The new regulatory text for Barça supporters clubs came into force on March 26 after it was accepted by the Board of Directors. The new regulations are the result of the joint efforts of the Supporters Clubs Advisory Council, the Social Commission and the FC Barcelona Board of Directors.

The new text modifies some aspects of the supporters club movement, such as the requirements for creating a new club, organisation and representation by FC Barcelona in supporters club events and supporters club zones.

The regulations have been brought in line with the FC Barcelona statutes that were passed by Ordinary General Assembly on August 19, 2009, and specify certain aspects of the supporters club movement that were given a more general treatment in the previous text.

Adaptation of the regulations to the FC Barcelona statutes of 2009

 

Article 15 of the statutes of August 19, 2009, introduced one of the changes. This established that supporters clubs, once constituted in accordance with current regulations and recognised by the Board of Directors as FC Barcelona supporters clubs, will have all the inherent rights and obligations of said condition, in terms of their integration in the social life of the Club.

Meanwhile, article 9.2 of the statutes of July 23, 2001, indicated that once constituted in accordance with current regulations and recognised by the Board of Directors as FC Barcelona supporters clubs, the Board of Directors would stipulate the rights they could enjoy in terms of their integration in the social life of the Club.

Requisites to constitute a supporters club

 

The previous supporters clubs regulations of the year 2004 already established a series of requisites, namely, a) that the president of the supporters club had to be a member of the Club, b) that no person could ever be the member of the board of more than one supporters club at the same time and c) that in the case of supporters clubs with an address in Catalonia, half of the members of the board or five members of the supporters club also had to be members of the Club (art. 4.2).

The new text includes other conditions. The most important are as follows: the supporters club must possess its own headquarters, whether owned or rented, and if the headquarters are based in a bar or restaurant, the owner of the business cannot, in any case, also be the president or a member of the Board of Directors of the supporters club, no supporters club may share an address or headquarters with another, PO boxes will not be accepted as addresses of supporters clubs, apart from exceptional cases, the minimum distance between the headquarters of any two supporters clubs has to be 1 km and the supporters club must designate one person as the Club interlocutor, who must necessarily be a member of the supporters club’s Board of Directors (art. 4.3).

 

Minimum number of members

 

For the first time, the supporters club regulations include an obligation whereby supporters clubs must have a minimum number of members in order to be constituted. The number of members will depend on the number of people registered as residents of the village, town, city, municipality, etc. (art. 4.3.c).

INHABITANTS	MINIMUM MEMBERS
Up to 250 inhabitants	12
From 250 to 1,000	30
From 1,001 to 2,000	40
From 2,001 to 5,000	50
From 5.001 to 10,000	60
From 10,001 to 25,000	75
More than 25.001	85

Protection of image and signs of identity that belong to the Club

 

These new regulations take great care to protect the image and signs of identity that belong to FC Barcelona, use of which can only be made after making an application and then receiving express authorisation in writing from the Club (art. 2.4 and art. 2.5).

Similarly, art. 6.2 expressly indicates that supporters clubs cannot organise competitions, schools, clinics or similar that use the image of FC Barcelona without prior and written permission from the Club. Supporters clubs that want to make use of them or wish to organise a sports event of such a nature must contact the supporters clubs department. Any unauthorised use of the FC Barcelona image can lead to withdrawal of the supporters club as an official Club supporters club (art. 7).

  Celebrations outside of Catalonia, on match weekends

 

The supporters clubs department had already recommended that events and celebrations held outside of Catalonia should coincide with away matches played by FC Barcelona, and now this new regulation has been established more specifically. Now, all supporters clubs based outside of Catalonia that want to organise an event or request the presence of Club representatives, must do this to coincide with an away trip of any of the Barça teams, evidently to the closest location to their own. This favours the representation of the Club being the best possible (art. 8.5).

In the case of the 50 ^th and 25 ^th anniversary of any supporters clubs, the Club will designate the best possible representation, always in consideration of the institutional agenda (art. 8.11.1).

  Change of zones in area 2

 

The supporters clubs in area 2 have modified their zone numbers, and now instead of being numbered from 22 to 33, are numbered from 22 to 34 (art. 10.3), as detailed below:

- Zone 22. Extremadura

- Zone 23. Castile La Mancha

- Zone 24. Castile and Leon

- Zone 25. Canaries

- Zone 26. Galicia

- Zone 27. La Rioja, Aragon and Navarra

- Zone 28. Madrid

- Zone 29. Murcia

- Zone 30. Euskadi

- Zone 31. Asturias and Cantabria

- Zone 32. Andalusia West

- Zone 33. Andalusia Centre

- Zone 34. Andalusia East

Although the previous regulations were successfully applied, these modifications seek to improve operations and relations between the Club and its supporters clubs and adapt the regulations to the reformed statutes issued last summer.