Barca documantary

eirebhoy

One of the lads on Foot.ie said this was the "best programme about football I have ever watched". It was on BBC4 last night but will be repeated on the same channel at 11.15 on Wednesday. There was camera's at meetings with the boards, agents, discussions about players, etc.

Barça, The Inside Story: Storyville

BBC4
Wed 23 Feb, 23:15 - 00:40 85 mins

"You have to understand that Barcelona is a nation without a state, and Barça is its army." Sir Bobby Robson.

FC Barcelona is the biggest football club in the world, with 102,000 shareholder members all having seats at the Nou Camp, the biggest stadium in Europe, and the right to elect the Club President - a dream job for thousands of ambitious, patriotic Catalans.

Poor performances and a debt of 200million euros led to a crisis for the club in 2003, the worst in its 100-year history. But, with the aim of root and branch reform, a new regime was ushered in under the leadership of the charismatic Joan Laporta.

With unprecedented and exclusive access, Barça: The Inside Story spends a year at the Nou Camp documenting the new board's efforts to turn an old fashioned Catalan family affair into a global football business.

Slash/ED

eirebhoy wrote:

It was on BBC4 last night but will be repeated on the same channel at 11.15 on Wednesday.

Brilliant! I was looking forward to it all day and then forgot at around half 8, typical :rolleyes: I hopefully wont make that mistake again.

galwaydude

is this the only channel that is showing the doc as i heard it was a brillient piece of work.
NTL dont have bbc4:(

eirebhoy

galwaydude wrote:

is this the only channel that is showing the doc as i heard it was a brillient piece of work.
NTL dont have bbc4:(

Can't you add the channel with NTL digital (if thats what you have)? You can with Sky dig.

Draupnir

maybe someone could record it and lend us a copy?

KdjaCL

Stupid Sky hates bbc and wont let you add in a reminder for it.

Eirebhoy pm me on wednesday to remind me


kdjac

eirebhoy

KdjaC wrote:

Eirebhoy pm me on wednesday to remind me

will do. My reminder is the final whistle of the Barca - Chelsea match.

LegacyUser

oh u lucky bastard. I can not watch this as I am on NTL too...:(

I may need to post a personal request and ask people to record it for me?

Töpher

Was it not on BBC1 on Sunday at 9:05? Maybe I'm mistaken, but thought I saw an advert for it during the Burnley game.

RasTa

T'was on bbc4 late last night, wasnt that good tbh

DapperGent

Willing to perform various menial chores for a copy of this or a torrent to same.

LegacyUser

Bump....

BolBill

I watched it, it was brilliant. Am gonna become a member of FCB now after years of just talking about it.

BBC4 is available on NTL (digital)

galactus

Is the doc based on Jimmy Burns book of the same name?

Either way its a great read.

eirebhoy

Just a reminder, this is on tonight.

Pal

This was the best football programme I have ever seen.

Barcelona is more than a team.

The death threats and assaults against the president
because he wouldn't pay off the hooligans.

unbelievable.

Slash/ED

Well worth watching, cheers EB

LegacyUser

Jesus ****ing christ i missed it again! bollox!

Any signs of a repeat?

byte

I came across it by mistake when browsing my Sky EPG. It was indeed an excellent docu. If I had read this thread sooner, I woulda set my PCI satellite card on BBC4 and recorded it but bit late now

eirebhoy

This is on again at 10.30 on Sunday night, BBC2.

_blank_

Brilliant.

I somehow missed this thread the first time round.

~Rebel~

yea i watched that a few months ago about midnight on some channel, just happened to come across it. Fantastic documentary, always liked barca but much more so even after watching this, massive respect for Laporta!

Well worth a watch!

Slash/ED

It'll be even better watching it now knowing they've since gone on to win the league

Cianan2

T'was class when i saw it on bbc4, never thanked you for the recommendation, eirebhoy=thank you!

Makaveli

Bump. A reminder that this is on tonight.

DOCUMENTARY: Storyville
Channel: BBC 2 102
Date: Sunday 12th June 2005
Time: 22:30 to 00:00 (starting this evening)
Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Barca - The Inside Story.
Documentary following the fortunes of Barcelona Football Club over a year of crisis. With poor performances and spiralling debts, reform of the club is urgently needed. The new board, under the leadership of the charismatic Joan Laporta, attempt to turn an old fashioned Catalan family affair into a global football business.
(Widescreen, Subtitles)

Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=75669
Copyright ©1999-2004 GipsyMedia Ltd.

