Barcelona's a club that values giving back
Friday, August 14, 2009 at 05:00 
By Jack Bell
New York Times News Service
Published: Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009 9:27 p.m. MDT
On the field, Barcelona plays with a ruthless beauty that is the envy of the soccer world. Off the field, the Catalan club has an enviable social conscience that extends well beyond its home. That benevolence was on display Saturday night at the Rose Bowl when Barcelona played the first of three matches on its tour of the West Coast.
As Barca and the Los Angeles Galaxy took the field before more than 90,000 fans in Pasadena, Calif., the Barcelona players were wearing a new warm-up top that heralded the club's commitment to a new effort it had joined to eradicate malaria in Africa — United Against Malaria.
"For Barca, our motto for 110 years has been 'More Than a Club,' " Marta Segu, the executive director of the club's foundation, said in a telephone interview. "The club has always defended human rights against dictatorship and promoted the Catalan language. This time we said, OK, we have a responsibility with society around the world."
Barcelona, through an association with the United Nations, which it pays more than $1 million a year to wear the UNICEF logo on its jerseys, and a nonprofit organization called Malaria No More, has enlisted international corporations, nongovernmental organizations, Major League Soccer's MLS Works charity and some of the world's highest-profile players in a campaign against malaria.
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Reader Comments (1)
Nice post. Thanks