The history of Futbol Club Barcelona begins from the football club's founding in 1899 up until the present day. FC Barcelona, also known simply as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is 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. The club played amateur football until 1910 in various regional competitions. In 1910, the club participated in their first of many European competitions, and has since amassed fourteen UEFA trophies and a sextuple. In 1928, Barcelona co-founded La Liga, the top-tier in Spanish football, along with a string of other clubs. As of 2026, Barcelona has never been relegated from La Liga, a record they share with Athletic Bilbao and arch-rival Real Madrid.
The history of Barcelona has often been political. Though it was a club created and run by foreigners, Barcelona gradually became a club associated with Catalan values. In Spain's transition to autocracy in 1925, Catalonia became increasingly hostile towards the central government in Madrid. The hostility enhanced Barcelona's image as a focal point for Catalonism, and when Francisco Franco banned the use of the Catalan language, the stadium of Barcelona became one of the few places the people could express their dissatisfaction. The Spanish transition to democracy in 1978 has not dampened the club's image of Catalan pride. In the 2000s and 2010s – a period of sporting success in the club and an increased focus on Catalan players – club officials have been openly faithful to historic club commitment to the defense of the country, democracy, freedom of expression and the right to decide, and have condemned any action that may impede the full exercise of these rights.
Beginnings of Football Club Barcelona (1899–1922)
On 22 October 1899, the Swiss Joan Gamper placed an advertisement in Los Deportes declaring his wish to form a football club; a positive response resulted in a meeting at the Gimnasio Solé on 29 November 1899. Eleven players attended: Walter Wild (the first president of the club), Luis de Ossó, Bartomeu Terradas, Otto Kunzle, Otto Maier, Enric Ducal, Pere Cabot, Josep Llobet, John Parsons, and William Parsons. As a result, Football Club Barcelona was born.Ball, Phil p. 89 The blue and red colours of the shirt were first worn in a match against Hispania in 1900. The prevailing Catalonia theory, endorsed by the club, is that the colours were taken from the rugby team of Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby. The school was attended by brothers Arthur Witty and Ernest Witty, two Anglo-Spanish players heavily involved in Barça's formative years.
FC Barcelona quickly emerged as one of the leading clubs in Spain, competing in the Campeonat de Cataluña and the Copa del Rey. In 1902, the club won its first trophy, the Copa Macaya in 1901–02, and also played in the first Copa del Rey final, losing 2–1 to Bizcaya.
In 1906, Juli Marial became the 6th President of FC Barcelona and had to steer the club through difficult times in both social and sporting terms, as the club lost a third of its members during his presidency, as well as a large part of its more veteran players who had retired, most of which being the founding members such as Gamper, Witty, Ossó and Parsons, who had been the pillars of the team since its foundation. However, his period in charge of the club also coincided with a major restructuring of the team, and during his tenure, several footballers arrived at the club who would later form the first great team of Barcelona, such as Paco Bru, Charles Wallace and Enrique Peris from FC Internacional in 1906, and the Massana brothers (Santiago and Alfredo), José Irízar and José Berdié from X Sporting Club in 1908. When Marial left, the club was in decline, and it looked like its days were numbered.
In 1908, Joan Gamper took over the presidency because the club was on the verge of bankruptcy, in part because the club had not won anything since the Campeonat de Cataluña in 1905, thus causing their financial trouble. One of his main achievements was to help Barcelona acquire its own stadium and thus achieve a stable income.
On 14 March 1909, the team moved into the Camp de la Indústria, a stadium with a capacity of 8,000. To celebrate their new surroundings, a logo contest was held the following year. Carles Comamala won the contest, and his suggestion became the crest that the club still wears , with some minor changes.
The stadium is regarded as the main element that helped the club grow in the 1910s and become a dominant team, winning three successive Campionats de Catalunya between 1909 and 1911, three Copa del del Rey in four years between 1910 and 1913, and four successive Pyrenees Cup between the inaugural year in 1910 and 1913, which was one of the earliest international club cups in Europe since it consisted of the best teams of Languedoc, Midi and Aquitaine (Southern France), the Basque Country and Catalonia; all were former members of the Marca Hispanica region. The contest was the most prestigious in that era.Murray, Bill. p. 30 As well as the aforementioned players acquired in the Marial presidency, Barça's first great team also had the likes of Amechazurra, Romà Forns, Pepe Rodríguez, Carles Comamala, and Jack Greenwell. The latter became the club's first full-time coach in 1917.Closa et al. p. 62–63
During the same period, the club changed its official language from Castilian to Catalan and gradually evolved into an important symbol of Catalan identity. For many fans, participating in the club had less to do with the game itself and more with being a part of the club's collective identity.Spaaij, Ramón. p. 279 On 1 January 1913, under the presidency of Gamper, the club admitted its first-ever female as a member, the 28-year-old Edelmira Calvetó, thus becoming the first club in Spain to open its doors to women, seven years ahead of RCD Espanyol taking the same step in 1920 and of Real Madrid and Sporting de Gijón in 1924. On 4 February 1917, the club held its first testimonial match to honour Ramón Torralba who played from 1913 to 1928. The match was against local side Terrassa, which Barcelona won 6–2.
