FC Barcelona institutional vice-president Elena Fort took part on Wednesday in the event marking the 20th anniversary of the .cat domain, held at Barcelona’s Maritime Museum, where she reaffirmed the Club’s commitment to Catalan and its responsibility to promote Catalan language and culture across its global community.

Fort participated in the round-table discussion “The next 20 years: how will we live in Catalan in the digital world?”, alongside Rosa Romà, president of the Catalan Media Corporation (CCMA); Teresa Cabré, president of the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC); and Núria Ribas, president of Amical Wikimedia. The discussion, moderated by Laura Grau, addressed the future challenges facing the Catalan language in an increasingly digital and global environment.

During her contribution, the institutional vice-president stressed the importance of Barça continuing to present itself to the world through its own identity. “How do we explain who we are as Barça? Without any complexes, without any fear, by explaining who we are and that we want to share it,” Fort said.

This idea encapsulates FC Barcelona’s dual nature as an institution deeply rooted in Catalonia and, at the same time, as an organisation with a truly global presence. Fort argued that the Club’s international profile should not mean diluting what makes it unique. Rather, it is precisely through its identity, language and culture that Barça should present itself to the world.

A powerful global platform for Catalan

FC Barcelona’s digital dimension was also a key part of the discussion. According to Fort, the worldwide reach of the Club’s channels and their ability to connect with millions of people bring with them a special responsibility in the way Barça communicates and represents its identity.

Catalan is part of that responsibility not merely as a symbolic element, but as a language through which the Club expresses itself, builds community and shares who it is with the world.

This commitment also involves making the use of Catalan a natural part of everyday life at the Club and of its relationship with its athletes. Fort highlighted the role that players arriving from other countries can play when they begin to understand, learn or use Catalan. This process helps present the language not as a barrier, but as a gateway to the reality of both the Club and the country.

This is precisely one of the ideas behind “Parla blaugrana, parla català” (“Speak Barça, speak Catalan”), the campaign launched this same week featuring FC Barcelona athletes, which promotes Catalan as an everyday, shared language and also as a language that welcomes those who arrive at the Club.

A living language in 2046

Asked how she would like to see Catalan twenty years from now, Fort outlined a future defined by normality: one in which Catalan remains a living, useful language, present in new digital environments, and in which people arriving in Catalonia or at Barça see it as a language they too can make their own.

The institutional vice-president therefore stressed the need to continue using, explaining and sharing Catalan, as well as the responsibility of institutions with significant social and international reach to help ensure its continuity.

FC Barcelona’s presence at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of .cat reflects precisely this dimension. Alongside institutions connected to the media, knowledge and the digital world, Barça represents one of the major global platforms through which Catalan identity, language and culture can reach an international audience.

It is a responsibility the Club embraces in the conviction that Catalan identity and universality are not contradictory concepts: presenting itself to the world from Catalonia is also a way of sharing with a global community what makes Barça a unique institution.

Força Barça