Demonstrate An Understanding Of The Organisation Of Sport, Its Variety Across Nations And Sports, And Evolution Over Time

The Beginning, 1899

Describe about the Demonstrate an understanding of the organisation of sport, its variety across nations and sports, and evolution over time?

According to Balagué, (1950), “Mes que en club” means “More than a Club”. FC Barcelona the world renowned football club from the heart of Spain was initially founded by the Gamper in the year of 1899 with the help of young foreigners residing in Barcelona. This initiative was later was also found to be the door to popularity of every other British sports and the football across the Europe. These initiatives clearly developed an enormous intellectual property and identity of the club and its deep allegiance towards the Barcelona and Catalonia. With the time since the origin of the club, people from Barcelona started becoming interested in playing football and every other British sport. The Joan Gamper the founder of the club has been the inspiration for the club to achieve its first 25 years the Silver Jubilee. The club today stands tall due to the level of commitment and dedication that the Gamper showed in the preliminary years of the club. And with time his role went far beyond as the player, the director of the club and then the president.

The club sooner started to grow with the time, however in the month of November, 1908 the club started to struggle with its existence and 38 members decided to leave the club. Gamper however decided not to bail on the club and kept it afloat, since then he took the presidential position of the club and started to lead it. Burns (1999) stated that, this historical step helped the Gamper to consolidate and retain the clubs image within the panorama of football and within the different parts of the city Barcelona and Spain. Due to the efforts of the club and Gamper, people from Barcelona at first started to play at their own whenever they get time and later the game developed its popularity within the other parts of the country. However, there are different set of actions and acquisitions that also helped the FC Barcelona to gain the position; acquiring various football grounds, a steady growth of its members, restructuring of club’s law and other regulatory reforms played a vital role. At the same time on the other hand, the club started to develop as one of the best known clubs from all around the world, which eventually made the football a professional sport in the region of Spain. During the time the FC Barca developed solid foundations in terms of a football club, which eventually took the club beyond the dream that those young foreigners and Gamper saw in the year of 1899. By the time the football has become one of the most played outdoor British games that were gaining popularity within the Europe.

As the club started to gaining popularity all over the Barcelona then country Spain and then all over the world, the players were the main role players that took the club to the position it is today. Among one of the finest goalkeepers the Ricardo Zamora, who was also nick named as the “el Divi” means (The divine one) said to be one of the best acquisition that the club made so far. Some of the finest players at that time were “Hedebuted” and “Samitier”; these players took the club to another level of success. Acquiring these players were said to be the turning point in the club’s history. Ricardo Zamora was not with the team for very long he played for the club for only three seasons but with the level of his dedication and performance, he left a mark on the team’s history. It is due to players like Ricardo Zamora, Samitier and Hedebuted football evolved as the main stream professional game within the Europe, supported by Eaude (2008).

Augmentation of FC Barcelona, 1908

The FC Barcelona Club was fully committed to every social, cultural and political reform that was initiated by the Catalan Republican Government. The cub released a newsletter that clearly delivered that the club is not only concentrated upon the sports but also is committed towards cultural and political activities. The newsletter was released in the year of 1932, which gradually made the club’s aim, objectives and position clear to every person that are interested over the club. At the time of civil war the club did face a lot of threats stating that the club FC Barcelona will be taken away from the actual authority. The club immediately acted upon the threat developing a committee decision, which eventually saved the club. The committee was firm with the decision that not to break away the pattern of leadership it previously held.

During the early 1930s the club had to face a lot of political and general trouble, which eventually affected the brand image of the club. During this period the club had to face several devastating events; the first being the death of the founder of the club, the civil war, the assassination of the president and establishment of the second Spanish republic. This eventually led to other devastating and uncertain events, such as the club started to lose its members and some players started to bail on their contracts.

The camp Nou construction started in the year of 1954 and was finished three years later. The grounds or the fields were inaugurated under the presidency of Miro-Sans in the year of 1957. The inauguration ceremony was a huge success; various celebratory events took place, which had a main event of a match against selected players from Warsaw. This was the first time ever the Barca enjoyed a victory of 4-2, and the start player who scored the goal was Eulogio Martinez, who scored the first ever goal. The Stadium initially was made for a capacity of 93, 053 spectators, the entire cost of the stadium was 288,088,143 pesetas. According to Gaarskjær (2010) today, the Camp Nou is the largest stadium that the Europe ever had with a capacity of 98,772 spectators. With its solid stepping stone the FC Barcelona today is one of the most popular and best known football club in all over the world.

The club however is one of the biggest clubs all around the globe but is far away from sporting success. During the era of 1960s the FC Barcelona did saw numerous increases in the number of members for itself. However, increase in the members of the club did not see any improvement in sporting success of the club, at the same period Catalonia received an enormous number of migrants and it was the FC Barcelona that was the key to access the society of the Catalans. Construction of the enormous Camp Nou was the main reason of financial severity, which eventually restricted the club to acquire big players. According to Ranachan (2008) Failure to acquire big players also led to club to a period of uncertainty of sporting success, which reflected in the later part of the club’s success rate.

