Barcelona

Spain Primera Division live football scores

Futbol Club Barcelona known familiarly as Barca is a sports club based in Barcelona, Spain. It is best known for its football team, which was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English, and Catalan men led by Joan Gamper. The club has become a Catalan institution, hence the motto Mes que un club (More than a club). They were founding members 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 Espana, 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 culers or cules. In Catalonia, about 55.7% of the population are said to be Barca supporters 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 operates a reserve team, Barcelona Athletic, and four other professional sports teams, AXA 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. During the 2006-07 season, FC Barcelona was the third richest club in the world with a revenue of ˆ291.1 million.

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In the UEFA Champions League that season, Barca beat Arsenal F.C. to win the final on May 17, 2006. Trailing 1-0 to the English side, with less than 15 minutes left and inspired by substitute Henrik Larsson, they came back to win 2-1, for the club's first UEFA Champions League victory in 14 years. This victory sparked scenes of jubilation from Barcelona fans with ecstatic culers celebrating in the obvious scene of La Rambla and members of Barca fan clubs celebrating in the Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid and all over the world. They took part in the FIFA Club World Cup 2006, making it to the final against Internacional, only to be beaten by a late goal. Despite being favorites and starting strongly, Barcelona finished the 2006-07 in second place. A pre-season US tour was later blamed for a string of injuries to key players, including leading scorer Eto'o and rising Argentinian star Lionel Messi.

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In the 2007-08 season, Barcelona again struggled, and weren't even able to finish in the top two of the Primera Division. They progressed well in the UEFA Champions League, eventually losing to Manchester United 1-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals. A day after a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of arch-rivals Real Madrid, Laporta announced that Barca B coach Josep Guardiola would take over Frank Rijkaard's duties after June 30. With the new coach Barcelona started the long expected clear out and rebirth of the team. Players such as Thuram and Gianluca Zambrotta left the squad, with teammates Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Deco expected to leave, too. Barcelona have thus far bought Daniel Alves (Sevilla FC), Gerard Pique (Manchester United), Martin Caceres (Villarreal) and Seydou Keita (Sevilla FC) in preparation for the 2008-09 season.