fc barcelona

The green and white hoops of Celtic have been a familiar sight at the Camp Nou in recent years, and the 47-times Scottish champions are back for the opening game of the Champions League 2016/17. The Celts are here for the third time in just five years and they’re up against a Catalan side that will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing home defeat to Alavés at the weekend. In Europe, remember, Barça are chasing a twelfth consecutive win at the Camp Nou. Speaking on Monday, Barça manager Luis Enrique said that “it’s useful to have faced Celtic in the preseason. They can be difficult to play against and did well to get through their qualifying rounds.” Messi, Suárez and Neymar will be outfield, same as Ter Stegen who has been included in the squad.

The Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Òmnium Cultural, the Platform Pro Catalan Sports Selections and the group of jurists ‘Drets’ (‘Rights’) will distribute 30,000 Catalan pro-independence flags at the Champions League match between FC Barcelona and Celtic FC taking place this Tuesday at Camp Nou. The initiative comes after UEFA’s €30,000 fine of FC Barcelona for the displaying of these flags during the Champions League final in Berlin last year. According to the Union of European Football Associations, the fine was issued because it officially condemns in Article 16.2 of its Disciplinary Regulations "the use of gestures, words, objects or any other means to transmit any message that is not fit for a sports event, particularly messages that are of a political, ideological, religious, offensive or provocative nature". 

The launch of the FC Barcelona office in New York will see a very special conclusion. The Empire State Building, one of the most emblematic edifices in Manhattan, will be illuminated with the Club’s colours on Wednesday. The event is a tribute to the Club and its Foundation for its alliance with UNICEF in the year of its tenth anniversary, but also as a welcome to Barça in the city in its new headquarters. Barça’s office in New York will be the first that the club will have in the United Stated. Its strategic location, at 250 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, covers covers 250 square meters on the 20th floor in one of Manhattan's most emblematic buildings.

FC Barcelona’s defense of their league title began with a 6-2 win over Real Betis on Saturday evening with a goal from Arda Turan, two for Leo Messi and a Luis Suárez hat-trick. It may be a new season, but it was the same free-flowing attacking football on display at the Camp Nou that the home faithful have come to expect, as Barça cruised to a comfortable win to open the league campaign. If there were any nerves ahead of kick-off, they quickly subsided when Jordi Alba brought down Messi’s cross, before picking out Arda, who then prodded home to make it 1-0 after just six minutes.

FC Barcelona have won the 51st edition of its own Joan Gamper Trophy with a 3-2 win over Italian guests Sampdoria on the night that the Camp Nou made its first contact with the 2016/17 squad, and especially with the five new signings. All of them were given time on pitch in front of a carnival atmosphere that was led by a sparkling performance from MVP Leo Messi, who scored the second and third goals after setting up the first in extraordinary fashion. The Gamper Trophy stayed in Barcelona for the fourth time in a row, and also provided Luis Enrique with the chance to see all of his players in match action ahead of the first competitive fixture of 2016/16, the Spanish Super Cup first leg in Seville on Sunday.

The Camp Nou was treated to a night of emotions and spectacle – capped when the football squad appeared one by one, in order of shirt numbers, to rapturous cheers from the adoring crowds. Luis Enrique and his staff were also honoured in a fitting tribute to all the hard work they do, and which so often goes unnoticed behind the scenes. Celebrations like this are becoming common place of late at the Camp Nou, and may things remain that way! With 28 titles won in the last decade, the legend just keeps growing. The night erupted in a sea of red and blue confetti and pyrotechnics and so the curtain came down on another triumphant season at FC Barcelona. After the summer, it all starts again!

The victory in the Vicente Calderón strengthens FC Barcelona's position as the most successful team of recent years as they claim the Copa del Rey for the second successive season. Jordi Alba’s goal in the seventh minute of extra time capped a stunning turnaround of events and handed FC Barcelona a well-deserved 2–0 victory over Sevilla in the 2016 Copa del Rey final on Sunday night at the Vicente Calderón Stadium in Madrid. With the La Liga championship already in the bag, Sunday’s Copa del Rey win — the 28th in Club history — means Barça have emerged on top in both of this season’s national competitions, giving them the coveted domestic double and ensuring the 2015/16 season will be hailed as a success for years to come.

