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| Nickname(s) | Team Anglès English Colony Team | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | December 1892; 129 years ago. | ||
| Dissolved | Mid-1900 | ||
| Ground | Hippodrome of Can Tunis Velódromo de la Bonanova | ||
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The Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona (Spanish: Barcelona Football Society) was a football scratch team that existed between 1892 and 1896, mainly consisting of players from the British colony of Barcelona, but also with Catalans and even Frenchmen. This entity was initially known as the Barcelona Football Club (1892–94), before being renamed as Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona following a restructuring in 1894.[1] It was one of the first Catalan football clubs and is considered a predecessor of FC Barcelona founded in 1899.[2] Some historians ascribe this entity as "a group of thirty friends, English workers, who played alternately and without a regular squad".
This entity is best remembered for its pioneering role in the amateur beginnings of football in Catalonia, organizing the first known football match in Catalonia in 1892 and being the catalyst for many other historic landmarks such as the oldest photograph of a football team in Spain and the first proper chronicle of a football match in Spain, both regarding a game between the club's members held on 12 March 1893.[3] Moreover, they were part of the first known rivalry in Spanish football, when they faced the Scottish colony of Sant Martí a few times during the winter of 1893–94. Their game against a team from Torelló in 1895 marked the first time that teams from two different cities played against each other in Catalonia.
In 1895, the presidency of this club was given to the British consul William Wyndham.[2] Apart from Wyndham as president, little is known about its board of directors, only that James Reeves, English, and George Cochran, Scottish, were its captain and vice-captain respectively between 1892 and 1894, always acting as captains on the two sides into which the members of the club were divided every Sunday.[4] Reeves was the undisputed leader and fundamental head behind the club's foundation and management, and likewise, upon his departure in the autumn of 1895, this society, which was never officially established, soon declined and seems to disappear around 1896.[3]
Between 1892 and 1895, this group of football pioneers would meet up in a field near the Hippodrome of Can Tunis in the municipality of Sants, and from 1895 onwards, the club's meetings were held at the Velódromo de la Bonanova in Barcelona, because it was closer to the city center, thus practicing the sport before the attentive and curious gaze of the local population.[1]
- ^ a b "Orígenes, nacimiento y consolidación del FC Barcelona (1875–1903)" [Origins, birth and consolidation of FC Barcelona (1875–1903)] (in Spanish). CIHEFE. 17 October 2015. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- ^ a b "La Sociedad de Football de Barcelona de 1894 y el Foot-ball Club Barcelona de 1899" [The Barcelona Football Society of 1894 and the Foot-ball Club Barcelona of 1899] (in Spanish). CIHEFE. 17 January 2010. Archived from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
- ^ a b "Barcelona Cricket Club: els primers en jugar a futbol" [Barcelona Cricket Club: the first to play football]. memoriesfutbolcatala.com (in Spanish). 25 December 2020. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- ^ "Orígenes del fútbol en barcelona" [Origins of football in Barcelona]. lafutbolteca.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 23 November 2022.