Nothing like renewing one’s FC Barcelona membership card-as I’ve just done – at the Camp Nou-to focus one’s mind.
Membership does not come cheap and in the many years of being a cule I haven’t exactly gained much benefit from it. Phones lines are usually busy so it is almost impossible to communicate, let alone vote from London where I live for much of the year. Not being a techo geek, I find the membership section of the Barca website difficult to navigate, and I’ve never managed to get a ticket using my card, finding it easier to see matches as a guest of a friend , or as a journalist , or -if I am lucky with the draw- with fellow cules from my beloved Penya Blaurana London.
In fairness, going straight to Barca’s revamped ‘social section’ offices is to encounter Catalan courteousness and efficiency at its best. I was in an out in fifteen minutes, leaving me with some spare time to absorb my surroundings on a day when thankfully the invasion of tourists was not huge.
The Camp Now has changed quite a bit since I really got know it back in the late 1990’s while researching the first edition of my book Barca: A People’s Passion the first book published in English on the history and politics of the club.
The exhibit of the old bus that used to take the team round Spain in the 40’s and 50’s is no longer near the entrance to the stadium but parked more discreetly near the old stone building where once the youth academy used to be. The statue to the stadium’s founder Miro Sans , and of the legend of the 50’s Kubala have been , by contrast, upgraded and are in pride of place , and there is great museum showing that this a club that has not lost a sense of pride in its history.
Meanwhile the mega store is bigger that ever , and Qatar’s promotion as a main sponsor is pervasive, if not intrusive. This is a a multinational commercial operation that still boasts a certain distinction as a worldwide community of members, and ordinary fans that feel drawn to a value system of democracy , integrity, and the best possible football as an art form.
This a a club that while struggling to live up up its reputation as ‘mes que un club’, with its lingering unresolved questions over non-payment of taxes and less than transparent transfer deals, still produces, on more match days than not, the most brilliant football in the world- and that alone makes it worth it, hanging on to my membership card- a symbol of loyalty, as much as enduring, unconditional love.
Have you read this book?
This portrait of Bergoglio and Francis’s world-past and present- tells the story of a much more complex man than some early biographies have suggested. My subject is no picture book saint but a very human priest, wracked by doubt, who struggles to be a true witness of his faith in challenging circumstances. In circumstances he neither sought nor foresaw he found himself , he was handed the highest office at a time of institutional crisis, not just for the Church but long established institutions worldwide, from banks to party political leaders.