Era of 1919-1930

By the time the club successfully achieved the position where they gained the tagline of “More than a Club”. In the year of 1969, the Agusti Montal was selected as the president of the club, he further emphasized upon involving members of the club. Agusti believed in gathering opinions and point of views from its members; as he believed that members also must play an active role in the clubs success. According to Agusti Montal, it is essential for the members to contribute in the club’s operations and actions and he promised that their values and opinions would reflect through the results of the club’s success. It was the Agusti Montal, who was again elected as the president in the year of 1973, and developed the slogan that “Barca is more than a club”.

At the time of his presidency, Agusti defended the concept of centralization as it was practiced by the Spanish Football Federation and by the National Sports Delegation. Agusti also defended the process of Catalanism restoration, as he never wanted it to affect the development of the Football within the particular part of the Europe. It was due to the efforts of the Agusti, the FC Barcelona club began to start gaining its reputation back, the symbols and the name of the organisation that was affected and began to sound more Spanish post civil war. As an impact of the civil war corruption was at its peak, when foreign players started to falsify their birth certificate and nationality in order to enlist with the Spanish football. The Barca wanted to sign contract with the Johan Cruyff, which post this period seem to come in a shape of reality and with the contract of Johan Cryuff  the Barca began to regain it lost popularity in the field of football.

With the strong determination to become world’s best football club, the Barca successfully achieved the fame and name by now. With best players enlisted with the club the FC Barca successfully gained European Cup for the first time in the year of 1979. This helped the FC Barcelona to gain the top position in the list of best football clubs in the world. It was the time that the club won the European club under the presidency of Josep Luis Nunez. During the period of 1980s the club had to go through various ups and downs due to the results of the match, performances of the star players along with some other factors, which never had a relation to the football performance of the club (Sabartés, 1987).

This in particular decade witnessed arrival of some fine players for generations, who became legends, like Maradona, Quini, Schuster, Julio Alberto, Alexanco, Urruti, Marcos and various other. The club also witness some great quality team managers in this era in particular such as the Helenio Herrera, Lattek, Venebles, Menotti and others. The period also has been marked as it witnessed the first ever multi-million contracts that appeared. The right to television also popularized the fame of the organisation over the time period, which eventually affected and elevated the financial affairs of the FC Barcelona. The Club started to grow bigger and saw an extension of the “Camp Nou”, which again increased the numbers of members of the football club.

The Era of 1930-1939

The FC Barcelona football club is one of the most reputed and famous football club which operates all over the world and is famous due to the different types of highly valued players are in the team making the team powerful and have a high reputation and goodwill among the other clubs in the world. For the efficient management of the club it is very important that the management should take unbiased decisions regarding the sport and for the players who are the part of this famous club. In accordance with Villatoro (2013). Good governance is a part of motivating the players and the employees who are in the management to do their work efficiently and they should work under the strict rules and regulations lay down by the management of the club. Recently it has been observed from the report that the FIFA disciplinary committee has sanctioned the FC Barcelona for breaching which is associated with the international transfer issues and the registration of the players who are under the age of 18 in the club.

According to Gaarskjær (2010) there has been investigation done by the FIFA transfer Matching System over the previous year that the FC Barcelona has seen violated the provisions for the international transfer of the players and the registration of the non-Spanish minors in the clubs and also other regulations associated with the registration and the participation of the different players in national competitions. The investigations report says that there have been many players who have been registered and participated in the competitions with the club between the period 2009 and 2013. It has also been seen that there has been problem arise in the protection of the minors in relation with the international transfer. According to the article 19 0f the Regulations on the Status and the Transfer of the Players the international transfer of the players are only allowed if any player has the age over 18.This article also reveals that international transfer of the minor players are only allowed when it has been granted permission from the subcommittee of the players Status committee.

In this respect the Disciplinary committee told that the protection of the minors in relation with the international transfers is an important issue of governance which is concerned with the stakeholders of the football club. The committee also highlighted that FIFA should take the right of the protection of the minors and the protection of the minors are an important governance issue which needs to tackled so a legal agreement has been made between the FIFA,UEFA and the European Commission 2001. The disciplinary committee of FC Barcelona with the help of the FIFA should give full protection to the minors. According to the article 19 it has been found that ten minor players have been made the agreement and the FIFA has decided to sanction a heavy ban of CHF 450,000 for the two complete transfer periods.

According to Sabartés (1987) the other issue of governance could be the struggle made by the players of FC Barcelona to get democracy. In the year 1978 Nunez became the president of Spain and Nunez was not from the Catalan family which could be the driving force for getting entered into the football club. Nunez has a difference in the management styles and from the beginning it has been told that it would depoliticize the club. This depoliticization of the club have a positive relation with the de-catalanization as a result this made the club prevented to grow financially when there are fears of separation is knocking at the door. During the leadership of Nunez the membership model of FC Barcelona has also changed which has reduced the rights of becoming the member of this football club which deteriorates the democracy within the club stature. There has been lack of financial support from the political bodies as a result the club is very poor financially and there has been lack of control over the internal environment of the club. There has been debt of huge amount and chaos created within the committee of the FC Barcelona and due to the lack of strong regulatory framework there has been rise in the costs and the financial losses as a result there has been a rapid change in the membership model of ownership in FC Barcelona. There has been the issue of taxes and the legal structure of the football team and the debts have been owed to the public bodies which is a serious issue of the governance for this team.

