The most watered-down Barcelona fandom in modern history

BarcelonaLamine Yamal's appeal to the Barça fans during a match is common. He usually does so after his individual plays, which get the crowd on their feet. Eric Garcia's doing so, with a suffering face, when the opposing team is putting pressure on Barça is even rarer. This latter situation It happened on Wednesday when Paris Saint-Germain was around 1-2 that finally ended up arriving.

Many voices that were present at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys complained on social networks about the coldness of the atmosphere, the lack of extra support from the public when Barça suffered in the second half and that at many times the ambient sound He was kidnapped by nearly 3,000 Paris Saint-Germain fans."Barça members and fans need someone to follow to cheer them on at the stadium. Otherwise, they'll sell you 3,000 PSG fans, 3,000 English fans, or 3,000 or who knows how many Eintracht Frankfurt fans [the Germans will visit Barcelona on December 9th and December 2nd] and wave their hands in your face," Albert Yarza, president of the Penya Almogàvers, one of the groups that formed part of the cheering section, told ARA.

The main complaint from critics of the atmosphere is the disappearance of the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys's cheering stands from November 2024, a decision made by the club itself. "What would have happened to the result if Barça had had a stand cheering the entire match against PSG, especially in the bad moments? PSG had 3,000 fans who did so," Yarza reflects. "The average Barça fan, even if they want to cheer, doesn't have the tools we have, we've done it all our lives; we're organized and ready to do it throughout the entire match. On top of that, they find themselves next to tourists who don't know the chants, and there are 3,000 fans of the opposing team cheering nonstop in an organized manner."

Barça does not want to make the name of the company public.

Laporta's board decided to close the Barça cheerleading section, arguing that the cheerleading groups did not want to pay the €21,000 fine imposed on the club for inappropriate behavior at several matches. The groups argued that the fines would be paid individually because the behavior had not been committed by the majority of their members and the fines had also been related to people who were not part of the cheerleading section. But the club's decision has not changed to this day.

Subsequently, in February 2025, Barça announced that it was launching a participatory process managed by an external company to create a cheering stand at Camp Nou once the first team returns to play. Several sources have informed ARA that the company is Tasca Projectes, founded by Ricard Martínez, a former Barcelona City Council member for the ERC party. This newspaper has contacted Tasca Projectes to confirm the matter and the response was that we are contacting the club. Official Barça sources finally told ARA: "Decisions regarding the new stand are made by the club. We do not make public the names of the companies contracted, in this case for the management of the participatory process. For now, we are not disclosing their names."

A few months ago, talks took place between the external company and people who have signed up to be in the new cheering stand, including many members of the groups that were already part of it. According to Barça, the new format was to be approved between June and July, and the new entertainment space and its members were to be finalized between August and September. It's already October.

The participatory process is taking longer than expected.

"We don't know if the company has already presented anything to the club, whether the club will make it public or not, or what the conclusions are," Yarza reports. "Be that as it may, from day one we have been open to sitting down and talking with the club and getting the situation back on track." Carles Agustí, a member of the opinion group El Senyor Ramon, expressed similar sentiments in this newspaper: "We decided to believe in this participatory process. It could be a solution. But there was a risk that it would be a delaying tactic, which is what it now appears to be. The sessions were held months ago, and the results should have been immediate for the start of this season. The results of the participatory process don't even exist."

ARA also asked official Barça sources about the current status of the participatory process for the new animation stand, and the response was that they are "not yet" in a position to "communicate it publicly," but they hope it "won't take too long." They assured that then "they will explain everything about this process, which has been very interesting." Meanwhile, the stadium animation (whether Lluís Companys or Johan Cruyff) before and after Barça matches and during halftime is the responsibility of the stadium's animation section. fan engagement of the club, which falls under the Barça Identity department, led by Paloma Mikadze. This is how the podcast explained Barça reserved Catalonia Radio. Some of the initiatives implemented during Hansi Flick's team's home matches have previously been tested at the Palau Blaugrana.