Gamper simultaneously launched a campaign to recruit more club-members, and, by 1922, the club had more than 20,000, who helped finance a new stadium. The club then moved to the new Les Cortes, which they inaugurated the same year. Les Cortes had an initial capacity of 22,000, and was later expanded to 60,000.
Gamper recruited Jack Greenwell as the first full-time manager in Barcelona's history. After he was hired, the club's fortunes began to improve on the field. During the Gamper-led era, Barcelona won eleven Campeonat de Cataluña, six Copa del Rey and four Pyrenees Cups and enjoyed its first "golden age".
Rivera, Republic and Civil War (1923–1957)
On 14 June 1925, in a spontaneous reaction against Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, the crowd in the stadium jeered the Royal March. As a reprisal, the ground was closed for six months and Gamper was forced to relinquish the presidency of the club.Shubert, Adrian. p. 200 This coincided with the transition to professional football, and, in 1926, the directors of Barcelona publicly claimed, for the first time, to operate a professional football club.Arnaud, Pierre; Riordan, James. p. 103 On 3 July 1927, the club held a second testimonial match for Paulino Alcántara, against the Spain national team. To kick off the match, local journalist and pilot Josep Canudas dropped the ball onto the pitch from his airplane."Recognition of the man who created a style (08.04.2010)" , fcbarcelona.cat; retrieved 12 June 2014. In 1928, victory in the Spanish Cup was celebrated with a poem titled "Oda a Platko", which was written by a member of the Generation of '27, Rafael Alberti, inspired by the heroic performance of the Barcelona goalkeeper, Franz Platko. Barcelona also won the inaugural La Liga title the following year. On 30 July 1930, Gamper committed suicide after a period of depression brought on by personal and financial problems.
Although they continued to have players of the standing of Josep Escolà, the club now entered a period of decline, in which political conflict overshadowed sports throughout society. Attendance at matches dropped as the citizens of Barcelona were occupied with discussing political matters.Burns, Jimmy. pp. 111–112 Although the team won the Campionat de Catalunya in 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1936 and 1938, success at a national level (with the exception of the 1937 disputed title) evaded them.
A month after the Spanish Civil War began in 1936, several players from Barcelona enlisted in the ranks of those who fought against the military uprising, along with players from Athletic Bilbao.Arnaud, Pierre; Riordan, James. p. 104 On 6 August, Falangist soldiers near Guadarrama murdered club president Josep Sunyol, a representative of the pro-independence political party.Spaaij, Ramón. pp. 280 He was dubbed the martyr of barcelonisme, and his murder was a defining moment in the history of FC Barcelona and Catalan identity.Ball, Phil. pp. 116–117 In the summer of 1937, the squad was on tour in Mexico and the United States, where it was received as an ambassador of the Second Spanish Republic. The tour led to the financial security of the club, but also resulted in half of the team seeking asylum in Mexico and France, making it harder for the remaining team to contest for trophies.Murray, Bill; Murray, William. p. 70Ball, Phil. pp. 118–120
On 16 March 1938, Barcelona came under aerial bombardment from the Italian Air Force, causing more than 3,000 deaths, with one of the bombs hitting the club's offices.Raguer, Hilari. pp. 223–225Graham, Helen. p. 351 A few months later, Catalonia came under occupation and as a symbol of the "undisciplined" Catalanism, the club, now down to just 3,486 members, and faced a number of restrictions. All signs of regional nationalism, including language, flag and other signs of separatism were banned throughout Spain. The Catalan flag was banned and the club were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures forced the club to change its name to Club de Fútbol Barcelona and to remove the Catalan flag from its crest.Burns, Jimmy. pp. 80–83
In 1943, Barcelona faced rivals Real Madrid in the semi-finals of Copa del Generalísimo. The first match at Les Corts was won by Barcelona 3–0. Before the second leg, Franco's director of state security visited Barcelona's players in the changing room. He reminded them that they were only playing due to the "generosity of the regime". Real Madrid comfortably won the match, beating Barcelona 11–1.
Despite the difficult political situation, CF Barcelona enjoyed considerable success during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1945, with Josep Samitier as coach and players like César, Ramallets and Velasco, they won La Liga for the first time since 1929. They added two more titles in 1948 and 1949. In 1949, they also won the first Copa Latina. In June 1950, Barcelona signed Ladislao Kubala, who was to be an important figure at the club.
On a rainy Sunday of 1951, the crowd left Les Corts stadium after a 2–1 win against Santander by foot, refusing to catch any trams, and surprising the Francoist authorities. The reason was simple: at the same time, a tram strike was taking place in Barcelona, receiving the support of blaugrana fans. Events like this made CF Barcelona represent much more than just Catalonia and many progressive Spaniards saw the club as a staunch defender of rights and freedoms.Ferrand, Alain; McCarthy, Scott. p. 90Witzig, Richard. p. 408