1957, Inauguration of Camp Nou

The other issue of the governance could be the lacking of the corporate social responsibility as the way FC Barcelona is now revitalized a s a global brand all over the world the football club is getting financially strong and becoming so much commercialized and professional as they are getting lost with the social and the cultural roots. The New board of directors of FC Barcelona is trying to implement a parallel strategy in order to develop the activities in the corporate social responsibility so that the club can retain its cultural and social presence. With the invention of the new board the social responsibilities have been increasing and developing time to time as a result there is a more involvement of the society with the club taking place. The Foundation club has been promoting the social activities by making the charity events and the fundraising events by which they entered a partnership with the UNESCO signing a deal of five years in the year 2006 for promoting the foot ball as a social and the cultural sport supporting the community in building the values and culture. There has also been the sponsorship deal formed between FC Barcelona and UNICEF which is great example of promoting the corporate social responsibility issue which have been talked about the FC Barcelona team. Over the years FC Barcelona is going through a very lean patch of financial loss and huge debts have been incurred in the club and the committee and the board of directors could not found any solution in making for this great loss taking place. After that there has been sponsorship of the shirt taking place between FC Barcelona and UNICEF the shirt has the huge value of sponsorships. However the football club banned the selling of the FC Barcelona shirt which is a strong socio political statement which is against the cultural and the social values of community which is associated with the club.

The governance issues which has been summarized has different type of implications which includes the economic implications as due to the change in the structure of the government the FC Barcelona team has been lacked due to the financial support from the political bodies as a result there has been high financial loss  and debt which could be harmful for the growth of the organization but due to the changes in the political structure of the government the club FC Barcelona has emerged into a global brand and it has got the recognition all over the world. The issue on the legal aspects of the business makes them declining their performance in the sport which has a negative impact on the governance of the FC Barcelona team. The unhealthy corporate social responsibility making the team lose its competitive advantage over the other football clubs in the entire Europe so they are also getting financially backward as due to the implementation of the corporate social responsibilities they have been getting the huge money from the different events and sponsorships could be another one which could be helpful for the team to get financially strong and this gives an opportunity for the board of directors to pay attention on the rebuilding and the growth of the FC Barcelona team during the different periods of time.

1961-1969 the Social Dimension

There has been a popular justification of the governance structure of the team FC Barcelona is that in order to become one of the famous clubs across the Europe the club needs to attract the major investments sop that it can compete with the other football clubs in the world. FC Barcelona is not at all a profit making club which has been owned by the 150,000 members. It has been critically discussed that how the different governance structure of the team hamper the ability to compete win the financial market and on the basis of the sporting performance. In accordance with Eaude (2008) as a symbol of the catalian nationality FC Barcelona was ruled by the president Nunez and this has been led to the development of an organization which has been campaigned for member democracy. At that the club was not so much commercialized and fighting with the rival club Real Madrid in terms of commercialization and the financial turnover takes place. After that the new p[resident has been elected and the governance structure has a change. In accordance with Hernàndez and Hurtado (2007) since then after the year 2008 FC Barcelona has made a drastic change in the position and in the brand image of the team. The team has rebuilt and it has become financially strong as supported by the Spanish government done with the positive results. After that the sporting performance has been enhanced and FC Barcelona has won the La Liga titles in the year 2005 and in the year 2006 and won the Champions League in 2006. There have been changes in the model of the member democracy and improvements taking place in the structure of the governant and there has been the development of a campaign taking place which includes the BIG Challenge which increases the membership of the club so that the club becomes financially strong. It has been discussed that there have been huge investment done in the marketing of the club so that it should become commercially strong which has generated increased revenues from the promotion of the club as a result the financial performance has become better which has been increased from 123.4 million to 308.8 million which indicates that there has been the mutual ownership structure.

The promotion of the corporate social responsibility activities have increased the funds making the clubs financially strong enough for the growth of the club financially and this has been the commercial strategy of the football club in order to generate more revenues which helps in enhancing the sporting performance of the players and the proper environment has been created inside the football team. It has been also suggested that with the focus on the relevant sponsorship of the shirts of FC Barcelona also reenergized the brand image of the team and there has been partnership with the different global brands and the political agencies which helps the team in the socio political context of the business and there has been influences from the political agencies to help the club financially as a result it has become politically as well as financially strong. The strategy of developing the campaigns for increasing the volumes of merchandise from the club is a unique strategy for commercialization of the club. It has also been suggested that the success of Laporta has facilitated the tremendous success of the club and this has been due to the aggressive marketing which enhances the sports excellence and the cultural sophistication of the team which actually helps in managing the governance of the club.

References

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