Fútbol Club Barcelona is the biggest club in the world. Yes, Real Madrid and Manchester United can lay certain claims on the table and get a bit stampy-feet about such a statement, but Barça is the real deal and it is "Més que un club" or more than a club.
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| Barca's original club crest from 1899 |
Before we look at the
stadium that Barça used for the 35 years prior to the move to the Camp Nou, let's throw some light on the six other grounds the club used in
the first 20 or so years of its existence. First of all we need to go back to October 1899
when Swiss national Hans Kamper found himself working in Barcelona. Keen to
continue his sporting activities, he placed an advertisement in Los Deportes,
declaring his wish to form a football club and at a meeting on 29 November 1899
with 11 like-minded individuals, FC Barcelona was founded. Kamper would play
for and later become president of the club, taking the Catalan version of his
name Joan Gamper.
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Tall, dark and sporty Swiss ex-pat WLTM
like-minded individuals for ball related fun |
Between 1899 and 1909, Barça would play at five different grounds, starting with Velódromo de la Bonanova, then a year later, they moved to Campo del Hotel Casanovas. Both were extremely basic grounds with a roped-off dirt pitch. During 1901, the club moved to Campo de la Plaza de las Armas, another simple ground, before settling down for a few years at Campo de la Carretera de Horta. This was the first ground that resembled a football ground, with a short stand on halfway and bleachers on the remaining sides of the pitch. In 1905 the club moved to Campo de la Calle Muntaner, which was slightly larger, but if anything, more basic than Campo de Horta. The reason for all the moves in the early years was due to the rapid expansion of Barcelona and any open space was quickly swallowed up for housing or commercial use.
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| Barcelona's first five stadiums |
After a brief exile, Gamper returned to the club as president in 1908. After initial success in the Campeonata de Catalunya, the club had not won any competition since 1905 and with significant debts, was in the brink of folding. Gamper set about refinancing the club and in 1909, with the help of local businessmen, Barça purchased their first ground at Calle de Industria. He also signed new players and membership grew to 10,000 socios by 1914. The ground at Calle Industria would be known as L'Escopidora or the Spittoon and was inaugurated on 14 March 1909 with a league match against Català SC. In the next match at L'Escopidora, Barça regained the Campeonata de Catalunya and the first Golden era of the club was under way.
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| L'Escopidora or the Spittoon |
The
ground was a revelation at the time with its twin decked stand and initial
capacity of 6,000. It was also the first ground in Spain to experiment with
floodlights. Such was the popularity of the team that the ground was bursting
to capacity whenever Barça played, so much so that some supporters had to sit
on the perimeter wall. Passers-by would see the ungainly sight of the fans
backsides hanging over the edge of the wall and nicknamed the supporters
"culés", that's "arses" to you and me and the name has
stuck.
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| Insert your own ass-related humorous comment |
As Barça's success continued on the pitch, and the number of socios
grew, it became apparent that L'Escopidora was never going to be large enough
for the club's needs, so in February 1922 work started on a new stadium in the
Les Corts district of Barcelona. The new stadium would have an initial capacity
of 22,000 and opened on 20 May 1922 when a Catalan XI recorded a 2-1 victory against St Mirren. Les
Corts staged the 1923 final of the Copa del Rey between Athletic Bilbao and CE
Europa and La Seleccion played
Austria at the venue in December 1924.
However, three years later the club and the stadium were at the centre
of a national storm.
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| Les Corts on opening day and a Catalan XI take on the mighty Buddies |
The
club continued to be at the forefront of Catalan fervour and when Spanish
Leader Primo De Rivera attended a match in June 1925, the crowd gave him and
the Spanish National anthem the bird. The band from the Royal Marines who had
been invited to provide the musical entertainment, were somewhat flustered by
the commotion and cut short the Spanish anthem and played "God Save the
Queen", much to the delight of the partisan crowd. Primo De Rivera,
showing the sort of humour one associates with a dictator, ordered that the
ground should be closed for three months and forced Joan Gamper to resign as
president. Such
was the club’s popularity due to their dominance in the Campeonata de Catalunya
and Copa del Rey in the mid-Twenties, that the club needed to extend the
stadium. In 1926 a new cover was added to the west side and terracing was
extended on the other three sides. Les Corts new capacity was 45,000 which was
tested to the full when the club won the inaugural Spanish League in 1929.