That's BBC London btw. BBC2 NI starts at 23:15.

Cianan2

This isnt in the guide, or on Ntl digi-guide thing either. You sure its on?

eirebhoy

Just checked Sky Digital and it says 11.50 so I assume thats the time.

byte

Yup,
23:50 on BBC 2 NI
22:30 on BBC 2 Scot and BBC 2 England
I don't see it listed for BBC 2W however.

David19

RTE teletext and the culture section of the Sunday Times both say 23:15. I presume they're both BBC NI.

Dempsey

Sounds promising, will be recording it

Mossy Monk

11.50pm according to the BBC website

mike65

Agh beat me to it! Ireland - Japan rugby, then Mock the Week before Barca.

Mike.

eirebhoy

Slash/ED wrote:

It'll be even better watching it now knowing they've since gone on to win the league

It was filmed in the 03/04 season.

David19

eirebhoy wrote:

It was filmed in the 03/04 season.

I think he means it'll be good to see the work they were doing back then has worked and they eventually went on to win the title. Certainly thats what I was impressed with. It was a great programme. Its amazing the access the film crew had. Barca have always been one of my favourite teams.

Makaveli

Great documentary.
Offered quite a bit of insight into the club.

Four board members left at the end of this season. Rosell went and I'm not bothered about that he kicked up a bit of fuss earlier this season and caused a bit of internal turmoil when players were expected to leave if he left too, namely Ronaldinho although that turned out to be just media speculation.
Rosell didn't get on too well with Txiki Begirstain I don't think and there used to be clashes between the two over the squad. Rijkaard and Begirstain were unhappy and Laporta backed them against Rosell and that was pretty much that.

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/eng/noticias/noticias/n05060206.shtml
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/eng/noticias/noticias/n05060221.shtml

Slash/ED

David19 wrote:

I think he means it'll be good to see the work they were doing back then has worked and they eventually went on to win the title. Certainly thats what I was impressed with. It was a great programme. Its amazing the access the film crew had. Barca have always been one of my favourite teams.

That's exactly what I meant, and it was great to see it again knowing they had gone on to win the title the season after. Barca were always my favourite Spanish club, mainly because they're not Real I have to admit, but even more so after I saw that.

Draupnir

That was a great show. Fully worth staying up late for and ending up absolutely knackered here in work.

Im just sorry I didnt tape it now.

redspider

That was an interesting programme. Barca are a culture icon and represent the Catalonian people, which are essentially a country in waiting. They get huge support.

Interesting to see how they stood up to the "mad boys", the equivalent of the Ultra's. Those hooligan types were challenged and were no lnger givin free access or indeed paid to attend matches!

Another interesting point was that if they won the league, they would lose 9m due to the number of bonus payouts applicable. They were actually financially better off by finishing 2nd!

Barca, with over 100,000 members (partial owners) is a much different setup than many clubs, especially English/Irish clubs wihch tend to be owned by a few owners. The fact that Presidents and their teams get elected, etc, is an interesting way to run a football club/business. The board was far too big imo, too many heads mulling over the same decisions. Players are always a contentious issue.

They were saved that year by the performances of Ronaldinho and then when Davids arrived who acted as a sort of a catalyst. Many of the players though were offloaded at the nd of that season and the have gone on to be a much better team this year. The likes of Cocu, Kluivert, did Overmars also leave? Zenden had left the year before I think.

In my opinion, Barca still have far too many connections to Dutch football. They tend to over rely on it, and the relationship is unreal. For example, how many Dutch players and managers have ever worked for Real. The relationship started with Cruijff who with Neeskens loeft Ajax for mercenary money in 1973, the year before the world cup in which "total" football appeared. That relationship proved useful at the time, and has proven useful since on occasion, but at times, I think it can be a burden. Having 6 or 7 Dutch players in a squad as well as a Dutch manager is a bit overboard. Is it the Dutch national team or the Catalonian national team? To me, it should be the latter.

