LIVING

FC Barcelona are currently enjoying the most successful era in their 112-year history, yet while captain Carles Puyol has been lifting trophy after trophy there is still one matter that the club’s board members are not quite satisfied with. Barça have won a staggering 12 titles in the last three years, they are current European and Spanish champions and widely regarded as the best club side of all time. The average attendance at the Camp Nou continues to rise this season, following the trend set in the four previous ones; in 2010-11, it stood at 79,390, the highest in Europe. So what could possibly be the problem?

It is something noticed by the thousands of tourists and foreign residents who visit the Camp Nou each week: they are blown away by the scintillating football and the imposing stadium but are left disappointed by the unexpectedly dull atmosphere. Indeed, the Camp Nou is often likened to a theatre, with spectators who expect to be entertained before they will show any enthusiasm about what they are watching.

This feature has not gone unnoticed by Barça’s board either, and the club, under president Sandro Rosell, has been considering ways to raise the decibels in the 98,000-seater stadium. After months of planning, a solution may have been found. The plan is to create a ‘Grada Jove’ or ‘Youth Stand’, that would accommodate 1,400 vocal supporters who would belong to a special group (yet to be formed) of 4,000 club members with access to half-price match tickets. The aim of the initiative is that these youngsters, in their enthusiasm, would influence the rest of the stadium to create an atmosphere similar to that already seen in many British grounds.

In late September this year, a General Assembly of FC Barcelona members voted in favour of creating a closed section for this group behind the goal of the north stand with 295 votes in favour, 198 against and 33 undecided.

Despite this support, the plans have caused a debate among some of the club’s most prominent figures; while Rosell and the majority of his directors support the idea, a section for youths to make more noise is not as innocent as it sounds. And someone who strongly opposes the idea is previous FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta, and with good reason.