Candidates for FIFA World Player

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The Barça players Eto’o, Messi, Xavi and Iniesta have been named in the 23 man short list for the FIFA World Player Award for 2008. The winner will be announced on the 12th of January.

FIFA have announced this Wednesday a short list of the 23 candidates to be named player of the year for 2008. Amongst them are four FC Barcelona players; Samuel Eto’o, Leo Messi, Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta.

The captains and coaches of national sides will be given the chance to choose their favourites and the top three will be named in December. The winner will be made public during FIFA’s annual gala that will take place on the 12th of January in the Zurich Opera House.

International recognition

FIFA’s recognition adds itself to that of the magazine ‘France Football’ and of the International Federation of Professional Football Associations. Eto’o, Messi and Xavi are in with a chance of winning the European Player of the Year Award whilst the same players, along with Henry, Iniesta and Puyol, are amongst the finalists for the FIFPro Award .

Barça at the European Parliament

Marc Parramon (enviat especial)

FC Barcelona has displayed yet more of its social commitment as a presentation was made in Brussels of the conclusions of the project titled ‘Youth voices against racism’.

Barça was at the European Parliament at midday today, being greeted by much expectation as they once again showed their commitment to social issues, this time in the form of the presentation of the ‘Youth voices against racism’ programme that was developed jointly by the club’s Foundation, Unesco and the European Parliament.

The FC Barcelona delegation was headed by President Joan Laporta along with the director general of the Fundació FC Barcelona, Marta Segú, who were in the Belgian capital to present the conclusions of their study.

Barça against racism

Two young members of the debating forum, Swede Aman Melles (15 years) and German Julia Dubiel (17 years), revealed the 10 conclusions in the European Parliament’s auditorium. Once this was over, Joan Laporta said that he will be fighting “for these young people’s recommendations to be carried out” and will be presenting them to all the organisations with which the club shares relations.

According to the president, “at FC Barcelona we understand that these are very interesting recommendations and we shall apply such items as this anti-racism and anti-discrimination clause to all of our contracts with players and sponsors”. Laporta also said that the issues raised “will be studied by the corresponding forums”.

The subdirector general of Unesco, Marcio Barbosa, was also in the auditorium, and wished to highlight the role of FC Barcelona in the project: “We know we have established an alliance with the best collaborator we could have asked for in our fight against racism” he said.

At the end of the ceremony, Joan Laporta presented a Barça shirt to Emine Bozkurt, member of the European Parliament, which included the slogan ‘Youth voices against racism’.

Pioneering initiative

This was the first time a sporting body has joined forces with Unesco and the European Parliament to produce a joint project to eradicate racist and violent behaviour. In this sense, the president of FC Barcelona wished to highlight the unconditional support the first team squad have given to all of the anti-racism campaigns the club has been involved in.

Joan Gamper

The man from Switzerland was a true example of what a sportsman should be; Joan Gamper (Winterthur, Switzerland, 1877 - Barcelona, 1930) had success in swimming, rugby, cycling, athletics and above all, football. He arrived in Barcelona in 1898 and practised the sport in the streets of Sant Gervasi and by 1899, football had been born in Barcelona. 

He founded the club and was captain of the team, however, he did not take on the presidential role until 9 years later. His level was superior to that of most others at the time and left many people marvelling at his skills. He was a forward player and scored a tally of goal unthinkable in modern times. 

History Of Barcelona in (1899-1922)

Businessman Hans Gamper, born in Winterthur on 22 November 1877, was the man who decided to start a football club in Barcelona, by putting a note in a local sports magazine on 22nd October 1899, calling for players.

Gamper, known in Barcelona as Joan, had moved to the Catalan capital in 1898 for business reasons and just over a month after placing his ad, on 29th November 1899 he preside over the first club meting at the Gimnas Sole. Together with Gamper, Gualteri Wild, Lluís d'Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Carles Pujol, Josep Llobet, John Parsons and William Parsons attended that historic gathering. The meeting established the club and Englishman Gualteri Wild became the first President, combining his executive duties with his playing skills, since Wild, like the rest of the founders, was first and foremost a player.

The first kit

From the start, the players wore the famous blue and claret colours, half the shirt one colour and half the other with the sleeves the opposite colour and white shorts.

The first club coat of arms

At the beginning of its history the club shared the citys coat of arms, as a demonstration of its commitment to the city. Later, in 1910 the board decided that the club needed its own coat of arms and organized a competition to find the best design which was won by an anonymous member who produced the present model.

The first game

In their first ever match, Barca played a team made up of English expatriates in Bonanova (now known as Turo Park). The English team, which actually included a number of Barca players, won 1-0.

The first grounds

Barca's early search for a permanent home saw them playing at the Hotel Casanovas (1900), la carretera d'Horta (1901), el carrer Muntaner (1905) and carrer Indústria, which was the first ground owned by the club and had a capacity of 6,000 with a two tier stand, unique for its time. The ground was officially opened on 14th March 19 1909, by which time the club had already begun to collect titles, having won the Copa Macaya in 1901-02 and the Catalan Championships of 1904-05 and 1908-09. Spurred on by their new surroundings, the club went on to win the Catalan Championships of 1909-10, 1910-11, 1912-13, 1915-16, 1918-19 1919-20, 1920-21 and 1921-22, and the Spanish Championships of 1909-10, 1911-12, 1912-13, 1919-20 and 1921-22, as they enjoyed their first big period of sporting and social expansion. 

Founder, Joan Gamper 

Born on the 22nd November 1877 in Winterthur, Switzerland, the young Hans Gamper was interested in following sports. He was already a keen on athletics, cycling and football and above all, had already founded FC Zurich. He arrived in Barcelona aged 20 and began mixing with others interested in sports; he began raising money for the foundation of Barça, with the principle interest in practising sport. He was a good player and in 1901 he scored 49 of the 88 goals scored by the team. He was a player up until 1903 and in 1908 became president of the club for the first time in order to save the club from disappearing. Joan Gamper was to become president a total of five times in his time up until 1925. Gamper became fully integrated into Catalonia; both speaking and writing in Catalan. In 1925 he suffered the repression of the dictator of Primo de Rivera due to the dictator’s preference to Real Madrid. In 1930, Gamper again suffered a setback with his business and finally ended up committing suicide.