FC Barcelona have begun their well deserved holidays after celebrating this season’s three titles. The Champions League victory means the team will be playing two more competitions in the new season: The European Super Cup and the World Club Championship.
Pulp, PJ Harvey, Belle & Sebastian, P.I.L, The White Stripes, Interpol, The National, Sufjan Stevens or Nick Cave were some of the participating artists. Barcelona’s indie music festival ended its largest edition with a record audiences, number of concerts and space occupied. The Primavera Sound music festival was held in Barcelona from Wednesday evening until Sunday.
Cologne was on Sunday evening the scenario for FC Barcelona’s second European Cup in two days, as the Barça Borges handball team beat Ciudad Real to take the eighth Champions League title of their history. Saric was the stand out star in the win.
Barça gave a footballing lesson against Machester United at the home of football, the Wembley Stadium. Guardiola’s team claimed the title back with an exhibition of football never seen before in the final.
Barça had their official Champions League final training session today at Wembley. The players were able to train perfectly normally. Manager Pep Guardiola has asked Barça to show their identity in the Wembley final against Manchester United. He added that he has already picked his eleven and that Barça need to be more intense than they were in Rome.
The old International Press Centre of Barcelona closed earlier this year due to financial problems. A group of journalists has created the Foreign Correspondents Association of Catalonia (ACEC). They are in negotiations to use a space in the former Sant Pau Hospital.
With just a few hours to go before we find out who will win this year’s Champions League final, we look at some of the juiciest trivia surrounding the game at Wembley between FC Barcelona and Manchester United.
‘Barcelona Activa’ is Barcelona City Council’s agency for local development. Its main activities are promoting business and employment creation. ‘Barcelona Activa’ wins the Grand Jury Prize of the 2011 European Enterprise Awards, organised by the European Commission, the European Presidency and the Committee of the Regions.
FC Barcelona travelled to London on Tuesday night, 2 days before the initial schedule because of the volcanic ash cloud. Barça landed on London Stansted at 00.08, already Wednesday, and travelled straight to The Grove Hotel. On Wednesday they will continue to prepare for Saturday’s final at Arsenal’s training facilities.
Barcelona El Prat and Madrid Barajas airports will be run by private operators. The Spanish Government has already started informal contacts with potential private operators. Public competition would begin this summer, would take place in two phases and will end before the end of 2011.
Barça’s coach, Pep Guardiola reckons that his team’s hunger for success will be key on Saturday at the Champions League final against Manchester United: “I want them to be conscious of what we are playing for”, he told reporters at the Camp Nou this evening. FC Barcelona travels on Tuesday night to London, due to the volcanic ash cloud.
The MACBA is one of the main European centres for having the work of Matta-Clark. The MACBA Foundation has now received a unique and new collection of Matta-Clark’s work. In 2012, it will hold a temporary exhibition with the work of the American artist, famous for his deconstruction pieces and ‘building cuts’ in the 1970s.
'Convergència i Unió' (CiU) increases its vote share across Catalonia and becomes the leading party in number of votes. The large victory backs the Catalan Government’s controversial austerity measures. The Catalan Government and Barcelona City Council will be run by the same party, CiU. The Catalan Socialist Party loses large cities and 22% of its votes across the country. The People’s Party becomes the third party and wins in Badalona with a discourse focused on illegal immigration. ERC loses around a third of its votes but other pro Catalan independence parties gain support. The xenophobic and extreme right PxC remains marginal but increases its base and enters the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. The turnout was 55%, one point higher than in 2007. The null or spoilt vote multiplied its share by three but remains marginal.
FC Barcelona closed their league season with another away win, coming from behind to beat Malaga 1-3 with goals from Bojan (pen), Afellay and Bartra. Barça's squad was very young, with four players from the B team. The result and the performance will give added confidence ahead of the Champions League Wembley final.
The hero of Stamford Bridge is going back to London for the Champions League final. After starring in the Rome final and scoring the winner in the World Cup final, Iniesta says that “all I want to do is win. These things don’t happen all the time”.