Barça Rewind: 84 years and waiting...

On 19 March 1936, FC Barcelona played a midweek friendly against local team Unió Esportiva Sants, played to raise money to support the poor in the slum districts of Sants and Hostafrancs.

In those days, Barça competed in both the Spanish and the Catalan leagues and Sants were one of the stronger teams in the latter, although Barça usually beat them fairly easily. But as this was an exhibition match, they fielded a number of reserves and not helped by the dreadful weather and even more dreadful pitch, the game ended 1-1.

The curious thing is that the match programme stated that ‘in the event of a draw, a further game shall be played to decide who gets the trophy’. Penalty shootouts were a concept of the future.

Nobody knows what ever became of that enigmatic cup, but there is no record of the replay ever taking place. UE Sants, currently struggling against relegation from the Third Division, still exist, so perhaps, once football is back in action and the clubs have dealt with their backlog of fixtures, is this another game that needs to be decided?