More than a club. It's difficult to imagine this motto fitting any other team in the world as well as it does FC Barcelona. A Catalan sports club (though we know it from its football team) founded by a Swiss footballer while on a vacation to visit his uncle in Barcelona, the team was an immediate success through its mix of Catalan, Swiss, and English personalities and influences. Within two years, Bara had won its first hardware and has been, along with Real Madrid, one half of one of the world's greatest sporting rivalries for over 100 years, though league play between the two has only been going on for approx 80 years.

However, despite the seemingly endless lists of honors (including 18 La Liga championships, 4 Cup Winners' Cups, and 24 Copa del Rey championships) and stars that have played for the team (including Ronaldo, Romario, Rivaldo, Maradona, Cruyff, Stoitchkov, Figo, and Hagi, among others), what makes Bara more than a club is its history and relationship with the people of Catalonia.

The northeast region of Spain is famous for many things, but the prime reason we even know that it exists is a result of its location. For hundreds of years, Catalan was a major power in Mediterranean (and for several hundred years that meant "world") trade; a combination of industry and trade brought the region wealth for its people and gave them a "global" perspective of life in general. The willingness to accept others, improve with diversification, and appreciate outside perspectives and ideas helped forge the identity and philosophy of the region.

FC Barcelona was not only created in this environment, but it prospered by directly embracing the attitudes of the people who followed the team. Joan Gamper,the Swiss founder of the club, fell in love with Barcelona and its heritage, moving to the city and learning the Catalan language. In fact, Joan (a name familiar to Spanish citizens as a masculine name compared to the Joan Melissa Hart usage in America) is the name HANS Kamper took after moving to Spain, so devoted was he to his new culture.

Celebrating Catalan nationalism, however, wasn't acceptable to the powers in Madrid, and the team's success both on the field and off (fans have been extremely pleased and supportive of the team since its origins) was attacked by Castilian leaders from the time of the kingdom (with General de Rivera seizing power of the city, banning the flag and language from the region) to Franco's regime (with Franco's men-at-arms arresting and executing FC Barcelona's president, Josep Sunyol). Franco also had Barca's trophies destroyed, installed one of his men as president of the club, removed the Catalan flag from the team's crest, and changed the club's name from FC Barcelona to "Club de Football Barcelona" (that is, they took their identity and gave the club a Castilian Spanish name).

In 1943, after a threat from the director of state security, Barcelona lost to Franco's favorite team (he was obsessed with them), Real Madrid by a score of 11-1. For decades, the seat of Spanish power was intertwined with Real Madrid how many games and championships do you think Real "won" thanks to threats and bribes over the last century?

In 1953, the greatest player of the 50s, Alfredo Di Stefano, signed a deal with Bara to transfer over from River Plate. The Franco regime would not stand for this and the government stepped in, preventing the transfer. In the meantime, Santiago Bernabu (yes, that one) who was president of Real Madrid at the time, worked out a deal with Di Stefano that was more "government friendly" and signed the Argentinean great to play for Real instead. There was some wrangling back and forth over this travesty, with the government eventually giving in and saying Di Stefano could play 2 years for Real and 2 for Barca (with the implication being that after the 4 year contract was up, he'd stay with Real Madrid). However, behind-the-scenes pressure from the government made even this ridiculous compromise unavailable to Barcelona. Di Stefano went on to score 219 goals for Real Madrid, while the team won five champions leagues and eight La Ligas during his tenure with the club.

While all of this sounds like a long whine about the Castilian's actions against Barcelona, the real importance of the team's history is how well it has supported, and been supported by, its fans. Unlike the Basques, Catalans protested peacefully, both at the stadium and in their private lives. Instead of shutting down and shutting out the rest of the world, the Catalan region welcomed immigrants, expanded industry, and grew financially. Tourism exploded, the culture of arts and expression continued to expand, and the city's love for its team grew more with each challenge.

When listening to debate over the influence of foreigners' in football whether it involves Russian and American billionaires buying English teams, or non-Americans playing in MLS keep in mind that Barcelona's phenomenon of winning with Dutch managers, Brazilian stars, French and Cameroon international players is nothing new. The club has reflected its city's spirit of greatness through diversity, of playing a beautiful game in a style befitting its fans. It is one reason why both players and fans either "get it" and become Bara fans for life, or don't (and normally leave the city relatively quickly).

Despite every other major club in Europe carrying a sponsor's logo on their shirts, Bara displayed nothing but the team colors and crest for over 100 years. Just recently, one word has been introduced to the team's shirts: Unicef. This is a fitting way to summarize the history of FC Barcelona.

Buy world cup football tickets for all world cup tickets and Champions League tickets for all the popular football matches around. You can buy your favourite Barcelona tickets online through our secure and guaranteed online booking system. You can also sell Barcelona tickets here!. Ticket4Football offers 100% safe and secure online booking system for Barcelona tickets.

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UEFA Champions League.

The club was founded as a cricket club in 1899 by British expatriates Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kilpin, who came from the British city of Nottingham. In honor of its origins, the club has retained the English spelling of its city's name, instead of changing it to the Italian Milano (though it was forced to do it during the fascist regime, like Genoa and Internazionale); it should be noted that the Italian pronunciation is actually MEE-lan, in the Italian style of not stressing the last syllable. Milan won their first Italian championship title in 1901, and then again in 1906 and 1907.