Redspider

thejollyrodger

i watched most of it... missed it last time. it was a great show. Barca have such a unique culture. the club is massive ! I couldnt belive it. Yeah, big reliance on Holland though.

Makaveli

redspider wrote:

In my opinion, Barca still have far too many connections to Dutch football. They tend to over rely on it, and the relationship is unreal. For example, how many Dutch players and managers have ever worked for Real. The relationship started with Cruijff who with Neeskens loeft Ajax for mercenary money in 1973, the year before the world cup in which "total" football appeared. That relationship proved useful at the time, and has proven useful since on occasion, but at times, I think it can be a burden. Having 6 or 7 Dutch players in a squad as well as a Dutch manager is a bit overboard. Is it the Dutch national team or the Catalonian national team? To me, it should be the latter.

Redspider

They currently have two Dutch players. Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Marc Van Bommell who just signed. At the end of the 03/04 season they got rid of Kluivert, Reizeger, Cocu and Overmars. Rijkaard and Henk Ten Cate are the only Dutch people on the staff I think. Cruyff still has a big influence on the club though. They have had three of four Dutch managers in ther history afaik and three of them have won La Liga, so it hasn't been a bad relationship.

thejollyrodger

how did the big dutch barca connection start anyways ?

Drag00n79

Draupnir wrote:

That was a great show. Fully worth staying up late for and ending up absolutely knackered here in work.Im just sorry I didnt tape it now.

It is on again! If you have Sky Digital, BBC Four is showing it. If any of you missed it, I would advise you to see it or record it.

DOCUMENTARY: Storyville
Channel: BBC 4
Date: Friday 24th June 2005
Time: 23:45 to 01:10 (starting in 11 days)
Duration: 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Barca - The Inside Story.
Documentary following the fortunes of Barcelona Football Club over a year of crisis. With poor performances and spiralling debts, reform of the club is urgently needed. The new board, under the leadership of the charismatic Joan Laporta, attempt to turn an old fashioned Catalan family affair into a global football business.

Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=58187
Copyright ©1999-2004 GipsyMedia Ltd.

Raskolnikov

Overmars retired due to injury, the rest of the Dutch players were sold/released.

Draupnir

Ah crap I dont have digital right now. Oh well.

Just to follow up on RedSpiders post. Correct me if Im wrong, but im 99% sure Bohs is a members club the same way Barcelona is.

eirebhoy

Shamrok wrote:

It is on again! If you have Sky Digital, BBC Four is showing it. If any of you missed it, I would advise you to see it or record it.

DOCUMENTARY: Storyville
Channel: BBC 4
Date: Friday 24th June 2005
Time: 23:45 to 01:10 (starting in 11 days)
Duration: 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Barca - The Inside Story.
Documentary following the fortunes of Barcelona Football Club over a year of crisis. With poor performances and spiralling debts, reform of the club is urgently needed. The new board, under the leadership of the charismatic Joan Laporta, attempt to turn an old fashioned Catalan family affair into a global football business.

Jesus, thats at least the 4th time its going to be shown now.

Third_Echelon

Draupnir wrote:

That was a great show. Fully worth staying up late for and ending up absolutely knackered here in work.

Im just sorry I didnt tape it now.

Yeah i stayed up to watch this as well... and now im battling to keep my eyes open in work at the moment :eek:

Great documentary. One of the best I have seen about football anyway. As my favourite spanish club, this was a great insight into the workings of the club. My respect for laporta has gone way up anyway. He's done a great job at the club. Im hoping to try and get to a game next season at some stage....
That'll be 2 trips to my meccas for next year so... Goodison and Camp Nou

Jivin Turkey

thejollyrodger wrote:

how did the big dutch barca connection start anyways ?

The Dutch connection started with Cruyff, who was both a player and a manager. He went down in history as the manager who led Barca to their only CL (or EC) victory.

Ironically a Dutchman scored the winning goal, Ronald Koeman, with a free kick in the last minute of extra time, anybody else remember Gianluca Vialli almost bursting into tears the second the free was awarded? It was only going to end up in one place.

However, Barca went Dutch mad when they appointed Louis Van Gaal. Im sure Cruyff had something to do with his appointment, but having said than Van Gaal had managed the great Ajax team of the nineties.

