The 2011–12 season was FC Barcelona's 113th in existence and the club's 81st consecutive season in the top flight of Spanish football. Barcelona debuted their new and first paid shirt sponsor Qatar Foundation after an agreement was reached in 2010 with the non-profit organization for a five-and-a-half-year, €170 million deal. The agreement with UNICEF continued and their name had been moved to the lower back portion of the shirt. This season also introduced a new away kit in black while the third kit was retained from last season.
Barcelona were unable to defend two major trophies: they finished as runners-up in Liga, nine points behind winners Real Madrid, who finished with a record 100 points, and their UEFA Champions League campaign ended after a 3–2 aggregate defeat in the semi-finals to eventual winners Chelsea. Pep Guardiola stepped down as head coach at the conclusion of the season, which ended on a high as Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 3–0 in the Copa del Rey final at the Vicente Calderón.
Barcelona's under-19 squad played in the inaugural tournament of the NextGen series. After finishing first in their group during the group stage, they were eliminated by Ajax in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Season overview
May/June On 31 May, Sevilla confirmed it had exercised its right to purchase defender Martín Cáceres, who spent the 2010–11 season on loan with the club from Barcelona. Barcelona received €4.10 million in compensation after making the loan permanent.
July On 2 July, Barcelona parted ways with midfielder Víctor Sánchez after both parties agreed to rescind the player's contract. Sánchez made 14 appearances with the first team in the 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 seasons. He was loaned to Xerez for the 2009–10 season and at Getafe for the 2010–11 season.
On 4 July, defender Andreu Fontàs was promoted to the first team after spending the previous season filling in for an injured Eric Abidal, who had been diagnosed with a liver tumour.
On 21 July, Barcelona completed the transfer of Chilean winger Alexis Sánchez from Italian club Udinese. The deal is for five years and the cost of the transfer is €26 million with variable cost of €11.5 million.
On 22 July, Barcelona transferred La Masia graduate Bojan to Italian outfit Roma for €10 million and the agreement includes an obligatory re-purchase clause to be exercised by Barcelona at the end of the 2012–13 season, for a cost of €13 million. Roma may override this re-purchase at this time by paying the club an additional €28 million.
August On 3 August, Portuguese club Sporting CP made official the signing of another Barcelona's La Masia graduate, winger Jeffrén, on a five-year deal. The transfer deal was worth €3.7 million and includes a €30 million buyout clause.
On 4 August, Barcelona and Argentine centre-back Gabriel Milito reached an agreement to terminate his contract after four years with the team. He then signed with Argentine club Independiente.
On 14 August, both Barcelona and English club Arsenal announced on their respective official websites an agreement for the transfer of Spanish international midfielder Cesc Fàbregas. The deal will cost Barcelona €29 million with €11 million in variables and end one of the longest transfer sagas in football. On the same day, Barcelona and Real Madrid kicked off the 2011–12 season with a 2–2 draw at the Santiago Bernabéu in the first leg of the 2011 Supercopa de España in front of a full house.
On 17 August, Barcelona won the Supercopa de España with a thrilling 3–2 win and a 5–4 aggregate over rivals Real Madrid. The match ended with several sending offs for a brawl started after Barcelona players deemed a tackle by Marcelo on Cesc Fàbregas to be dangerous play. David Villa, Mesut Özil and Marcelo all received their marching orders after calm was restored. Real Madrid manager José Mourinho and Barça's assistant Tito Vilanova were also involved in a small physical altercation. Goals from Andrés Iniesta and a brace, including the game winner, by Lionel Messi assured Barça started their season with a trophy by claiming their tenth Supercopa all time.
On 19 August, the Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE) went on strike due to unpaid wages for players in the top two divisions of Spanish football by clubs who have gone into financial administration. The AFE and Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP) have yet to agree on a guaranteed fund to protect players' wages in the event of their clubs being declared insolvent. The strike forced Spanish league games scheduled for the weekend of 20 and 21 August, including Barcelona's season opener against Málaga, to be postponed.
On 25 August, Lionel Messi was voted the winner of the inaugural UEFA Best Player in Europe Award for the 2010–11 season over teammate Xavi and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo.
On 26 August, Barcelona won the UEFA Super Cup with a 2–0 victory over Portuguese outfit Porto in Monaco. The victory gave Barça their fourth UEFA Super Cup trophy all time and saw Fàbregas score his first goal with a Barcelona shirt in the 88th minute.
September On 10 September, back from the FIFA international break, Barcelona could only draw 2–2 with Real Sociedad at Anoeta. Barça also lost Alexis Sánchez for approximately 6–8 weeks after the player tore his hamstring in his right leg after a tackle by Sociedad's Dani Estrada.
On 13 September, Barcelona opened their UEFA Champions League campaign with a 2–2 draw against Milan at the Camp Nou. Midfielder Andrés Iniesta left in the 38th minute with a tore femoral biceps on his left leg and will miss approximately a month.
On 17 September, after two consecutive draws Barcelona trashed Osasuna 8–0 at Camp Nou. Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick and lead Barça to their biggest win of the season. Osasuna coach José Luis Mendilibar stated, "we've caught them very angry due to their so-called mini-crisis," while Barça's coach Pep Guardiola stated in regards to the mini-crisis, "the day I see them not running, that their bellies are full, I'll sit here to tell you all [media]. When we play bad, believe me I'll come here and tell you all. But I did not have that sensation."
