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'''Más que un club: Los Símbolos de Barcelona'''

Founded in 1899, FC Barcelona has been the symbol of the city of Barcelona, making it one of the most popular and most recognizable sports franchises in history. During his acceptance speech 1968, former club president Narcís de Carreras called FC Barcelona, “Más que un club”, which has been the club’s slogan every since. This motto is a perfect depiction of the team, as it represents so much more than sport; it is a lifestyle for the people of Barcelona

The crest

The crest of FC Barcelona represents far more than a football club, it represents the city of Barcelona, its values, its traditions, its citizens, and its roots are deeply tied to the city. As one of the most successful and historic clubs in European football history, the crest of FC Barcelona is one of the most recognizable symbols in sports today. Although the crest has been slightly modified over the years, the meaning and importance of the crest has remained constant and sacred for its followers.

The original crest of the club was taken from the coat of arms of the city of Barcelona during the nineteenth century. By using the same crest as Barcelona, the club, from the very beginning, intertwined the city and the team as one, establishing its pride in the city and forever engraining the team as a staple of the rich culture of Barcelona. The coat of arms is characterized as, “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”. The club used the coat of arms for its first eleven years of play until 1910, when it established its own crest to more accurately represent the team without losing its ties to the city of Barcelona.

Showing its commitment to the fans and the city in which the club was born, FC Barcelona held a competition in which any interested fans of the club submitted proposals for the new look of the club. The winning proposal was submitted by a former FC Barcelona player, Carles Comamala. The new crest was characterized by four primary components, each highlighting different aspects of the club’s history and the city of Barcelona.

The first of these components, is the St. Jordi cross, which is positioned in the top left of the crest. This is emblematic of the city as St. Jordi is the patron saint of Barcelona. The use of the St. Jordi cross symbolizes the city's religious ties and commitment to a set of high moral standards that make Barcelona revered as both a cultural and religious staple of Europe.

The top right portion of the crest bears the red and yellow stripes of the flag of Cataluña. The flag consists of a gold background, with four, vertical red stripes, each representing the four autonomous Spanish communities of Cataluña, Aragon, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands. Not only is FC Barcelona a symbol of the city of Barcelona, but also, a symbol of the region of Cataluña, and by incorporating these four Spanish communities, the club demonstrates its commitment to representing something bigger than itself; truly ‘más que un club’.

The white strip, located in the center of the crest bears the letters F, C, and B, representing the name of the club, Football Club Barcelona. The final component, located at the base of the crest bears the colors of the club, blue and red. In catalan, the combination of these colors is known as “Blaugrana”. Although the true symbolism of the blue and red colors has been debated over the years, one theory states that, “Joan Gamper, the founder of the team, adopted the colours red and blue from his previous club, the FC Basel. Though the colours and shirts of the FC Basel and the FC Barcelona are absolutely identical, there is no proof of this theory.” Regardless of the the origin of the colors, the fact remains that these colors are some of the most recognizable in the history of the game. And finally, on top of the colors is a football, the heart and soul of the club.

The updated crest maintained various components of the emblematic city for which the club represents combined with a refreshed look incorporating the sport aspect in addition to the cultural staples of the city. Since 1910, the crest of FC Barcelona has remained relatively identical to the original, with one exception; a change that occurred in 1941 at the hand of Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco. After rising to power in 1939, Franco was committed to establishing autonomous power and influence over the citizens of Spain. This notion was reflected in a change of the cities most iconic symbol, the crest of the beloved football club Barcelona. In 1941, Franco ordered modifications to the crest to more accurately depict the political changes he was trying so hard to implement. The two changes Franco mandated focused on the top right of the crest, the flag of Cataluña, as well as the middle bar with the initials of the club’s name. The first change Franco ordered was the the removal of two bars from the top right portion, thus removing the true flag of Cataluña. This was a reflection of the autonomous power he wanted over all of spain. The second was the change in order of the letters on the bar of the crest from F.CB. to C.F.B. This change was brought forth as a result of Franco’s demand that the club reflect a truer spanish nature, thus changing the order of the letters to more closely align with the native language. The letters remained in this order until 1974, when the club decided to revert them back to the original design.