In 1908, the club experienced a split caused by internal disagreements over the signing of foreign players, which led to the forming of another Milan-based team, Internazionale. Following these events, Milan did not manage to win a single domestic title until 1950-51. In 1963, they ensured their first continental title, winning European Cup beating Benfica in the final. This success was repeated in 1969, and followed by an Intercontinental Cup title the same year. Following retirement of Gianni Rivera, Milan started a declining period, during which they were involved in the 1980 Totonero scandal and were relegated to Serie B as punishment, for the first time in their history. The scandal was centred on a betting syndicate paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches. Milan quickly returned back to Serie A, but returned to Serie B only one year later as they ended their 1981-82 Serie A campaign in the relegation zone.

In 1986, entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi acquired the club, and immediately invested a lot of money in the team, appointing rising coach Arrigo Sacchi at the helm of the rossoneri and signing a Dutch trio of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard. This was the beginning of the most successful time in the club's history, as Milan won seven domestic titles, five Champions League trophies, and three Intercontinental Cups.

More recently, Milan were involved in the 2006 Serie A scandal where five teams were accused of fixing matches by selecting favourable referees. Even if police inquiry excluded any involvement of Milan managers, FIGC, led by former Inter Vice President Guido Rossi, unilaterally decided it had sufficient evidences to charge Milan Vice President Adriano Galliani: as result, Milan were initially punished with a 15 point deduction and consequently did not qualify for the Champions League. An appeal saw their penalty reduced to 8 points and allowed to retain their 2006-07 Champions League participation, where they won the competition.

Milan's home games are played at San Siro, also known as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. The ground, which is shared with rivals Internazionale, is the largest in Italian football, with total capacity of 80,018.

Some upcoming matches of AC Milan are scheduled as follows:

Tue Feb 16 '10 19:45 AC Milan Vs Manchester United San Siro, Milano, Italy

Wed Mar 10 '10 19:45 Manchester United Vs AC Milan Old Trafford, Manchester, United Kingdom

For more details you can visit ticket4football.com where you can buy Champions league tickets for all the other teams of the league.

Roy brown 31 Single From London SEO Analyst (EGS)
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UEFA Champions League.

The prestigious UEFA Champions League also known as European Cup is a hugely loved annual football tournament. Since year 1955, UEFA is organizing the annual football world cup competition with topmost European football clubs participating in it. The official name of this immensely loved football world cup tournament is European Champion Clubs Cup before 1992, also known as European Cup or European Champions Cup.

Earlier, the tournament was straight knockout competition and champion clubs of each country were the participants. During the era of 90s, there was some great advancement in the game, such as inclusion of round robin group phase along with some more teams. The strongest national leagues of Europe offer at least four teams for this grand competition.

Till now 21 different clubs have won the prestigious title of UEFA Champions League and 12 clubs have grab it more than once. Real Madrid is the record holder of this competition with nine victories in its baggage. The current champions Barcelona will defend the title.

The upcoming 2010 Champions League matches is already a huge craze among the football lovers from all across the globe. The hugely sought after Champions League Final tickets are selling like hot cakes. The grand finale will be held at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. The real excitement and thrill of UEFA Champions League can be enjoyed at fullest with your live presence at the stadium. Cheering ones favorite team at loudest possible is in itself a completely delightful experience!

The prestigious UEFA Champions League also known as European Cup is a hugely loved annual football tournament. Since year 1955, UEFA is organizing the annual football world cup competition with topmost European football clubs participating in it. The official name of this immensely loved football world cup tournament is European Champion Clubs Cup before 1992, also known as European Cup or European Champions Cup.

Earlier, the tournament was straight knockout competition and champion clubs of each country were the participants. During the era of 90s, there was some great advancement in the game, such as inclusion of round robin group phase along with some more teams. The strongest national leagues of Europe offer atleast four teams for this grand competition.

Till now 21 different clubs have won the prestigious title of UEFA Champions League and 12 clubs have grab it more than once. Real Madrid is the record holder of this competition with nine victories in its baggage. The current champions Barcelona will defend the title.

The upcoming 2010 Champions League matches is already a huge craze among the football lovers from all across the globe. The hugely sought after Champions League Final tickets are selling like hot cakes. The grand finale will be held at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. The real excitement and thrill of UEFA Champions League can be enjoyed at fullest with your live presence at the stadium. Cheering ones favorite team at loudest possible is in itself a completely delightful experience!

The Author has given the idea about Football World Cup in this article. He described the brief about UEFA champion league and 2010 champion league final matches that can be full enjoyed at fullest with your live presence at the stadium.
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UEFA Champions League.

Mr Scolari will be settling into his new post at the Bridge while the longest serving manager will be the obstacle he will have to overcome. What about the rest? Arsenal, too much in house fighting? Or can the players detach themselves from that? Cup team Liverpool, can they really put up a challenge this year? Who knows?

Outside that top four you have the nearly men, WHO, would love to win the championship, but in reality would settle for a top four place and a spot in the champions league. Everton, Villa, Spurs and perhaps Portsmouth seem to be the main contenders, but can one of them really knock down that door and get in?

After that the teams who will finish up mid table, their only highlight being when the manage to take a few points off the big four and another false dawn appears until the following week when a team from the relegation zone brings them back to earth.

And finally too the relegation zone. The three teams promoted from last year will be favourites to go straight back down. West Brom are probably best equipped to prove me wrong having been over the course before. If they did avoid the drop that leaves a spot for one of last years survivors, Bolton, Sunderland, Wigan and Fulham are waiting in the wings to fill the vacant spot. Fulham are in the best position to be well away from the relegation area if they can continue from where they left off at the end of last season.

The latest football transfers can be found at the authors website, which also includes news, features and football highlights videos. A keen soccer/football fan who enjoys a bet on the matches. Champions League Tickets.

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UEFA Champions League.