On 28 September, Barcelona defeated BATE Borisov 0–5 at the Dynama Stadium in their first meeting in Group H of the Champions League. Lionel Messi scored a brace and tied László Kubala for 2nd place on the all-time goals scoring list for Barcelona with 194 goals.
October On 2 October, Barcelona defeated Sporting de Gijón 0–1 at El Molinón to take over first place in La Liga's standings for the first time this season. A lone goal by Adriano was enough to see the team go top by goal difference over Levante.
On 19 October, Barcelona notched its second Champions League victory of the season by defeating Czech side Viktoria Plzeň 2–0 at the Camp Nou.
On 22 October, Barça were held scoreless for the first time in the young season by a heroic performance from Sevilla goalkeeper Javi Varas. The match ended with a scoreless draw after Lionel Messi's penalty kick was saved by Varas in injury time. The match towards the end was marred by a small brawl between Frédéric Kanouté and Cesc Fàbregas as the latter took offense to Kanouté kicking the ball from the penalty spot after Messi had placed it to take the spot kick. After the match, Fàbregas was accused of racially abusing Kanouté, which the player vehemently denied and at the end both players apologized over the incident by telephone.
On 25 October, Barcelona traveled to Los Cármenes to take on Granada where they escaped with a 0–1 victory after a 33rd-minute goal from a free-kick by Xavi. Barça also lost forward Pedro for approximately three weeks due to strained tendons in his left ankle.
November On 1 November, the 23-men shortlist for the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or was released with eight Barcelona—Eric Abidal, Dani Alves, Cesc Fàbregas, Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Gerard Piqué, David Villa and Xavi. Later that night, Barcelona defeated Viktoria Plzeň 0–4 in Prague at the Synot Tip Arena with a hat-trick by Messi and assured their progress into the knock-out stage. With the three goals, he surpassed the 200-goal mark as a Barcelona player in Pep Guardiola's 200th game as first team manager. Goalkeeper Víctor Valdés broke the team record for most minutes without conceding a goal at 877 consecutive minutes. He surpasses Miguel Reina record of 824 minutes set in the 1972–73 season.
On 9 November, the first leg of the Round of 16 of the Copa del Rey was moved up due to Barcelona's involvement in the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup in December. Barça won the match 0–1 with a strike outside the area by Andrés Iniesta in the 42nd minute.
On 22 November, assistant coach Tito Vilanova was successfully operated for problem in his parotid gland. The club did not release anymore information on the matter due to the coach's wish to have everything remain private. The next day, Barcelona defeated Milan at the San Siro 2–3 in a thrilling European encounter to win Group H.
On 26 November, Barça lost its first official match of the season with a 1–0 defeat at Getafe with a goal by Juan Valera in the 67th minute. The defeat leaves Barcelona 6 points behind Real Madrid with 2 matches to go for the first el Clásico of the season.
December On 10 December, the first Clásico of the season was contested at the Bernabéu with Barça securing a 1–3 victory over their great rivals. Real Madrid's forward Karim Benzema scored the fastest goal in Clásico history after getting one past goalkeeper Víctor Valdés off two deflections 24 seconds into the match. Within 30 minutes, Barça equalized with a strike from Alexis followed by a goal by Fàbregas, making it three years running that their big summer transfers score in the first Clásico of the season.
On 15 December, David Villa fractured his tibia while attempting to score in Barça's 0–4 FIFA Club World Cup semi-final victory over Qatari club Al-Sadd. The injury will sideline the player for four-to-six months, possibly causing him to miss UEFA Euro 2012.
On 18 December, Barcelona claimed the Club World Cup with a 0–4 victory over Brazilian club Santos in Japan. A brace from Lionel Messi and strikes from Xavi and Fabregas gave Barça their fifth title in 2011 and their second title in this competition.
On 22 December, Barcelona defeated L'Hospitalet in the second leg of the Copa del Rey 9–0 (10–0 aggregate). Strikes from Pedro, Iniesta, Xavi, Thiago, Cristian Tello and Isaac Cuenca sealed what was another superb display of talent and command on the pitch by the Catalans. The latter three scored a brace each and the win helped the team proceed to the next round of the competition where they face Osasuna at Camp Nou in a first leg Round of 16 tie.
January On 4 January, Barça started off the year with a 4–0 victory over Osasuna in their Round of 16 tie at the Camp Nou. Lionel Messi came off the bench to score two goals in the last 20 minutes after he was left off the team sheet earlier in the day due to the flu.
On 8 January, the derbi barceloní ended in a 1–1 draw with goals by Cesc Fàbregas (16th minute) for Barcelona and Álvaro Vázquez (86th minute) for Espanyol. Barcelona right back Dani Alves was racially abused by the Espanyol fans throughout the match and prompted the Espanyol coach Mauricio Pochettino to "condemn the actions of his fans."
On 9 January, Lionel Messi was awarded the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or and Pep Guardiola received the FIFA Coach of the Year award in Zürich. With the award, Messi wins his third consecutive Ballon d'Or, joining Michel Platini, Marco van Basten and Johan Cruyff as the only three-time winners, and the first since Platini to win it three consecutive years.
On 11 January, Barça and French club Paris Saint-Germain agreed to the transfer of Brazilian left back Maxwell for €4 million.