F.C. Barcelona, known locally as Barça, is one of the best known soccer teams in the world, and second only to
real Madrid in Spain, though its supporters would never admit to that. It has never been relegated from its home
league, La Liga, only two other boasting that record. The International Federation of Football History and
Statistics list it as the most successful team world-wide between 1991 and 2008.
The correct name for Camp Nou is the Nou Estadi del Fútbol Club Barcelona, and its address is Avinguda Aristides
Maillol, s/n, 08028, Barcelona. It is 5 miles from the center of Barcelona and you get there using the bus (Lines
7, 15, 43, 67, 68, 74, 75, L12, L50, L60 & L62) and by Metro (Line 3 from Maria Cristina or Les Corts and Line 5
from Collblanc or Badal). It is 13 Kilometers from Barcelona’s El Prat Airport.
The original permanent ground for the club was known as Les Corts, situated in the Les Corts district of Barcelona
since 1922. As membership and following of the football club increased, it became obvious that a new ground would
be needed, and there was an initial debate as to whether that should be situated at a development site by the top
end of the Diagonal, or at a place known as La Maternidad, which the club had purchased in 1950. It was eventually
agreed to go with the latter; the foundations were laid in 1954 and the Camp Nou completed 3 years later.
The club is a rich one, as would be expected from its success. It owns its own magazine and newspaper, and its own
TV and radio stations. It is certainly a world class team, regularly being involved in competitions such as the
Champion’s League for the top teams in Europe.The Camp Nou is a dream for football enthusiasts the world over, and
includes a museum that is one of the best football museums in the world. Visitors can have guided tours, and they
are much in demand by soccer fans. The tour takes you right through the stadium, including the dressing rooms, the
pitch and the press areas. You can run down the tunnel onto the pitch and imagine yourself leading your country
out for the final of the World Cup with the roar of the crowd in your ears. This stadium has a fantastic
atmosphere even when empty, and every supporter of Barça dreams of running out onto this pitch.
The museum offers everything you could hope for from a world-class soccer museum. It holds many personal items of
footballs stars over the years, with loads of photographs and other artifacts displaying the history of Fútbol
Club Barcelona. You will find out about the fabulous Josep Samitier, with 103 games to his name between 1919 and
1932, and Paulino Alcántarawho scored 357 goals in 357 matches. How about the player with most ever appearances,
Miguel Bernardo Bianquetti, known to his fans as Migueli, who played a record 548 games for the team between 1973
- 1989. Enjoy finding about some of the more modern greats, such as Maradonna, Ronaldo, Cruyff, Ronaldinho and
Lionel Messi, the fabulous Argentinean recognized as probably the best player in the world at the moment. All
played for Barcelona, and all are or were fabulous world class players that could step into any international team
on his day.
The museum (El Museo del Fútbol) opened in 1984, and has increased in size a great deal since then. Over 1.2
million people visit this museum every year – how’s that for popularity! It is without doubt the biggest and best
football museum in the world, and in addition to showing the expected artifacts, it also offers details of the
social side of the club with some great audio-visual displays.
Many other football clubs are using El Museo del Fútbol as an example for them to follow as they design their own.
It will not be easy to follow, and it is improving all the time. The guided tour is well worth taking, although if
you would rather wander around yourself you can use an optional audio guide that offers commentaries in seven
languages: Catalan, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, English and Italian.
You need tickets and these are available from the club through Gates 7 and 9. Enter through the gate and look for
the Boulevard Ticket Offices. Prices will change of course, but right now they are €17 for adults and €14 for 6 –
13 year-olds for the tour of the club and the museum, with children under six years old free.
The museum is open between 1000 and 1830 except Sundays and Bank Holidays when the closing time is 1400. On days
when matches are being played the tour is closed until 1500. You don’t have to book in advance, but it is possible
to book online using the football club’s website, and you can also phone (+34) 93496 36 08 or email
Also make sure that you get your accommodation booked well in advance, because the city can be very busy during
the holiday season. Barcelona has a number of short term apartment rentals available for you and your family, but
they tend to go very quickly so book well in advance.
Barcelona has a vital game on Monday against Real Madrid for the first place of La Liga, but before thinking about
it they needed to assure their classification to the next round, which they did by defeating Panathinaikos 0-3.
Matchday 5 was perfect for Barcelona from Spain, not only did they defeat the Greeks from Panathinaikos 3-0 on the
road (Messi once and Pedro twice), but they also clinched Group D favored by the result from the game between
Rubin Kazan from Russia and Copenhagen from Denmark, which the Russians won 1-0 through a penalty kick from
Christian Noboa, making it mathematically impossible for the Danish to fight for that first place.
With 11 points and their classification assured, Barcelona can now focus exclusively on Monday’s game against
their greatest rival Real Madrid, for La Liga‘s matchday 13. And Rubin Kazan (6 points) will start working hard on
their strategy to qualify into the playoffs -as they need a win on their visit to Barcelona on December 7- and
praying that Copenhagen (7 points) either looses or ties their home game against Panathinaikos (2 points).
In Group C the Spaniards from Valencia didn’t miss the chance to guarantee their presence in the knockout phase
against the winless Bursaspor from Turkey and defeated them 6-1, imposing a club record for highest number of
goals scored in one Champions League game. With this result Valencia reached 10 points, and Bursaspor remains with
0 points.And in Wayne Rooney’s return after one month away due to injury, Manchester United from England also
guaranteed their assistance (13 points) to the next round with Rooney’s penalty kick for the 0-1 road win against
Rangers from Scotland (5 points). With Man U and Valencia classified, the only thing pending to decide is who is
finishing first, and this will be determined on December 7 at Old Trafford stadium when the Spaniards visit the
English.
It’s interesting how a team’s performance can change so much from one competition to another, which is the case of
Schalke 04 from Germany, a team that is trying to escape from the last places of the Bundesliga stadings (15th
place out of 18 teams with only 13 points after 13 games), and that occupies the first place of Group B with 10
points in 5 games in the Champions. With their 3-0 victory (Fafan once and Hutellar twice) at home against Lyon
from France, the Germans snatched away the first place from the French that are now second with 9 points.
In the other game of the group the Portuguese champions Benfica (6 points) suffered and unexpected defeat in
Israel against H. Tel Aviv (4 points) by 3-0, leaving them in a scenario where only a win on matchday 6 for more
than 4 goals against Schalke, combined with a 2 goal difference defeat from Lyon versus H. Tel Aviv could give
them a knockout phase ticket. Both games will be disputed on December 7.