Van Gaal then pretty much tried to attempt to make a copy of that team that he had done so well with at Ajax, and signed hordes of Dutch players to make it work, Reizeger, Overmars, Cocu, Zenden, Kluivert, Van Bronkhorst, the De Boer twins, Im sure Im probably missing a few as well!

He tried to adopt the same formation, kind of like a 3-1-3-3, and felt that Dutch players were best suited and best understood this.

redspider

Yes, the Dutch connection has been strong, and succesful.

BBC: "Barcelona won their first La Liga crown in 1929 and enjoyed a golden period under Dutch coach Johan Cruijff when they won the title four straight times between 1991 and 1994. In fact, Barca's last seven league victories have all come under the guidance of Dutch coaches with Louis van Gaal enjoying success between Cruyff and Rijkaard."

I think there are problems when too many Dutch players have been signed. Notably this season there is only one Dutch player in Barca's first 22:


1. VALDÉS
25. JORQUERA
28. RUBEN

DEFENDERS
2. BELLETTI
4. MÁRQUEZ
5. PUYOL
12. BRONCKHORST
15. EDMÍLSON
19. FERNANDO
23. OLEGUER

MIDFIELD PLAYERS
3. MOTTA
6. XAVI
10. RONALDINHO
14. GERARD
18. GABRI
20. DECO
24. INIESTA
22. ALBERTINI

FORWARDS
7. LARSSON
8. GIULY
9. ETO'O
11. MAXI


The classic Ajax system is 3-3-4, with the two outside players moving up front and also back to midfield, so it can be 3-5-2 when defending.

Redspider

DamoRed

Fascinating!

Hard to think of such a massive club giving access like that. For me, it showed what genuine guy, Laporta is. Very down to earth and no bull**** about him. Well at least not that we saw. One bit in particular illustrated that he's an ordinary person in an extraordinary privileged position. When he and a group of directors were inside the stadium at night and he went and shouted out "BARCA!" It filled the Nou Camp for that one moment alone. He said he'd always wanted to do that. I'm sure that would have struck a chord with thousands of fans.

Their passion for Barca was clearly evident. However, one of the directors got married on the day of an away game! How inconsiderate! Haven't they ever heard of midweek weddings?

I didn't even know this was on, I only saw the very start by accident. But as soon as I saw what it was, it was a must watch. I've liked Barcelona before, but this has given a new level of respect for an icon of football.


Damo

Draupnir

your man would get slaughtered on Soccer AM for having a wedding during the football season. in my opinion, the odd years are there for a reason and that reason aint the winter olympics.

redspider

Draupnir wrote:

Just to follow up on RedSpiders post. Correct me if Im wrong, but im 99% sure Bohs is a members club the same way Barcelona is.

Yes, I checked it on their website and it seems that they are. I dont know the exact details of the members system in either club, but there has been research put into this by some of the universities in England and they are very positive about the approach, I seem tio recall. ie: members having the ability to vote for the leadership, etc.

In a way, its a bit like the shares of a club being available on the stock market, but its not exactly the same, as with the stock market, money doesnt have to be put in each year and the shares are more liquid and dont have set rates.

Overall, I am estimating that there are more clubs in Spain with this members system than in England or Ireland.

Btw, a season membership for Bohs is eur 300 whereas its around eur 700 for Barcelona. At that rate Barcelona seems good value and Bohs seems expensive.


Another topic raised by the programme was the affect of player's agents. I think they are having a negative effect on the sport and are essentially sucking money out. If clubs would band together and include players/agents costs as one, then agents would be more competitive, as for a player, the cheaper the slice the agent gets, the more the player will get.

I have a gut feeling that the bungs of the past were transformed into large fees for agents who "somehow" paid some of it back via a back-hander to managers, admin staff, etc. For example, the 1.5m that Kluivert's agent got was huge and Kewell is in court over his agents fees, against Lineker. There is also the example of Alex Ferguson and his agent son getting rich off the back of it. It just seems all too cosy to me to have agents getting large wads, essentially handed out by managers decisions, for there to be no underhand stuff at all. I'm sure there are plenty of bank accounts in off-shore locations that are well linedand managers have learned from the George Graham days to hide their bungs better.

Redspider