Barcelona has had a strategic sports plan in place since 2003, and it is the first city in Europe to have such a project agreed by the entire sports sector of the city. Barcelona has more than 1,000 sports entities and clubs and is a marvellous place for doing outdoor sports. Urban projects put in place in recent years have made natural spaces such as beaches and parks available to all where you can find petanque courts, basketball hoops and table tennis tables. Streets are also sports friendly with bicycle lanes and hiking and jogging routes.

FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA

In 1899, Hans Gamper together with eleven other soccer enthusiasts founded Futbol Club Barcelona. During the most difficult periods in the country's history it has been Catalonia's flag representing the Catalan people's desire for freedom, and this symbolic role is still closely linked to the nature of the club and widespread among its members and supporters. The club's standing stems from the impressive list of trophies it has won and which makes it into one of the most successful club sides in the world. Apart from the Intercontinental Cup, the display cases in the club's museum hold all the trophies that the club has ever competed for.

R.C.D. ESPANYOL

Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona is one of the oldest clubs in the Spanish football league. The Sociedad Española de Football was set up in 1900 in the lecture halls of the University of Barcelona and the name was given to the club by its founder and first chairman, Ángel Rodríguez. Its chief identifying feature was that all its players were Catalans or had been born in the rest of Spain, unlike other teams which were mostly made up of people from England and other foreign countries.