Barcelona targets Champions League - and adult smokers
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 17:25 Six weeks ago I was on board a cruise ship that docked, briefly, in Barcelona.
Was I tempted to step ashore, like the rest of my family, and explore the city or visit the famous Nou Camp (or Camp Nou), home of FC Barcelona?
No. I've never really warmed to Barcelona and the reason, quite simply, is the football club.
In fact my antipathy has risen in direct relation to the quality of their football. So what if the current generation plays the "beautiful game" and is the best team in history (allegedly)?
Personally I find all that tiki-taka stuff rather boring. And what is even more hideous is the suggestion, advanced by some, that this is the only way to play the game.
No, it jolly well isn't.
So when Chelsea beat Barcelona in last season's Champions League semi-final I was thrilled. I even became a fan of "anti-football", as Chelsea's ultra-defensive tactics were dubbed.
If it's good enough to beat Barca (sic) it's good enough for me.
Anyway, there's a new reason to dislike an institution whose motto is "Més que un club" (More than a club):
Quit Smoking with Barca is a joint commitment between FC Barcelona and the European Commission to take a stand against smoking [my italics] and the nearly 700,000 preventable deaths caused by tobacco in Europe each year.
Harnessing the power of the European Commission's "Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable" campaign and Barcelona's 'Sense Fum' [Smoke free] initiative, the campaign will encourage and support the 28 million smokers across Europe in the 25-34 year old age group to kick the habit and become unstoppable ex smokers for life (quitsmokingwithbarca.eu).
Full story: FC Barcelona and the European Commission join forces to help millions of Europeans quit smoking.
According to Barcelona president Sandro Rosell, it's the club's "duty" to help millions of adults "win their battle against cigarettes".
All I know is, when Barcelona play Spartak Moscow in the Champions League tonight, I shall be supporting the Russian team.
C'mon you Spartaks!!
PS. I wonder if Barcelona's munificence will extend to inviting the World Health Organisation to be their next shirt sponsor, as they did Unicef in 2006.
Alternatively they could adopt the initials FCTC - with a No Smoking sign on each sleeve.
Reader Comments (6)
I won't swear on your blog but I have just two words for them.
I’ve never like Barcelona, and I’ve never quite understood why pretty much everyone else I know who’s been there raves about it as if it’s the most magical city in the world.
When I visited it struck me as a rather spread-out dump of a place with just a few interesting buildings, most of which were closed to the public, usually miles away from each other and surrounded by drably mediocre modern ones in between. I didn’t find any of the people we met there to be either helpful or friendly (most unusual for Spain), virtually all the bars were full of what were very obviously hookers (and not the salt-of-the-earth “tart with a heart” types, either – most of them looked as if they’d rather knife a punter than let him have his wicked way), their equally obvious shady-looking pimps, or swarthy-looking and highly persistent characters trying to sell all number of illegal substances, even after a very definite refusal had been given; there was a really nasty “undertone” to the whole place all the time, and particularly after dark. Whilst we were there we were pickpocketed, despite being really careful (we’d been warned) and it was only the lightning-fast reactions of my OH (my hero!) which ensured that we got our money back before it vanished into the crowd, never to be seen again!
I was glad that on our first day there, not finding any hotels which we liked the look of at all, we took the train out of the city to a nearby village (Calella) which was largely closed (it was out of the holiday season) but in which there was one quite delightful small hotel which was open, where we stayed each night, going into the city on the train each morning to (supposedly!) “see the sights.” After a couple of days (we were there for a week), we even stopped looking for decent restaurants in the city to eat at in the evening and just headed back to our hotel at the end of the afternoon (luckily there was a lovely little restaurant, also open out of season, right across the road), because we never felt very relaxed just strolling around the place as we usually do whenever we’re abroad – and we’re not nervous travellers by a long chalk.
Horrible place, so I’m not surprised that they’ve got a horrible football club run by horrible anti-smokers. To my mind, that fits the city perfectly!
Yawn... I wonder how much Tobacco Control are paying BARCA for the publicity? Remember that anti-tobacco is advertising, and it costs. Advertising is expensive. ASH is only an advertising agency. Deb Arnott knows nothing about medical matters - but she knows a lot about advertising.
Would'nt go to Barcelona again you cant relax having to watch your handbag all the time, too much grief trying to get a hotel smoking room and we were kicked outdoors on the 'Shamblas' to have a smoke.
Easily known they're broke when they resort to taking the EU Agenda euro.
As for the football, not interested.
Wayne Rooney won't be moving there, then.
I have just returned from Spain (last night) not Barcelona but the south where I go quite a lot. Having said that I must admit to loving Barcelona as a town even though it is, and always has been very left in its politics - always fighting to ban bullfighting and of course smoking - but then what can one expect from the left?
I don't know a great deal about football but what I do know is that in my mind football is "supposed" to be a sport - not a political bandstand, and with that in mind they should stick to what they do and know best and stop meddling in millions of other people's lives.