Futbol Club Barcelona is a Spanish professional football club based in Barcelona. The club first participated in a European competition in 1910, and from 1955 onwards spent every season in one or more European competitions. The first international cup they took part in was the Pyrenees Cup. The competition lasted from 1910 to 1914 and Barcelona won four out of five editions. From 1914 to the beginning of the Latin Cup in 1949, Barcelona did not participate in any international competitions. From the 1955–56 season onward, with the exception of 1956–57 (during the first Fairs Cup, because a Vienna XI withdrew from the competition), they are the only team to have played in the European competitions every year to date.
Barcelona has won the now defunct Cup Winners' Cup four times and Inter-Cities Fairs Cup three times, both tournament records. They also took part in the Latin Cup twice as champions of Spain, winning on both occasions, a record shared with Real Madrid and Milan. Though they did not manage to win the premier European Cup, now the UEFA Champions League, during the early decades of the competition, they have since won the trophy five times, with their first triumph in 1992.
Barcelona is second in the ranking of Europe's most successful clubs in terms of number of official international trophies won, behind Real Madrid. With the 2015 UEFA Super Cup victory in Tbilisi against Sevilla and the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup victory in Yokohama against River Plate, the Catalans raised their trophy haul to 22 international titles, the second largest output behind Real Madrid's 32. In the tables, "(H)" denotes home ground, "(A)" denotes away ground and "(N)" symbolises neutral ground. The first score is always Barcelona's.
Overall record
Legend: GF = Goals For. GA = Goals Against. GD = Goal Difference. Barcelona has won 22 international trophies, placing second in the all-time ranking after Real Madrid (32).
Pyrenees Cup
Barcelona began to play friendly games against teams from the neighbouring regions in France in 1904. Club president Arthur Witty organised the club's first trip abroad, which resulted in their first game against a non-Spanish team. On 1 May 1904, Barcelona defeated the French team Stade Olympien des Étudiants Toulousains.
By 1910, the international friendlies evolved into the Pyrenees Cup, a competition featuring teams from Languedoc, Le Midi, Aquitaine, Catalonia, and the Basque Country. At that time it was considered the finest competition open for participation. Five editions were played in total, with FC Barcelona winning four consecutive trophies from 1910 to 1913.
Latin Cup
In 1949, the football federations of Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal, came together and launched their own club competition, the Latin Cup, which was staged at the end of every season in a single host country. The competition featured two semi-finals, a third place play-off and a final. As La Liga champions in 1949, Barça represented Spain in the inaugural competition. They beat Reims 5–0 in their semi-final at Les Corts, before beating Sporting Lisbon 2–1 in the final at the Estadio Chamartín. Barça also played in and won the 1952 competition in Paris, beating Juventus 4–2 in the semi-final and then Nice 1–0 in the final. After the introduction of the European Cup, the Latin Cup was gradually discontinued and nowadays, while it is not considered an official tournament by UEFA, it is recognized by FIFA.
European Cup / Champions League
The European Cup was inaugurated in 1955, with Barcelona's arch-rivals Real Madrid winning the first five editions. In 1959, Barcelona entered this competition for the first time, after winning the 1958–59 La Liga season. Until the 1990s, the club had little success, apart from their runner-up places in 1961 and 1986. In 1992, Johan Cruyff's Dream Team won their first European Cup with a 1–0 win against Sampdoria. Since then, Barcelona has won the competition four additional times, in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015. Barcelona has established itself as one of the strongest sides in European competition, when measured in UEFA coefficients.