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Barcelona
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Barcelona is a football club in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded
in 1899 by a group of Swiss, British and Catalan footballers led
by Joan Gamper. It's motto is El Barça és més
que un club (Barça is more than a club). Its main stadium
is the Nou Estadi del Futbol Club Barcelona, popularly known as
the Camp Nou. The club is a polideportivo and operates a number
of other teams, most notably a reserve football team FC Barcelona
B, the basketball team Winterthur FCB and the handball team FC Barcelona-Cifec.
The club's main rival is Real Madrid.
The rivalry between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid is legendary.
From the start the clubs were seen as representatives of the two
rival regions of Spain, Catalonia and Castile, as well as the two
cities themselves. However the rivally reached a new level during
the Franco years when Real Madrid was considered to be the "regime
team" while FC Barcelona was regarded as the team of the oppostition.
During the Spanish Civil War, however, members of both clubs suffered
at the hands of Franco supporters. FC Barcelona president Josep
Sunyol was murdered while Real Madrid president Rafael Sanchez Guerra,
a prominent Republican, was imprisoned and tortured. They also arrested
and murdered a Real vice-president and club treasurer and an acting
president was disappeared. In contrast Josep Samitier and Ricardo
Zamora openly supported Franco.
After the war the Catalan language and flag were banned. These
measures led to the club changing its name to Club de Futbal Barcelona
and the removal of the Catalan flag from its shield. Samitier was
also installed as club president. The rivalry with Real intensified
further after the dispute over Alfredo Di Stefano. When he eventually
moved to Real it was interpretated as favourtism by Barca supporters.
There is no doubt that Franco benefited from Real's achievements
in Europe and used the club for propaganda purposes. However within
Spain, Franco also used the continued success of CF Barcelona to
try and prove that his regime was tolerant. He also encouraged the
rivalry between the two clubs in order to distract their supporters
from politics.
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