Futbol Club Barcelona is a professional association football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The club was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, Catalan, German, and English footballers led by Joan Gamper, and played its first friendly match on 8 December 1899. Initially, Barcelona played against other local clubs in various Catalan tournaments, but in 1929 the club became one of the founding members of La Liga, Spain's first national league. As of 2023, Barcelona is one of only three clubs to have never been relegated from the top level of Spanish football, the others being Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid.[1]
In the period from 1919 to 1929, Barça won the Copa del Rey five times and the Campionat de Catalunya nine times.[2] Barcelona enjoyed a successful start in La Liga, winning the championship in the competition's first season. However, they did not win the league again until 1945. Three seasons prior to that, Barcelona finished twelfth, which remains, as of 2022, the club's lowest league finish.[3] Barcelona won five trophies in the 1951–52 season, becoming known as "Barça of the Five Cups" (Catalan: el Barça de les Cinc Copes), and went on to win La Liga three times, the Copa del Rey five times and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup once during the 1950s.[2] The club then entered a lean spell, with only two league titles between 1960 and 1990. In 1988, former legendary player Johan Cruyff was appointed manager and assembled what would later be known as the "Dream Team".[4] In 1991, he led the club to its first league title in six years and repeated the feat the following season when Barça also won the European Cup for the first time. In the 1993–94 season, Barcelona won their fourth consecutive league title, edging out Deportivo de La Coruña on goal difference after the two clubs finished level on points.[5][6]
Newly elected president Joan Laporta's appointment of Frank Rijkaard as coach and the signing of Ronaldinho in 2003 marked the beginning of another spell of sustained success.[7][8][9] In 2005, Barcelona once again won La Liga championship, and retained it the following season. In May 2006, Barcelona defeated Arsenal in the Champions League final, coming back from 0–1 to win 2–1 in the last fifteen minutes.[10] Three years later, the club beat Manchester United 2–0 in the 2009 Champions League final, having already won La Liga and the Copa del Rey that season, to become the first Spanish side to complete the treble.[11] In December 2009, Barcelona won the Club World Cup, having also won the Spanish and European Super Cups, thereby completing an unprecedented sextuple.[12]
The club has won La Liga championship 27 times, the Copa del Rey 31 times, the Copa de la Liga twice, the Supercopa de España fourteen times, the Copa Eva Duarte three times, the Champions League five times, the Cup Winners' Cup four times, the Fairs Cup three times, the Super Cup five times and the Club World Cup three times.[13] The table details the club's achievements in the early regional championships and in all national and international first-team competitions for each completed season since the club's formation in 1899.
Key
| Champions | Runners-up |
Top scorers shown in italics with number of goals scored in bold are players who were also top scorers in La Liga that season.[14]
Seasons
Pre-La Liga era
During this period Spain did not have a national football league. Barcelona competed in the championship of the Catalonia region, the winners of which qualified for the Copa del Rey along with the other regional champions.[15] Barcelona also won the Pyrenees Cup, the first competition played between European clubs, four times (1910, 1911, 1912, 1913).
| Season | Copa del Rey[16] | Regional league[15] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competition | Pos. | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | |||
| 1899–1900 | FC Barcelona did not play competitive football. | ||||||||||
| 1900–01 | – | Copa Macaya | 2nd | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 47 | 3 | 9 | |
| 1901–02 | F | Copa Macaya | C | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 2 | 16 | |
| 1902–03 | – | Copa Barcelona[n 1] | C | 14 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 45 | 10 | 26 | |
| 1903–04 | – | Campionat de Catalunya | 4th | 16 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 57 | 15 | 23 | |
| 1904–05 | –[n 2] | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 21 | 12 | 12 | |
| 1905–06 | – | Campionat de Catalunya | 3rd | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 10 | 6 | |
| 1906–07 | – | Campionat de Catalunya | F | n/a[n 3] | |||||||
| 1907–08 | – | Campionat de Catalunya | 2nd | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 6 | 9 | |
| 1908–09 | SF | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 16 | 7 | 11 | |
| 1909–10 | C | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 3 | 20 | |
| 1910–11 | QF | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 7 | 14 | |
| 1911–12 | C | Campionat de Catalunya | 3rd | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 51 | 8 | 14 | |
| 1912–13 | C | Campionat de Catalunya FAC[n 4] | C | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 9 | 6 | |
| 1913–14 | – | Campionat de Catalunya | 4th | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | n/a | n/a | 10 | |
| 1914–15 | – | Campionat de Catalunya | F[n 5] | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 6 | 16 | |
| 1915–16 | SF | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 13 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 12 | 26 | |
| 1916–17 | – | Campionat de Catalunya | 3rd | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 8 | 10 | |
| 1917–18 | – | Campionat de Catalunya | 3rd | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 11 | 13 | |
| 1918–19 | F | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 31 | 6 | 17 | |
| 1919–20 | C | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 28 | 7 | 19 | |
| 1920–21 | –[n 6] | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 17 | 8 | 15 | |
| 1921–22 | C | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 63 | 8 | 19 | |
| 1922–23 | – | Campionat de Catalunya | F[n 7] | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 24 | 9 | 17 | |
| 1923–24 | SF | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 7 | 20 | |
| 1924–25 | C | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 14 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 25 | 9 | 20 | |
| 1925–26 | C | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 14 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 35 | 11 | 20 | |
| 1926–27 | SF | Campionat de Catalunya | C | 14 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 64 | 20 | 23 | |
| 1927–28 | C | Campionat de Catalunya | C[n 8] | 14 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 56 | 11 | 24 | |
La Liga era
In 1929, La Liga, Spain's first national football league, was formed, with Barcelona among the founding members.[17] The club also competed in the Catalan championship until it was abandoned in 1940.[15] The Copa del Rey continued alongside La Liga.[18] Clubs continued to qualify for it based on their placings in the regional championships until 1940, when it became open to all teams in the top two divisions of the Spanish League and selected other teams.[19](* Barcelona also won the Mediterranean League in 1937.)
Notes
References
General
- "Historical progress of FC Barcelona in La Liga". Liga de Fútbol Profesional. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
- "FC Barcelona honours". FC Barcelona. Archived from the original on 24 October 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
Specific
External links
- "FC Barcelona history". FC Barcelona. Archived from the original on 13 May 2007.