In 2019, the Confederació Mundial de Penyes del FC Barcelona celebrated the Centenary of the first official FC Barcelona supporters’ club. It was 100 years of an official one, but, where does this need for associationism among FC Barcelona members come from unofficially? Where is the big bang, the starting spark, the place where supporters of FC Barcelona decided to meet to talk about football?
Everything points to this place being the Canaletes kiosk, in 1909. There began an amazing journey that has progressed through time to the present day, when our movement is a global phenomenon worthy of admiration by all the clubs in the world.
Esteve Sala’s entrepreneurship
The Canaletes kiosk, at the top of the Rambla, represents one of the first symbols of the history of our Club. Originally, the City Council had a wooden hut dedicated to the sale of drinks, just next to the famous Canaletes fountain, but the young entrepreneur Esteve Sala arrived, rented it, knocked it down and built a modernist kiosk for soft drinks. Sala was a hotel businessman, owner of the Hotel Oriente and a top Barça supporter, who would become president of the Club in 1934/35.
As time went by, the novelty of the kiosk caught on with football fans in general, who, from 1909 onwards, were able to find out the results of the matches at the Industria Street stadium by telephone as soon as they were over. In addition, the kiosk served as a reception point for fans who wanted to talk about what they had experienced on the stands. We could consider it the first football talk show.
The kiosk became more and more popular and was consolidated as a meeting place for “activist” FC Barcelona fans until 1951, when it was demolished by the Franco authorities. The excuse was a new urbanization of the Rambla, but other versions explain that it was feared that it was the scene of other types of gatherings hidden behind the football background. When the kiosk disappeared, the tradition continued to the Canaletes fountain, located right next to it. Today, the FC Barcelona successes are still celebrated there.
The seed of penyes
So, if we follow the definition “a penya is a group of people who get together with a strong conviction towards the same sporting or cultural interest that unites them in a firm way”, certainly that was the place where everything was born. It was there that the generalized transformation from a sport that was practiced to a show that was enjoyed took place. And, of course, as a good show, its end gave rise to comments, debates, and opinions on whether what you saw was satisfactory or criticized; and the individual performance of the actors who had taken part was not spared either.
The place to make all these comments was no other than that beautiful kiosk located next to the emblematic Barcelona fountain.