1920s onwards.

Nut just why Barça originally chose to wear these shirt colours has been matter of much debate among club historians, and although several theories have been put forward, nobody has ever managed to provide substantial evidence that the colours were chosen for any symbolic reason. Naturally, most of the theories are related to the foundation and origins of the club. For instance, it was claimed for several years that the Barça colours were adopted from a Swiss club that Gamper had founded earlier in his life, or that they were the colours of the Swiss canton that the founder was from. We now know that these hypotheses are highly unlikely to be true.

There is another common but unproven theory that the founders based their choice on the colours of the blue and red accountancy pencils that were so popular at the time. And there are other more prosaic suggestions, for instance the one which maintains that the mother of the Comamala brothers supplied the players with red and blue sashes so that they could differentiate between each other in the days before they had a kit of their own. But, as stated earlier, none of these theories have ever managed to offer conclusive evidence of why it was that Barça used these colours from its very earliest days. But what can be sure is that the Barça shirt has gone on to be one of the most recognisable and enigmatic shirt designs in world football.

the crest

The crest

There are few elements that symbolise an organised group more than its crest.

From the very moment Barça was founded, the club had its own emblem that the players proudly wore on their shirts. It was the coat of arms of the city of Barcelona, a diamond shape divided into four quarters, with a crown and a bat on top, and surrounded by two branches, one of a laurel tree and the other a palm. This, even at such an early stage, was a way of expressing the club’s link to the city in which it was born.

This crest remained unchanged until 1910. Shortly after Gamper had saved the club from serious crisis in 1908, a decision was made to give the club its own differentiated crest. In 1910, the club held a competition between all the members interested in presenting proposals. The winner was Carles Comamala, who played for the club between 1903 and 1912, and was a medicine student at the time, as well as being a fine artist. And so the crest that the club wears to this day was created, although there have been a few variations. It is a bowl-shaped design, in which the two upper quarters maintain the St George Cross and the red and yellow bars of the original, which are the most representative symbols of Barcelona and Catalonia. The club initials FCB appear on a strip across the centre, and below are the Barça colours and a ball. So, what we have is a crest that honours the sporting dimension of the club as well as its connection to its city and country.

Since 1910, the changes made to the design have been minimal, generally just modifying the aesthetics and the patterns used for the outline. The biggest changes came about as a result of political obligations. When Franco came to power, the letters FCB were replaced by CFB, to reflect the way the club was forced to use the Spanish version of its name. The dictatorship also obliged the club to remove two of the four bars from one of the upper quarters, thus excluding the Catalan flag from the crest. On occasion of the club’s 50th anniversary in 1949, the four bars returned. The original letters were not recovered until late 1974, when the crest reverted to the original 1910 design.

The present crest is based on an adaptation made by designer Claret Serrahima in 2002, in which the lines are a little more stylised, the dots between the letters have been taken away, the name has been made smaller, and there are fewer pointed edges. The lines in this latest design are somewhat simpler, to make it easier for the crest and the club’s corporate identity to be reproduced in all the different formats.

anthem

The anthems

It has become a fully established club tradition that in the build up to games at the Camp Nou, the club anthem, called ‘El Cant del Barça' is played on the stadium loudspeaker system, and all the fans sing along in unison.

It was first performed on November 27, 1974, before the game that marked the end of the 75th anniversary celebrations. A choir of 3,600, conducted by Oriol Martorell, gathered on the pitch for the very first public performance of the new anthem. The words were written by Josep Maria Espinàs and Jaume Picas, and the music was composed by Manuel Valls. The song quickly grew in popularity. The fans loved the fact that they could clap their hands in time to its catchy rhythm, and the words perfectly depicted the values of supporting Barça, especially the spirit of welcoming outsiders into Catalan society, a spirit that is reflected all the way through the club membership.

However, this is not the only anthem the club has had over the years. The first was unveiled on February 18, 1923, with words by Rafael Folch i Capdevila and music by Enric Morera. It was performed by the Orfeó Gracienc choir, for the first time at the old Les Corts stadium as part of Catalan football tribute to Joan Gamper. In keeping with the grandiloquent mood of the times, the words described the relationship between “sport and the Catalan nation ”.

Anthem 1923

Later, on occasion of the 50th anniversary, Esteve Calzada wrote the words for a new anthem, which was set to music by Joan Dotras. It was called 'Barcelona, sempre amunt!' (‘Always up with Barcelona!), and despite the political climate of the period, it was written in Catalan.

