The city of Udine will host a triangular tournament this Saturday featuring Udinese, Nottingham Forest and FC Barcelona. The format, which Barça have not experienced for 24 years, will consist of two 45-minute matches against the English and Italian sides respectively. It will be the inaugural edition of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Cup, with the blaugrana one of the three participating teams.

Although this format is uncommon nowadays, Barça have taken part in a number of triangular tournaments throughout their history. The last came 24 years ago.

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Against Parma and Ajax in 2002  

FC Barcelona's last triangular tournament came during the 2002/03 pre-season in Amsterdam. On that occasion, the matches lasted 90 minutes and were played on separate days. Louis van Gaal's side faced tournament hosts Ajax and Italian club Parma. In the opening game against Parma, Barça claimed a 4–2 victory, with recent signing Juan Román Riquelme scoring twice. Two days later, they were beaten by an Ajax side led by a young Rafael van der Vaart.

In June 2001, at the end of the season, Barça organised a triangular tournament in tribute to Urruti. The club invited Espanyol and Real Sociedad to the Miniestadi, two clubs for whom the Basque goalkeeper had also played. The tournament consisted of three 30-minute matches between the three teams. Barça lifted the trophy after drawing with Real Sociedad and beating Espanyol 1–0 in a friendly derby.

Throughout the 1990s, summer triangular tournaments were a common way of preparing for the new season. Between 1990 and 2000, Barça took part in seven such tournaments, held in Oviedo, Marbella, Tenerife, Salamanca, Florence, Amsterdam and Barcelona. All were played during pre-season.

The first, before the 1950s

FC Barcelona's first triangular tournament took place in June 1947 in Palma de Mallorca. Both matches were played at Es Fortí, Mallorca's stadium, which had opened in 1945 and remained the club's home until 1999.

Barça won the tournament after beating Mallorca 3–0 in the opening match and Atlético Madrid 6–0 in the second. Manuel Badenes finished as the tournament's top scorer with six goals in just two matches.

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