FC Barcelona: Not Just a Football Club

When many think of F.C. Barcelona,they think football. They think Lionel Messi.  However, there is one aspect of F.C. Barcelona that I feel deserves even more credit.

F.C. Barcelona president Joan Laporta and his fellow board members are some the most altruistic public figures on planet Earth.  The Fundacio Barcelona has reached all corners of the world and has helped countless people. 

The club has joined with the U.N. to promote its foundations, including UNICEF.  Barcelona supports these organizations through raising awareness about its existence and what they accomplish.  Barcelona encourages its supporters and fellow man to contribute in whichever way they can to these foundations.

Along with their partnerships with the U.N. and its foundations, they have established their XICS foundation.  The translated meaning is the International Network of Solidarity Centers.  These centers are not football schools creating the next Leo Messi.

The centers promote the use of sport to save lives and educate children.  Barcelona have opened these centers all over the world including Ecuador, Mexico, Morocco, and many others.  These centers provide education, health care and stable environments for children that do not have any of those things.

F.C. Barcelona constantly upgrades these centers and invests millions of USD into these centers.  The centers have saved countless lives and improved the lives that it did save.

F.C. Barcelona uses its popularity in world football to better the lives of children and adults, not to amass huge profits.  I think its time that more world wide sports clubs take this example and run with it.

In the world today one child dies every five seconds from hunger and hunger-related diseases.  F.C. Barcelona has taken the first step in a long race to find solutions to this problem and the other problems that currently plague the world's less fortunate citizens.