More Than a Club

“Més que un club” (more than a club), FC Barcelona’s team slogan, explains how the club is more than just a team or a business. Instead FC Barcelona is engrained in Barcelona’s identity, and the team’s impact is expansive, reaching far beyond “the pitch”. The organization represents the concerns of the everyday Catalan, and the club has supported the region’s social and democratic values throughout history. This is why the club donates 1.5 million Euros to UNICEF’s humanitarian aid programs, and the team now wears the UNICEF logo on its jerseys. The norm for most European football clubs is to instead gain revenue by having the name of a team sponsor on the jersey. The team’s stadium and the most recent El Clásico best help illustrate the meaning of the “Més que un club” significance and the phenomenon of FC Barcelona.

It would be difficult to sit in Camp Nou during a FC Barcelona match and not feel something special—the classic and dramatic team entrances, the crowd noise and passion, the intensity on the field. This is especially hard to equal when considering that Camp Nou holds about 20,000 more people than the average American football stadium. The following interview illustrates just how epic an experience at Camp Nou and El Clásico can be.

The publicity and cost of the Camp Nou construction exemplifies its importance in Catalans’ minds. 60,000 fans were even in attendance for the beginning of the stadium’s construction in 1954. The total costs of the finished stadium totaled 288 million pesetas in 1957, more than three times the initial budget, leaving the club in debt for years.

Camp Nou was inaugurated as the FC Barcelona stadium in September 1957. After an FC Barcelona golden age during the 1940s and 1950s the club’s popularity outgrew its stadium, and there was no more room for expansion. With a capacity of 99,354 Camp Nou is the biggest stadium in Europe, making it an internationally famous building.

Beyond FC Barcelona the stadium hosted soccer games during the 1992 Summer Olympics (when the stadium was modified and grew to a capacity of 121,749), two UEFA Champions League finals, and many other events, including concerts from major musicians and bands like Michael Jackson and U2. Even Pope John Paul II visited Camp Nou in 1982. In the 1998 to 1999 season UEFA awarded Camp Nou five star status. Only four other Spanish stadiums received such high praise. Fox Sports also ranked it as the sixth best soccer stadium in the World, and the best in Spain. This acclaim comes from the stadium’s aforementioned size and history, but also because of its many impressive facilities. The stadium includes almost everything: a medical center, terrace, restaurant, chapel, and even a nursery. Furthermore the FC Barcelona club museum is the second most visited museum in Catalonia.

Camp Nou’s size and the club’s popularity make the stadium a platform for national and international exposure. This opportunity can cause some games to become politicized, as was evident in the most recent El Clásico on October 7^th. FC Barcelona has by default become what would be deemed the national team of Catalonia. For Catalans it would almost be considered anti-Catalan to be a bigger fan of the Spanish national team or of Real Madrid than of FC Barcelona.

As Barcelona’s central defender Gerard Pique described prior to the game, “The games between Barcelona and Madrid increasingly resemble Catalonia against Spain”. Spain’s economic crisis sparked an increase in Catalan nationalism, and the separatist feelings from it have spread across the wealthy autonomous community. This made the match highly politicized, and at 17:14 into it there was a stadium wide chant for independence, which can be seen in a clip in the below video from Camp Nou’s stands. Fans planned for the chant at this specific time because in 1714 Catalonia lost many of its historic rights. The Catalan troops were defeated on September 11 of that year, and the date has become a holiday as the annual National Day of Catalonia. This year demonstrations were made on this day to further voice the Catalan desire for independence. El Clásico came less than one month after these displays.

With the two most talented and famous teams in Spain competing, the passion off the field, and the tension on it, are evident. Ending in a 2-2 tie there was no clear winner of the game, but the Catalans’ commitment to independence was nonetheless made clear. And it was made clear by a voice of nearly 100,000 FC Barcelona fans to a television audience of 400 million people.

Club founder Joan Gamper added more than just soccer to the meaning of FC Barcelona. He added for the club to be pro-Catalan, to actively serve its country. Therefore the club interacts with pro-Catalan political sectors and did not hesitate to defend the identity and autonomous rights of Catalonia. As Club president Sandro Rosell recently said, “When Catalans decide their future, Barça will be at their side. We will always defend our roots and the rights of people to decide their own future.” Because FC Barcelona truly is més que un club.