Barca:
A People's Passion by Jimmy Burns (1999)
JIMMY BURNS hopes that this book will be of interest to "readers who have never been to a football match in their lives".
This is a tall order, but, just as with Barcelona's motto, "more than a football club", this aims to be more than a football book. It is the passionate and often romantic story of one of the biggest clubs in the world, whose stadium, visited by tourists from across the world, holds 120,000.
Burns portrays the complicated nature of the fans' identity as Catalonians which lies behind their passionate support for their club. Indeed, the hatred between Madrid and Barcelona mirrors the North-South divide in Britain. The Barca fans do not sing the Spanish national anthem; they sing their own Catalonian songs. They have continually felt divided from Spain as a country, which is arguably like how Northern people in this country felt about Wembley, the spiritual home of football, being in the South.
The story is told through the eyes of many diverse people Burns has interviewed; the book starts with a group of English people who are travelling to see the match to end all matches - Barcelona v Real Madrid. This gives you an interesting perspective, as do the views of people from Barcelona, newspaper reports and articles. The book is can get and quite dense at times, but nevertheless, there is a fascinating tale to be found within its pages.
Review by Sam Hawcroft