FC Barcelona - A system of their own

FC Barcelona won their third UEFA Champions League title in five years on May 28 when they beat English giants Manchester United 3-1 in the final. It was a demonstration of modern-day tiki taka football against the Red Devils who themselves are amongst the crème de la crème in European club football.

There is no doubt that Barca currently plays the best football, but only history will tell if it becomes an era. FC Barcelona is different then the rest of their competitors be it the English Premier League clubs - Manchester United, FC Chelsea, FC Arsenal, FC Liverpool and new boys Manchester City; Italians AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus Torino; Germany's FC Bayern Munich and local rivals Real Madrid.

Unlike the other clubs who have rich investors from Asia and the America's or strong corporate backing, FC Barcelona is a public club as a registered association with over 170,000 members, the speciality being that these members have a say in the running of the club as last years elections proved where Sandro Rosell took over from Juan Laporta.

But in October 2010 Barca broken with tradition by signing their first-ever shirt sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation which will run for five and a half years until the end of the 2015/16 season. The deal is worth €166 million and the club will receive 30 Million Euros per season, a new record in club shirt sponsorship in world football, higher then what Bayern Munich (27 million), Real Madrid and Manchester United (both 25 million) receive.

With the deal the club broke with their 111 year old tradition of never ever having had a shirt sponsor out of necessity then an audit in July 2010 by Deliotte showed that the club had debts of 442 Million Euros, which the new management attributed to structural problems at the club. But over the last five years Barca's chest wasn't empty as the club in a unique move had UNICEF on their shirts and under the deal Barca paid UNICEF 1,5 Million Euros in support of the United Nations children's fund.

Some say Barca is losing its soul and becoming just another football club or an entity forced to do things out of business interest, then they simply can't afford to allow their shirt front not to earn them revenue, they need the income to compete with their rivals.

The extent of the financial troubles were detected last year by the clubs new president Sandro Rosell and his board of directors, when they had asked an audit firm to carry out a new audit of Barcelona's financial figures and what came out was simply put a disaster. The old audit showed a profit of 11 Million Euros in June 2010, while the new audit only a month later suddenly showed a staggering loss of 77,1 Million Euros.

The new Barca audit showed operating income of 408.8 million Euros but costs of 477.9 million Euro compared with previous figures published under former president Joan Laporta of 445.5 million Euros as income and 429 million Euros as costs, the club published on their website ( www.fcbarcelona.cat ) at the time. It will be interesting to see what figures Barca release in the coming weeks as they hope their success increases their revenues.

In 2009 I had the chance to visit Barca at their home while the Indian national football team was there on an invitation from FC Barcelona. It was a great experience to see for myself their stadium the Nou Camp, one of the iconic venues of world football; La Masia - the historic football academy situated besides the Nou Camp from which players like Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta have come besides the passion for football amongst the Catalans.

Barca's youth development system is the best in the world. If you look at their starting eleven in the UEFA Champions League final then seven of their players have come through their youth ranks in Victor Valdes, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Pedro Rodrigues.

The club buys players for specific positions, not names like other teams. Players like Dani Alves, Javier Mascherano, Éric Abidal and David Villa have come and incorporated the Barca gene in them. These players haven't come cheap with Spanish World Cup winner David Villa having been the costliest at 40 Million Euros last summer, but he has been worth the investment with his goals winning Barca the Champions League and Spanish La Liga titles.

The big difference between the Barca way of youth development is their focus in the crucial years of the youngsters. While most clubs around the world mainly prioritize on physique and physical strength in their youth academies. At Barca they first focus is on character education, teaching the boys the ethics of being a Barca player before they work on brain, technique and decision.

One thing is common from the first team over the reserves to the junior sides they play an attacking 4-3-3 system which is build on free flowing football. And it makes things easier for youngsters to move up the ranks as they play within the same system, something which other clubs are trying to copy around the world.

One action after the match highlighted the special bondage in the Barca team. Carlos Puyol, who himself had come on as a substitute, passed on his captains armband ahead of the handover of the Champions League trophy to Eric Abidal, who had only a few weeks earlier had an operation for a liver tumour and made a surprise quick comeback. It was Abidal who first lifted the trophy.