FC Barcelona

Futbol Club Barcelona ,also known simply as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is best known for its football team, which was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Spanish men led by Joan Gamper. The club has become a Catalan institution, hence the motto "Més que un club" (More than a club).
FC Barcelona is one of the only three clubs that have never been relegated from La Liga and the second most successful club in Spanish football having won eighteen La Liga titles, a record twenty-five Spanish Cups, seven Spanish Super Cups and two League Cups. They are also one of the most successful clubs in European football having won eight official major European trophies in total. They have won two European Cups, a record four UEFA Cup Winners' Cups and two UEFA Super Cups. They also have a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cups.
The club's stadium is the Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe with a capacity of 98,772 seats. Barcelona enjoys a high rate of popularity; about 25.7% of Spanish population support the club,while according to a recent survey Barcelona is the most popular football club in Europe with around 44.2 million fans.With 156,366 socis in June 2007, the Catalan club is also placed among the top football clubs in the world with the most registered members, and the number of penyes, the officially-registered supporter clubs, reached the number of 1,782 worldwide in June 2006. The fans of FC Barcelona are known as culers. The club shares a great rivalry with Real Madrid and contest in one of the most famous football matches worldwide, known as El Clásico.
During the season 2007–08, Barcelona was the third richest club in the world with a revenue of €308.8 million. It was also one of the founding members of the now-defunct G-14 group of the leading European football clubs and its modern replacement, the European Club Association. The club also operates a reserve team, FC Barcelona Atlètic, while there was a youth team until 2007, FC Barcelona C.

Guardiola as coach (2008–present)

In the pre-season of 2008–09, a motion of no confidence was raised against Joan Laporta. The no confidence motion received 60% support, just short of the 66% required to oust the president, and eight of his directors resigned. Laporta, with the assistance of Director of Football Txiki Begiristain, decided to appoint the legendary former midfielder Josep Guardiola new manager, also responded with a turnover of players, selling Gianluca Zambrotta, Deco, Edmílson and Ronaldinho. Nearly €90 million was spent rebuilding the squad, with Begiristain and Laporta purchasing Seydou Keita, Gerard Piqué, Martín Cáceres, Dani Alves and Aliaksandr Hleb. Despite this, the club retained its home-grown nucleus of players, such as captain Carles Puyol, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Víctor Valdés and Lionel Messi.
On 17 January, 2009, Barça set the record for amassing the highest points total for the first half of a season in La Liga, attaining 50 points out of a possible 57, with 18 wins, 2 draws, and just 1 loss against CD Numancia in the first game of the season. The club also reached the Copa del Rey final for the first time since 1998 after defeating RCD Mallorca in the semi-finals. Six days later on 23 January, the International organisation IFFHS ranked Barça first in their list of the greatest football clubs of the last 18 years. The All-time Club World Ranking was determined by taking into account all the results of the national championships, the national cup competitions, the club competitions of the six continental confederations and the FIFA.
On 14 April, Barcelona qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions League for the second year running after defeating Bayern Munich 5-1 on aggregate over two legs and faced Chelsea in the semi-finals. Their first leg against Chelsea resulted in a disappointing scoreless draw at home. Following the game, they faced Real Madrid in El Clásico, which they won 6–2, the most goals ever scored in El Clásico by Barcelona and the biggest margin of victory for Barça since the 70s, when Johan Cruyff led Barça to win 5–0. On 6 May, 2009, immediately after the historic victory over their biggest rivals, Barcelona played against Chelsea in the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals. Chelsea led the game at Stamford Bridge 1–0 from the 8th minute, until injury time, where Andrés Iniesta scored the winning equaliser in the 93rd minute from the edge of the penalty area, sending Barcelona through to the final on away goals.
On 13 May, Barça beat Athletic Bilbao 4-1 at the Mestalla to win the Copa del Rey for an impressive 25th time.
Barça will face defending champions Manchester United at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on 27 May, 2009 for a chance to win their third UEFA Champions League title