Penya Union Blaugrana

Infobox Company
company_name = Penya Union Blaugrana
company_
company_type = FC Barcelona UK Penya
foundation = 2007
location = Perth
homepage = [http://www.penyaunionblaugrana.co.uk/ Penya Union Blaugrana] [http://www.penyaunionblaugrana.co.uk/forum Penya Forum]

[http://www.penyaunionblaugrana.co.uk Penya Union Blaugrana] is an official FC Barcelona UK penya.

History

The Beginning

It was originally the idea of Robert Murphy and Colin Scrimgeour and the dream of many UK Cules. There had been a lot of talk on Barca forums about creating a Penya to cover all Barca fans in the UK, but no one had taken the initiative to create one so on 2007-01-05 these two mad Cules decided they would take those first steps. 2007-01-06 saw the creation of the Penya's first forum. The first step being to create a place where fans of FC Barcelona could come and chat about this football club. A few of the people to start using the Penya forum had met on other Barca forums and had also met up in Barcelona while visiting the Camp Nou for matches.

Negotiations

Contact was first made with FC Barcelona on 2007-01-09, confirming the intent to become an official Penya. A list of details was sent to the OAB, including a list of Barca Socis pledging to become members of the future Penya to show proof of commitment. After being given the green light by FCB an official application was submitted to the club three days later.

All correspondence with the club was done in Catalan, which helped speed everything up but it was still a frustrating process ironing out some of the problems that came up at first. The problems included having to change the original name chosen for the Penya they were all resolved in the end and it was then just a case of waiting for the Barca Penyes department to come to their decision.

The Creation

While waiting to hear back from FC Barcelona a four man committee was set up to plan the running of the future Penya. These four positions were filled by Robert Murphy President, Colin Scrimgeour Vice President, Tony Hall Treasurer and Adam Brown Secretary.

Work started on a website to work alongside the [forum and on 4th February the Penya domain name was purchased which lead to a temporary website being uploaded six days later. 19th February saw the founding of Penya Union Blaugrana Ltd, a non profit company to oversee the running of the Penya. The creation of the non profit company also paved the way for the final application to FC Barcelona being submitted on 22nd February .

On 2007-03-27 came the news that everyone involved in this project was hoping to hear. FC Barcelona had accepted our application to become an Official Penya, so the birth of [http://www.penyaunionblaugrana.co.uk Penya Union Blaugrana] was complete. After hundreds of hours of hard work the dream had finally become a reality, although this was really just the start of things to come.

Membership

After setting up a bank account, the Penya officially started taking applications for membership on 2007-04-05. Initially the application to FC Barcelona had included the names of fourteen people committed to joining up, but since then the number had increased to twenty five founding members and three honorary members (see below).

2007 was a great year all round for the PUB and we ended the year with membership standing at 50 members along with 3 honorary members.

Gary Lineker

On Friday 25th May 2007 Penya President Robert Murphy received a letter from ex Barca striker Gary Lineker accepting an invitation to join as an honorary member.

The Scotland Tour 2007

The month of July saw FC Barcelona arrive in Scotland to play 2 pre season friendlies. Firstly against historic foes Dundee Utd at Tannadice on July 26th and in front of 50,000+ fans at Murrayfield against Hearts on July 28th.The tour gave all the UK based Penya Cules the opportunity to meet up and see a couple of games on home soil. This tour was a complete success for the Penya all round including the following:
* Met up with Dundee Utd fans at Frews bar pre match and post match
* Fans pic appears on the front page of the Evening Telegraph
* Fans gained entry to 2 training sessions
* Had a meeting with FCB board member Albert Perrin and Txiki Begiristain
* Had its biggest meet-up yet in the Haymarket pub in Edinburgh pre match
* Went live on Edinburgh radio station talk107
* Had new members sign up to the Penya and forum

Penya Flag

October 2007 saw the decision taken for the PUB to have its own flag to take to games. Due to the kind offer from one of the members the financing was arranged and members came up with designs for the flag.

After a vote between members, a design was chosen and will now be made up hopefully in time for a debut at el clasico in December 2007.

The Penya flag made its debut at the mini estadi for the Barca B 4-2 win against Europa on Sat 22nd December 2007. The following night it made a brief showing at the Camp Nou for el clasico.

Penya Logo

Since the Penya started the amount of members has doubled in size, and at the start of November 2007 it was asked if the Penya could adopt a more traditional logo. So a vote was put to the members to either adopt a more traditional logo or keep the existing one. In the end the vote swung the way of the more traditional one and that shall be the logo for our future.

Penya Blog

A PUB blog has been started and can be read at http://penyaub.blogspot.com/

Members

Penya Committee Members

Penya Honorary Members

Penya Aim

Primary aim

The purpose of the Penya is to unite and expand the fan base of FC Barcelona within the United Kingdom, encouraging our members to attend matches at the Camp Nou and elsewhere, and to join FC Barcelona as socis. The Penya is also committed to assisting UK based fans of FC Barcelona in their travel plans and ticketing arrangements wherever possible and also to furthering the knowledge and appreciation of Catalunya and its cultural heritage.

Non UK residents

There are many Cules around the world not fortunate enough to have an active Penya in their country. So in these cases [http://www.penyaunionblaugrana.co.uk Penya Union Blaugrana] is happy to have them join up, as in accordance to FC Barcelona rules.

Penya Union Blaugrana is also committed to maintaining a website and forum for its members.

Visca el Barça i Visca Catalunya

Motto

On August 12th 2007 Penya Union Blaugrana members voted in favour of the Penya taking on a motto.

Tant se val d'on venim

It is taken from the Barca himne and translates as "It doesn't matter where you come from".

External links

* [http://www.penyaunionblaugrana.co.uk Penya Union Blaugrana Website]
* [http://www.penyaunionblaugrana.co.uk/forum Penya Union Blaugrana Forum]
* [http://www.fcbarcelona.com Official FC Barcelona Website]
* Supporters of FC Barcelona