FC Barcelona history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Barcelona#Birth_of_FC_Barcelona_.281899.E2.80.931922.29
On the day of yet another Real Madrid Barcelona "classico," I find the Wikipedia history of this most successful of all European teams interesting.  Like the Green Bay Packers, and a few other teams it is owned by individuals (in Barca case about 170,000).  US sports enthusiasts might not be familiar with some athletic clubs of Europe and South America.  Many of them field teams in many sports, including volleyball, basketball, swimming, tennis etc.  In addition, they serve as social clubs/meeting places for member/owners.  Clearly football is the main draw!

It would be as if the Green Bay Packers were an athletic/social club-one of whose sports offered is football.  While this is not the same everywhere (some European teams are corporately owned), it is different in many cases than in most US pro sports teams.  If the New York Athletic club owned the NY Giants, and it were a non profit.. maybe similar?  I can remember attending a track meet in Rio de Janeiro most of whose participants represented the then big four athletic clubs known more for football than anything else. (Vasco de Gama, Flamengo, Botafogo, Fluminense)

Barcelona crest/logo (source:Wikipedia)

Since its foundation the club has played with a crest. The club's original crest was a quartered diamond-shaped crest topped by the Crown of Aragon and the bat of King James, and surrounded by two branches, one of a laurel tree and the other a palm.^[92] In 1910 the club held a competition among its members to design a new crest. The winner was Carles Comamala, who at the time played for the club. Comamala's suggestion became the crest that the club wears today, with some minor variations. The crest consists of the St George Cross in the upper-left corner with the Catalan flag beside it, and the team colours at the bottom.^[92]

The blue and red colours of the shirt were first worn in a match against Hispania in 1900.^[93] Several competing theories have been put forth for the blue and red design of the Barcelona shirt. The son of the first president, Arthur Witty, claimed it was the idea of his father as the colours were the same as the Merchant Taylor's School team. Another explanation, according to author Toni Strubell, is that the colours are from Robespierre's First Republic. In Catalonia the common perception is that the colours were chosen by Joan Gamper and are those of his home team, FC Basel.^[94]