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156 pages

English

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Ten Big Ears is the story of one of the biggest football clubs in the world, told through an eyewitness account that spans four decades. The story begins and ends with Barcelona in disgrace and threatened with a ban from UEFA competition. In between is a fascinating account of some of the greatest football the world has ever seen, including all five of the club's European Cup Final triumphs. Find out what it was like to attend Barcelona games in European club competitions in six different countries. Drawing on wider historical and cultural references to provide an alternative and quirky take on the rollercoaster that is Barca, this is almost certainly the only football book to reference philosophy, classical antiquity, religion, popular music and reality television dance shows. Written by a fan of another football club, Ten Big Ears is a personal and occasionally satirical account that commemorates the 30th anniversary of the club's first European Cup win in 1992. It is also a unique record of how watching the game has changed.

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Spain

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Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	25 avril 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781801502542
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Aly Mir, 2022
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801501323
eBook ISBN 9781801502542
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Xi and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
2. Tarzan, Wolf and the Animals
3. Following the Flight of the Sparrow
4. The Adventures of Tintin and the Little Plastic Man
5. Philosophical about Athens
6. Long Pants
7. N ez the Wiser?
8. Doing it up Brown
9. Gladiators
10. Strictly Football
11. Babunski s Badges
12. Careless Hands
13. More than a Club
14. Date with Destiny
15. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous
16. Super Bronca : Political Bust-ups
17. La gent blaugrana : Bar a Fans
18. Conclusion: Mortgage to Catalonia
Bibliography
Photos
Acknowledgements
FIRSTLY, I would like to thank Jane at Pitch for publishing this book.
I would also like to acknowledge the Barcelona supporters who contributed with their comments and agreed to be quoted in the book: Angelo, Anna, Cesar, Chris, Florin, Geoff, Joan, Jorge, Kuba, Mubarik, Naheed, Raimon and Xi. Assistance was also provided by Eduard, Jason and Peter. Thanks should also go to a couple of my former work colleagues, Tom and Alan, for their memories of two contrasting Barcelona European semi-finals. My fellow Leeds United supporter Will was also very helpful with his comments on the manuscript.
I am also grateful for having been invited to make a spoken contribution to the Dutch film Bestemming Wembley made by Wasserman and Captains Studio and broadcast on Ziggo Sport about Ronald Koeman s winning goal at the 1992 European Cup Final. Thanks to Stefan at Wasserman for providing permission for me to describe that day s filming in such detail.
I ought to finally thank my wife Josie for showing me how to turn on a computer. Perhaps one day she ll explain how to turn it off.
Introduction
MAY 2022 marks 30 years since FC Barcelona s first European Cup win, arguably the greatest moment in the club s 123-year history. In 2017, I was invited to return to the venue of that famous event, Wembley Stadium, to participate in a television documentary commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 1992 final. The idea for writing Ten Big Ears came from that afternoon s filming, starting off as a study of Barcelona s five European Cup/ Champions League triumphs, before evolving into a first-hand account of not just those finals but the club s wider participation in UEFA competition, including the Super Cup and Cup Winners Cup.
While touching on the club s early history, the story begins in earnest with my first attendance at a Barcelona game in 1983, before looking at 24 matches in European competition. The last of the games to get the full eyewitness treatment is the 2019 Champions League semi-final, but the book also considers the massive financial, political and footballing crises that hit FC Barcelona in 2020 and 2021. While the difficulties were partly caused by years of overspending and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, this book will argue that the crises also resulted from the club overstretching itself in the quest for European glory, making a study of the team s performances in UEFA competitions all the more important.
Central to Ten Big Ears is an eyewitness approach, providing an account from direct observation of football matches I have attended. When I worked as a leader of guided walking tours in central London it was sometimes said that I had a photographic memory. Sadly, that is far from true, and consequently some details of the matches have been checked by consulting written reports or film footage during the writing of this book. However, the emphasis is on personal recollection, to try and give a flavour of what it was like to be in the stadiums during these sometimes epic encounters.