Those supporters who carry pro-independence flags at the Copa del Rey final will be able to access the stadium. The judge of judiciary number 11 of Madrid accepted the appeal presented by lawyers' group 'Drets', which called for the “automatic suspension” of the Spanish government’s decision to ban the flags during the football match between FC Barcelona and Sevilla FC. Thus, according to the resolution, the cautionary measure requested by ‘Drets’ has been “partially estimated” and therefore “the execution of the appealed action is suspended”. The decision announced by the Spanish government’s Delegate in Madrid, Concepción Dancausa, triggered much criticism amongst civil society but also from most of the political parties. FC Barcelona also presented a lawsuit which is still being studied by another judge in Madrid

The Spanish government’s Delegate in Madrid, Concepción Dancausa, warned that those supporters who attend the Copa del Rey final between Barça and Sevilla carrying pro-independence flags won’t be able to access the stadium. According to Dancausa, 2,500 police agents will work to guarantee the security at Vicente Calderón Stadium in Madrid and will set in place two lines of security controlling access to the arena. Thus, they “will make sure” that nobody is carrying “dangerous items such as or bottles or materials of racist, xenophobic, political or religious propaganda which may lead to public confrontations”, she stated. At the last Champions League final on the 6th June, UEFA fined FC Barcelona for showing pro-independence flags during the match and earlier this year the club was sanctioned with a 30,000 euro fine for the same reason.

Barça earn 24th league success with win at Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes thanks to a hat-trick from Pichichi Luis Suárez, which confirmed the Uruguayan’s status as the division’s top marksman with 40 goals. All in all, it was a dominant campaign from Barça, who topped the table for all but eleven weeks of the season. “It was a deserved title which shows that the team knows how to bounce back from a bad spell,” Luis Enrique said, referring to a blip which saw his side fall to three defeats in April. Despite the wealth of talent that the squad possesses, Luis Enrique was keen to praise the team’s grit over the course of the campaign: “The hard work of the team throughout the season must be praised”. “It is the competition which shows the real state of a team” and that “the title is very hard to win”, he concluded.

In their final home game of the season on Sunday, FC Barcelona treated the fans to an enthralling afternoon. With the team inching ever closer to wrapping up the 2015/16 La Liga title and facing cross-town rivals RCDEspanyol in a late-season derby  certified as a must-win  for both sides, the blaugrana eleven gave the Camp Nou crowd an hour and a half of total football. The defence swarmed, the passing was crisp, and the trident was lethal. The only thing standing between FCB and a new piece of hardware is next Saturday's tête-à-tête with Granada, who avoided relegation on Sunday with a rout of their own in a 4–1 thumping of Sevilla.

The Nikken Sekkei Studio (Japan) and the Pascual-Ausió architect firm (Catalonia) teamed up for the winning project for the New Camp Nou, which was presented to the media at the current stadium, in the presence of the first team. The New Camp Nou stadium will play on the current stadium´s signature overhanging roof, and it will hold itself to the highest standards of sustainability, utilising collected rainwater and solar power. To be concluded for the 2020/21 season, the New Camp Nou will have a capacity of 105,000, a growth which will allow members on the waitlist for seats to acquire tickets. The Les Corts neighbourhood in Barcelona provides the ideal backdrop for the new stadium, as it offers space for expansion, and since the additional buildings have been tailored to blend in with the surrounding area. 

Luis Enrique’s team made their intentions clear right from the kick-off. They wanted goals. And with four goals and three assists, Luis Suárez had a night that Barça fans will be remembering for years to come. the Urguayan now has 49 goals in 48 games this season for the blaugranes. After the win in Galicia, he was only happy to have helped the team: “The most important thing is that the goals have served to help achieve a vital win given that we were coming off the back of a bad run. We will keep trying to reach our objectives. I am sure that the work will pay off.” Rakitic, Barta, Messi and Neymar Jr did the rest. The 8-0 win over Deportivo sends out a warning message. They said there were five finals ahead, and the first has been won with flying colours. Barça are back with a vengeance.

Two goals from Antoine Griezmann send Atlético into the Champions League semi-finals and end Barça’s hopes of another treble. A first half header and a second half penalty from Antoine Griezmann cancelled out the Catalans’ 2-1 lead from the first leg, and it means that the dream of repeating the famous treble of 2014/15 is over. Messi ended a frustrating evening for Barça by sending the kick over the bar, and Atlético desperately clung on for the remaining minutes. Luis Enrique suffered his first knockout from a cup competition as Barça boss. Until then, the Asturian had a perfect record, taking Barça through to the next round of cup tournaments on 13 occasions. After suffering a disappointing exit from the Champions League just 12 hours earlier, the FC Barcelona players were back in training on Thursday morning focused on 'La Liga'

FC Barcelona stayed true to their billing as a team endowed with a heaping dose of resilience, valiantly bouncing back from Saturday’s stinging home league defeat to emerge victorious on the very same pitch in a good old-fashioned Champions League thriller, with two goals from Luis Suárez. In the 25th minute, Fernando Torres fired from two paces right of the penalty spot through the legs of Ter Stegen for a 1–0 lead. It was Torres’s 11th goal in 15 career matches against FC Barcelona. It wasn’t until the 63rd minute when Luis Suárez redirected a deflected shot from the boot of Neymar Jr into the net to tie the match. The Camp Nou exploded, with an 88,534-strong chorus providing the soundtrack as the Catalans pushed even harder to take the lead. Luis Suárez's second half brace reversed early one-goal deficit in heart-stopping quarter-final opener and meant another victory for Barça.