However, the first golden era was about to come to an end, and with no national
titles during the thirties and the small matter of the Civil War, Barça's world
had switched from the brightest of lights to the darkest of shadows.
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| Extended, but about to experience the club's darkest hour |
A
month after the start of the war, Club President Josep Sunyol was murdered by
Falangist soldiers and the following summer the team went into exile, touring
the USA and Mexico. Ironically, it was the money raised from the tour that
secured the club's future, but when they finally returned in late 1938, it was
a very different Catalunya they encountered. With membership down below 3,500
and their club offices destroyed, the club suffered the further indignity of
Franco's Nationalist regime removing all forms of Catalan identity from club.
The club's name was changed to Club de Fútbol Barcelona, the President was
appointed by Franco and even the Catalan flag was removed from the club crest.
Franco was however, unable to change the fans and soon Les Corts became the
only place where Catalans could gather en-mass to celebrate their identity.
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| Les Corts in 1940 - A little part of Catalunya in Francoist Spain |
Despite
the regime's best efforts, the 1940's were a successful period for Barça and
another put-upon club, Athletic Bilbao. Buoyed by the improving finances the
club set about the further and most spectacular development of Les Corts. In
1944, the existing terracing was extended raising the capacity to 60,000, but
the most impressive work took place on the west side. Designed by Eduardo
Torrojo, an incredibly advanced, deep cantilevered roof was erected behind the
existing cover. Gimnastic Tarragona purchased and dismantled the old stand and
on 2 June 1945, El Nastic played Barça in a friendly to mark the opening of the
expanded stadium.
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| Torrojo's new roof takes shape over the old cover |
The
new roof was among the most advanced in Europe. Its curved underside was ribbed
with metal cladding and hung low over the seating like the tail of a giant
aligator. Les Corts was the largest and most spectacular stadium in Spain
throughout the forties, and it would witness the emergence of the next great
Barça team in the mid 1940's and the arrival of Hungarian great Ladislau Kubala
in 1950. League titles followed in 1952 & 1953, but by the time floodlights
were erected in 1954, the club had already decided that the stadium could not
cater for their ever expanding support. No doubt prompted by Real Madrid's
development of Chamartin, (soon to be called Santiago Bernabeu), the club
purchased a large expanse of public gardens and allotments in the west of the
city, and in March 1954, the first stone was laid at the Camp Nou.
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| Les Corts at it's peak in the early 1950's |
The move away from Les Corts was necessary if the club was going to compete with the great Real Madrid side of the 1950's, but it was dependent of selling Les Corts for housing. This proved to be a problem for several years as the municipality was keen to keep some green space within an ever expanding city. Eventually, the club turned to Franco's Council of Ministers who overturned the council's decision and sanctioned the sell of the land for housing. An example, and there are a few, where Barça benefited from Franco's regime.
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| On borrowed time - Les Corts in 1953 |
All this time, whilst Barça were running up a crippling debt following the construction of the Camp Nou, things were not exactly great on the pitch and many questioned the decision to build such a large stadium. Finally, in February 1966 demolition started on Les Corts and three months later, the site was sold for 226 million pesetas. The entire sum received from the sale was used to pay off the club's debts. Here is some great footage of the stadium over its forty-odd year history.
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| The Times, They are a Changin' - Barcelona 1957 |
The first team played their last league match at Les Corts in 21 April 1957. Kubala scored the last goal in 1-1 draw with Sevilla that saw the Andalucians qualify for Europe at Barça's expense. CD Condal who have a complicated history of, at times, being affiliated to FC Barcelona, carried on using the stadium until 1965. In 1970, SD Condal merged with Barcelona B.
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| Les Corts in the early sixties |