Anthem 1949

Josep Badia, in 1957, also used Catalan in the words to a third anthem, 'Himne a l’Estadi' (Anthem for the Stadium’), for the inauguration of the Camp Nou. This was the first time that the word 'Barça' appeared in a club anthem, for which the music was composed by Adolf Cabané.

Anthem 1957

‘El Cant del Barça' has been so successful that all the previous anthems were soon forgotten, even 'Himne de l’Estadi', which was the official tune in 1974. And it has now become such a part of club tradition that 30m years later, nobody could possibly imagine there to be any need for a new anthem. An anthem was written for the Club Centenary, called 'Cant del Centenari', first performed on September 22, 1998, with words by Ramon Solsona and music by Antoni Ros Marbà, but it was made clear from the start that the song was only going to be used within the context of those celebrations.

Anthem 1974 (the current anthem)

Anthem Centenary

all about barca

FC Barcelona Information

(Last updated 28 October 2008)

INSTALLATIONS

CAMP NOU
Capacity: 98.772
Dimensions: 105x68 m.
Opened: 24th Setember 1957

MINIESTADI
Capacity: 15.276
Dimensions: 103x65 m.
Opened: 23rd Setember 1982

Sport City
Opened: 1st june 2006
Surface area: 136.839 m2

PALAU BLAUGRANA
Capacity: 7.235
Opened: 23 October 1971

Ice Rink
Capacity: 1.256
Opened: 30 octubre 1971

PALAU BLAUGRANA 2 (PICADERO)
Capacity: 1.200
Owned since April 1975

SPORTS

FOOTBALL

15 Teams
Men’s teams: Barça B, Youth A, Youth B, Cadet A, Cadet B, IChildrenA, Children B, Aleví A, Aleví B, Benjamí A and Benjamí B.
Women’s teams: Women A, Women B, Women C and Women F-7.


SECTIONS

14 sections
4 Professional sections: Basketball, handball, Roller Hockey and Indoor football
8 Non-professional sections: Guttmann-FCBarcelona (Wheelchair Basketball), athletics, rugby, Baseball, volleyball, Field Hockey, Ice Hockey and Ice Dance.
1 Associated section: and CVB Barça (Women’s Volleyball).


LOWER SECTIONS

Basketball (5 teams): Junior, Cadet A, Cadet B, Infantil A, Infantil B
Handball (5 teams): Senior B, Juvenil, Cadet A, Cadet B, Infantil
Roller hockey (4 teams): Senior B, Junior, Juvenil, Infantil
Indoor football (5 teams): Senior B, Juvenil, Cadet, Infantil.
Athletics (12 teams): Infantil, Cadet, Juvenil, Junior, Promesa and Senior male. Infantil, Cadet, Juvenil, Junior, Promesa and Senior feminine.
Rugby (9 teams): Senior A, Senior B, Juvenil, Cadet, Infantil, Aleví, Benjamí, Prebenjamí, Babies.
Baseball (6 teams): Senior A, Senior B, Juvenil, Cadet, Infantil, Aleví
Volleyball (5 teams): Senior, Junior, Juvenil, Cadet, Infantil
Field hockey (7 teams): Senior, Primera Barceloní Stick, Primera, Juvenil and Cadet male. Senior and Juvenil feminine.
Ice hockey (5 teams): Senior, Under-18, Under-13, Under-11, Under-9.
Figure skating(18 teams): Debutante (Masculino y Femenino); Jóvenes Talentos (Masculino y Femenino); Promesas Femenino; Mínima (Masculino y Femenino);Infantil (Masculino y Femenino), Novice Femenino; Junior 3ª (Masculino y Femenino); Junior 2ª (Masculino y Femenino); Junior 1ª (Masculino y Femenino). Ballet: Elit, y Jeune espoir.
CVB Barça (6 teams): Senior, Juvenil.

MEMBERS

Number of Members: 162.979
Per sexes:
Male 125.154
Female 37.825
Geographic Distribution:
Barcelona 62.710
Rest of Catalunya 79.211
Rest of Spain 21.058

OFFICIAL SUPPORTERS' CLUBS

Number of Clubs: 1.888
Geographic Distribution:
Zone 1 (Catalunya, Valencia, Balearic Islands andi Catalunya North): 824
Zone 2 (Spain): 920
Zone 3 (Rest of the world): 144
Active supporter’s clubs: 1.468
Geographic Distribution:
Zone 1 (Catalunya, Valencia, Balearic Islands andi Catalunya North): 651
Zone 2 (Espanya): 711
Zone 3 (Rest of the world): 106