Different to existing football club histories, what follows is an alternative and occasionally satirical account, drawing on a wide variety of themes, ranging from Greek philosophy to reality television dance shows, presenting a deliberately quirky take on the Bar a story. The book is written by a fan of another football club, and does not represent the views of FC Barcelona or any of its supporters clubs or associated organisations.
1
Xi and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Saturday, 28 November 2015, Hotel Avenida Palace, Barcelona
LOCATED NEAR two of Barcelona s most famous streets, Paseo de Gracia and Las Ramblas, the Hotel Avenida Palace was the perfect venue for a celebratory dinner. One of the 130 guests, Zhenzhong Xi (known as Xi), had travelled all the way from the People s Republic of China by motorcycle. The most direct route overland from China to Barcelona is about 12,000km, but Xi had chosen an even longer journey, which the gauge on his motorbike measured at 39,070km, so that he could meet certain people on the way. Even though the food at the dinner was excellent, Xi hadn t ridden his motorbike the equivalent of the equatorial circumference of Earth just for something to eat. What was it that had encouraged him to travel such a vast distance, and who were the people that warranted such detours?
With swept-back black hair, spectacles and a goatee beard, Xi looked like a modern-day Chinese philosopher, except for one item of clothing that revealed the purpose of his epic journey - a blue and dark red football shirt. Xi had crossed all of Asia and Europe to see his destination s local football team, FC Barcelona, and some of the people he arranged to meet on his journey were supporters of that club.
Xi was born in 1985, 30 years before the dinner, in Changsha, Hunan province of the People s Republic of China. In 1999 at the age of 14 he became a supporter of FC Barcelona, an interest stimulated by the club s Dutch star Patrick Kluivert who had arrived the previous year. When asked if there was a particular performance from Kluivert which prompted his interest, Xi replied, I can t remember. I know it from a newspaper, because we couldn t watch La Liga [Spanish football league] matches on TV before 2003. In 2015 he finally decided to go to watch Barcelona play at its Camp Nou stadium for real, as opposed to on television, and to travel all the way by motorcycle. Equally surprising was the fact that Xi embarked on such a long journey only ten days after his wedding. Xi departed on 14 May 2015 and during a journey that lasted six months he passed through 21 countries, meeting members of Barcelona penyes (supporters clubs) in many of them.
At Camp Nou, Xi was officially received by Josep Barnils, director of FC Barcelona s Social Commission, and Antoni Freire representing the international organisation of Barcelona supporters clubs, before watching a match against Real Sociedad. In the evening Xi attended the dinner, which was organised by Penya Blaugrana London (meaning Blue and Red Supporters Club London , or more accurately blue and dark red). The meal was merely one of a whole number of events that weekend, including the match against Real Sociedad in the main stadium, a futsal five-a-side game at the Palau Blaugrana and a Bar a B fixture (the club s second team) in the Mini Estadi. The weekend trip was organised by Penya president Eduard Manas and the rest of the PBL board to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the London branch s formation. The main event, however, was the dinner where PBL members from the UK were joined by representatives of Barcelona penyes from across the world, including Argentina, Cuba, France, Greece, Morocco, Poland and the United States of America.
Speaking to the diners in excellent English, helped by the fact that his wife was a teacher of the language, Xi explained that this was his first trip to Europe and that while he used a bicycle in China it would take too long travelling to Europe with that, so he came by motorbike. I asked Xi what his new wife thought about him leaving only ten days after their wedding and he told me that she was a little bit angry , but added that he would be coming back in early December and hoped it would all be okay when I got home . I wished him luck with that. Xi told me that he intended to donate his motorbike to FC Barcelona and fly back to China. He also gave the club a large flag signed by members of the different penyes he had met on the journey. When asked if he had encountered any major problems or unpleasant incidents during his epic motorbike ride, Xi replied, Nothing, everything made my life happier and stronger.
The vast function room that hosted the dinner in the Hotel Avenida Palace contained a number of round tables, each with places for ten people to sit and eat, with a raised stage at one end. On this stage was a silver object, 62cm tall, weighing 7.5kg. Looking in need of a good polish after all the hands that had touched it, this was the UEFA Champions League trophy, formerly known in English as the European Champion Clubs Cup or European Cup for short. A few months before the dinner, Barcelona had won its fifth European Cup, and for one of the guests the trophy was