FC Barcelona to promote Catalonia in Manchester

FC Barcelona will be taking advantage of the Champions League match with Manchester City next February 18 to promote Catalan culture and Catalonia as a tourist destination at two events in the English city being organised by the Club in collaboration with the Ramon Llull Institute and the Catalan Tourist Board, respectively. 

On Monday February 17, Catalonia will be presented as a tourist destination at an event being organised by FC Barcelona in association with the Catalan Tourist Board and including a lecture by the director of the FCB Economic Department, Jordi Moix. The day after, there will be a celebration of Barça and Catalan culture, the main event being a lecture by the vice-president of the FCB Institutional and International Department, Carles Vilarrubí.

Promotion of Catalan culture

Vilarrubí’s speech is titled “Barça, Sport, Culture and Education” and will be on Tuesday February 18 at 10.15 at the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures at Manchester University. The FC Barcelona vice-president will be welcomed by the director of the Ramon Llull Institute, Àlex Susanna, and Professor Keith Brown, vice-president and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. The aim of “Barça, Sport, Culture and Education” will be to explain how Barça has been an instrument for recovering the Catalan identity and integrating newcomers. It will also be looking in detail at the way young people are trained and educated at La Masia not just as athletes, but also to learn to observe the social values that the Club is so famous for upholding, which include teamwork, effort, respect, humility and tolerance, and to show how Barça has been so closely associated with Catalan culture throughout its history.

This conference is yet another initiative forming part of the agreement signed by the Club and the Ramon Llull Institute in September 2012 to promote Catalan culture around the world. Previous events have been held in Amsterdam this season, and Glasgow and Paris in last season’s edition of the Champions League. There are two main purposes for doing this. First, to coordinate the respective potentialities of the two institutions as ambassadors for Catalan language and culture and the values associated with sport and the Catalan identity, and secondly, to create new bonds between the network of universities offering Catalan Studies abroad and the network of FCB supporters clubs, in order to encourage them to embark on joint initiatives.

Once the lecture is over, the same venue will be used for a series of other activities related with Catalan culture. The programme of events is as follows:

11.15. Tasting of Catalan products organised by the Patronat de Turisme Costa Brava Pirineu de Girona.

12.00. Lecture on “Sporting Culture and National Consciousness through Football and the Olympic Games” by Dr Louise Johnson of the University of Sheffield.

13.00. Clara Sanabras in concert, with Harvey Brough and Antonio Romero.

14.00. Catalan Language Class by Àlex Castells, teacher of Catalan language and culture at the University of Manchester.

Tourist destination

The day before, on Monday 17 from 17.30, the 1894 Club Suite at the Etihad Stadium will be the venue for a presentation of Catalonia as a tourist destination and which is being organised by FC Barcelona in association with the Catalan Tourist Board. The first lecture will be given by Vicenç Capdevila, the director of the Catalan Tourist Board in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The presentation will also involve an institutional speech by FC Barcelona board member Jordi Moix who will be speaking to representatives of travel agents and the travel sector about the attractions of Catalonia as a tourist destination and how the international projection of FC Barcelona has helped to support this.

The FCB director of operations, Emili Sabadell, will also be presenting to agents and tour operators the different options available on the club’s own facilities.