President Joan Laporta opens the Barça Academy World Cup 2022

FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta officially opened the 9th edition of  in a ceremony on Monday morning local in the presence of 1,200 children and 3,000 family members from all over the world. The tournament began at midday local time and brings together 104 teams from 15 different countries representing 26 Barça Academies and Barça Academy Camps. The tournament representative and former Barça Academy player Eric Garcia was also present for the tournament launch ahead of his training session with the first team.

During the inauguration, Joan Laporta took the time to thanks the families who have come to Barcelona from all over the world for the competition at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper. The Barça president also highlighted the importance of the Barça Academy system around the world in promoting Barça's style of play initiated by Johan Cruyff and developed by Frank Rijkaard, Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique. He also had words for the children suffering due to the current war in Ukraine. 

The ceremony comprised of various elements which promoted the Club's values and those of their sporting academies around the world: humility, ambition, effort, strength, respect and teamwork. The event ended with words from three youngsters from the Barça Academy Barcelona, Barça Academy PRO Miami and the Barça Academy PRO Nueva York. 

The Barça Academy World Cup presented by Allianz 2022 will be played at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper until Thursday 14 April when the final will take place. The closing ceremony will be at the Estadi Johan Cruyff at 1.30pm CEST with tournament representative Jana Fernández in attendance.