The current crest used by the club today looks almost identical to the 1974 crest, with only a few minor changes. These include updated, stylized lines surrounding the crest as well as the removal of the dots between the club’s initials. These changes were brought about to bring more uniformity to the crest, making it easier to duplicate and on all platforms for which the club wishes to use the crest.

The Values

As an ambassador of Cataluña, FC Barcelona has a responsibility to be a model of excellence, and in doing so, the club has maintained five core values:

RESPECT “Respect for others is one of the basic requirements of democratic life and the capacity to live in society. It affects the individual and has both a social and a collective dimension. Respect is a fundamental part of sport, for sport generates situations of tension that have to be resolved almost instantaneously. There is therefore a need, above rules and standards, for this value to be present in order to guarantee cordial and correct interrelations between people. In sport, respect is needed in similar situations to those where it is demanded in wider society, but the intensity of the moment implies that the presence or absence of respect can be very obvious and can affect the development of the situation or event”.

EFFORT “There are many social models that avoid effort and advocate instead luck, opportunism and immediate triumph. However, effort is a value that can take us to unthinkable heights and lead us to achieve targets and objectives that may at other times appear distant or inaccessible. Dedication, rigour, constancy, sacrifice and perseverance all bear fruit, while luck and the search for a quick win are often fleeting and momentary. Note that at school, teachers have for a long time being promoting a culture of effort as the vehicle for academic development and personal achievement, and this helps to construct new social models”.

AMBITION “Ambition is the desire to achieve the maximum performance and do things not only well but also as well as is feasibly possible and to improve every day. This value is applicable both to individuals and to groups. It involves use of a web of values as varied as excellence, patience, discipline, order, motivation and responsibility. Indeed, ambition invokes and requires a broad system of values and, in turn, is related with a job being done well, effort and rigour. Regarding targets, ambition is probably the surest way of achieving them, for it is the impulse to grow”.

TEAMWORK “Teamwork implies that the subject forms part of a group and that, as a member of the same, becomes an active element that acts on behalf of the whole (sometimes even to the determine of their own individuality). There are undeniable benefits of knowing that you are part of a team and this requires the learning and accentuation of many other values”.

HUMILITY “Often when athletes, and people in general, achieve the goals they have set themselves, they start feeling superior in physical, moral, economic and other terms, and this leads them to forget certain values that have in all probability helped them to achieved those very goals: effort, perseverance, self-control, etc. We are all aware of how FC Barcelona has dealt with its victories of recent years, and how it has always shown humility (and also such values as effort, rigour, responsibility and others) to win respect in its field, and among its opponents, and generally everyone. Humility probably consists of knowing how to be clear about one’s values, and to maintain them and defend them even in situations where you are clearly superior and more successful”.

The Anthem

The official anthem or fight song of FC Barcelona is El Cant del Barça, which translated from Catalan means the hymn of FC Barcelona. The anthem was first played in 1974 at Camp Nou as part of the club’s 75th anniversary celebration. Written by Jaume Picas and Josep Maria Espinàs and composed by Manuel Valls i Gorina, the club’s anthem has been a staple heard at Camp Nou ever since. The hymn is sung before the start of every home match as well as after victories at Camp Nou.

English translation of El Cant del Barça

The whole stadium Loudly cheers We’re the blue and claret supporters It matters not where we hail from Whether it's the south or the north Now we all agree We all agree, One flag unites us in brotherhood. Blue and claret blowing in the wind One valiant cry We’ve got a name that everyone knows Barça, Barça, Baaarça!

Players Supporters United we are strong. We’ve achieved much over the years We’ve shouted many goals And we have shown,we have shown That no one can ever break us Blue and claret blowing in the wind One valiant cry We’ve got a name that everyone knows Barça, Barça, Baaarça!

Listen to the Anthem here:

11 http://barcelona.de/en/fc­barcelona­barca.html