Archive for the ‘FC Barcelona’ Category
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
Manchester United have moved from fourth to second in the list of the world’s richest clubs and Barcelona has reached second place, as Real Madrid stayed top for the third straight year.
Deloitte’s Football Money League, which is based on revenues generated during 2006/07, was headed by United for eight years until the Spaniards deposed them.
Chelsea are fourth in Deloitte’s table, even though the Blues regularly make huge losses. Arsenal are fifth. In all, there are seven British clubs in the top 20.
Three of the four clubs that dropped out of the list were also British - Manchester City, Glasgow Rangers, and West Ham United.
And, looking ahead to next year’s report, the authors state that “2007/08 could see England providing half the Money League clubs”.
The list shows that the game’s riches continue to be monopolised by the same group of clubs, with only one change in the top 10 from the previous season.
Deloitte’s figures take into account income from ticket sales, merchandising and broadcasting contracts but do not include transfer revenues.
Between them, the collective revenue of the top 20 clubs - all European - grew by 11% to £2.5bn in 2006/07, the highest rate of growth since 2002/03.
The 5 first places of that League are ( in millions of £): Real Madrid 236.2, Manchester United 212.1, Barcelona 195.3, Chelsea 190.5 and Arsenal 177.6.
Tags: Deloitte's
Posted in Chelsea FC, FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Real Madrid | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
During last 40 years FC Barcelona has always won the Spanish Cup every of the four times since then that the year had finished with number “8”: 1968, 1978, 1988 and 1998! This year is 2008 and the big question is: will Barcelona maintain fidelity to the statistics and will win the Spanish Cup? It is not easy to give the correct answer because although the sequences of numbers, football never has been a reliable game in any aspect.
Anyway and until now the performance of FC Barcelona in the Spanish Cup this season, although has not been spectacular, it is at least in the right way to obtain the trophy: 6 matches played in total, against Alcoyano from Second Division B in last 32 phase (0-3 and 2-2); against Sevilla in last 16 phase (1-1 and 0-0) and against Villarreal in last 8 phase (0-0 and 1-0). Total 4 draws and 2 wins.
Now FC Barcelona is only 3 matches far to become champion: two leg semi-final phase in front of Valencia (February 27 in Camp Nou and March 19 in Mestalla Stadium) and, if winner, then the final match, probably in Madrid on April 16, against the winner of the other semi-final between Getafe and Racing Santander.
So in about 10 weeks we will know if FC Barcelona knows to play in favour of the statistics.
Tags: Nou Camp, Spanish Cup
Posted in FC Barcelona, Getafe, Racing de Santander, Villareal | No Comments »
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
A lot of people is thinking than the copyright ‘More than a Club’ belongs to FC Barcelona since 1968 when the President of the club Mr. Narcis de Carreras pronounced this sentence to define FC Barcelona.
But also Celtic Glasgow FC -next rival of FC Barcelona in the Champions League- presumes to be also ‘More than a Club’ since his foundation in 1888…11 years before than FC Barcelona was established by Mr. Joan Gamper!
Andrew Kearns founded Celtic for charitable purposes: to distribute an important part of profits between poor people, something similar that FC Barcelona is doing today through UNICEF, but Celtic Glasgow FC has also some other things that no other British clubs have: They were the first British team who obtained the Europe Cup (1967) and also the first this time where all players were born in the same country (Scotland).
They are also one of the 20 richest football clubs in the world. They are the only Scottish club to make it into that elite group and also the only club to come from outside the ‘big five’ countries of Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France.
The Football Money League, which is compiled by business firm Deloitte, rank the biggest clubs in the world based on revenue and the top 20 consists entirely of European clubs. Celtic are ranked 17th with a revenue of 101 million €. Real Madrid are in number one position, with Manchester United second and Barcelona third.
Besides Celtic Glasgow FC, a total of six English clubs feature in the top 20, with four each from Germany and Italy, three Spanish sides and two from France.
These are some of the facts which permits Celtic Glasgow to be also considered as ‘More than a Club’.
Tags: Mr. Joan Gamper, Narcis
Posted in Celtic de Glasgow, FC Barcelona | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
The career of Bojan Krkic is travelling at the light speed. In his first year playing at Spanish Liga First Division, and with only 17 years, 5 months and 9 days old he has become the younger footballer ever playing for Spanish National Team breaking the 71 years record of Angel Zubieta who in 1936 played for Spain with 17 years, 9 months and 9 days and also overcoming Cesc Fabregas in 2006 with 18 years and 10 months and Juan Acuña in 1941 with 18 years and 11 months. Furthermore with this fact Spanish football has ensured that Bojan (his father is Serbian) will always play with Spain instead of Serbia. There are other players in similar situation than Bojan that have also taken the same option: Donato, Senna, Di Stefano, Kubala, Catanha and Christiansen.
Other famous names have also important records playing for their National Teams: Ronaldo 17 years old and Pele 16 years old played for Brazil and Maradona do the same for Argentina at 16 years old. Anyway the world record is for Anibal Zapican who played for Uruguay at 15 years and 9 days old.
In the other hand the oldest footballer ever starting to play for Spain was Ferenc Puskas who does it at the age of 34 yeras and 7 months old.
Tags: Bojan Krkic, Catanha, Christiansen, Di Stefano, Donato, Fábregas, Kubala, Maradona, Senna
Posted in FC Barcelona | No Comments »
Monday, February 4th, 2008
Next March 4 Barcelona will be invaded again by Celtic Glasgow supporters when the Scottish team will play the second leg match of Champions League in Camp Nou. Only about 5,000 supporters will have tickets and the privilege to attend the match in the FC Barcelona Stadium. According the Celtic Supporters Association other 10,000 supporters without tickets will also travel to Barcelona. The travel agencies have already sold all packs, with and without ticket to visit Barcelona in one month time. Some of them will try to obtain the valued tickets through official resale companies but few of them will be successful.
The town council authorities, FC Barcelona and Celtic Glasgow board members have already initiated talks to find out an adequate space for all Scottish supporters without tickets and therefore to avoid any possible incident. The Forum area or another area not far from Plaza España will be possibly prepared as a ‘fan zone’ to house for few hours all supporters.
The only change in the ‘invaders quantity’ could takes place according the score in the first leg match if FC Barcelona is able to take a notable advantage but anyway the supporters difference would be not very important. It should be remembered that the travelling European record is for Celtic Glasgow supporters – 80,000 of them travel to Sevilla for the UEFA Final in 2003.
Tags: Champions League, Nou Camp, UEFA
Posted in Celtic de Glasgow, FC Barcelona | No Comments »