Barca: A People's Passion [Paperback]

From the English businessmen who founded the club, through Cruyff, Maradona, Lineker, Venables, Robson and Ronaldo, FC Barcelona, European football giant and quintessential embodiment of Catalonian pride, has been built on the efforts of foreign mercenaries.

In interview and analysis, Jimmy Burns uses the experiences of these outsiders as his own passport to the heart of the Camp Nou, returning with a hugely enjoyable history of the team and it's fanatically nationalistic support.

Unique among the world's biggest clubs, Barcelona has stayed true to its origins as a quasi-democratic institution. It is effectively a private members club, made up of the 120,000 supporters whose subscriptions bankroll the team, but a sense of ownership extends across Catalonia itself.

At the heart of the book is the struggle for this unique identity to survive the commercial colonisation of the sport.

Burns is a sensitive and intelligent interpreter of what is becoming, for better and worse, a forgotten language of regional tribalism in football. It may not be many years before his study of this enigmatic club is regarded as a definitive memorial to the last great love affair of what was once a people's passion. --Alex Hankin

'Excellent...A densely detailed account of the history of F. C. Barcelona ... Coincides with Barcelona's 100th anniversary but it is not in the least pious' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Burns' examination of the club's fates and fortunes always goes well beyond the game itself...Burns is a brilliant journalist...Unmissable' TOTAL FOOTBALL

'Well-written, the book details the level of passion of a club that refuses to tarnish its shirt with a sponser and still belongs to its members.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'Burns' strength lies not just in his compulsive, well-told story of the club's evolution, but his notable grasp of Catalan history.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'FC Catalonia could scarcely have wished for a more thorough but sympathetic chronicler.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Founded in 1898, FC Barcelona or Barca, is the world's biggest and best-loved football club. Barca has more than 500 local fan clubs spread across the world, while its championship matches attract a global TV audience. Former players include such legendary figures as Kubala, Maradona, Cruyff, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Lineker, and Barca has been managed by greats such as Helenio Herrera, Cesar Menotti and Bobby Robson. The club's honorary members include Pope John Paul II and opera star Jose Carreras. To unravel the background to the Barca phenomenon, Jimmy Burns has unearthed police files and long-forgotten newspaper reports. He has travelled with supporters and has talked to people intimately linked to the club, from managers and players to groundsmen and doctors, whilst also gaining access to those who have conspired to gain political and financial control.

Jimmy Burns is social affairs and employment correspondent at the FINANCIAL TIMES. His previous books are The Land That Lost Its Heroes, winner of the Somerset Maugham prize for non-fiction; Beyond the Silver River; Spain: A Literary Companion; and the internationally acclaimed Hand of God: The Life of Diego Maradona.