FOOTBALL: Barcelona

Fútbol Club Barcelona (Catalan IPA: [fudˈbɔɫ ˌklup bəɾsəˈlonə], Spanish IPA: [ˈfutβol ˌkluβ baɾθeˈlona]), known 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).

They were founding member of La Liga in 1928, and, together with Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, they have never been relegated from the top division. The club were also the first La Liga champions, winning a total of 18 La Liga, 24 Copa del Rey, 7 Supercopa de España, 2 UEFA Champions League, 4 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, 3 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and 2 European Super Cup trophies.

The club's main stadium is the Camp Nou and the fans of FC Barcelona are known as culés. In Spain, about 25% of the population are said to be Barça supporters.^[1] In June 2007, the number of socis (club members/owners) reached 156,366, while in June 2006 the number of penyes (officially-registered supporter clubs) reached 1782 worldwide.

The club also operate a reserve team, FC Barcelona Atlètic, and four other professional sports teams, Regal FC Barcelona, FC Barcelona, FC Barcelona Futsal and FC Barcelona Sorli Discau that compete at basketball, handball, futsal and rink hockey respectively. Until 2007 there was also a youth team, FC Barcelona C.

There are also a number of prominent amateur sports teams that compete at rugby union, women's football and wheelchair basketball. These include FCB Rugby and FC Barcelona-Institut Guttman. Other amateur teams represent the club at ice hockey, athletics, baseball, cycling, field hockey, figure skating, and volleyball.

On the 19th January 2009, the FC Barcelona first team left their regular training pitch located next to the Camp Nou and moved to the modern Joan Gamper Sports City located close to the Camp Nou a few kilometres outside Barcelona, at St Joan Despi. This sports city is home to all of the clubs sports entities including the famous La Masia youth teams. The Sports city includes various state of the art facilities that allow FC Barcelona players and staff to train and prepare for their various sports in the best possible conditions.

During the 2006-07 season, FC Barcelona was the third richest club in the world with a revenue of €291.1 million.

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FC Barcelona