It’s been nearly one year since we started the process of becoming an official fan club of FC Barcelona. If I knew how difficult and complicated it would I’m not entirely sure I would even start it, but luckily I didn’t!
What a ride it has been
It took us a year but there are some fan clubs which wait two or even three years to be approved. There have been documents to prepare, emails, tons of waiting, more documents, more waiting, redoing of the documents we’d sent before, more emails, a face to face interview, a visit at the bank, more waiting, a consultation with a lawyer, more emails, setting up of an non-profit association, another visit at the bank, more waiting and finally that last email confirming we’re official. It’s been a hell of a ride but that feeling when you accomplish something is one of a kind.
I remember being at Plaça Reial, just next to La Rambla filming German fans who came to Barcelona to cheer for Borussia Dortmund, when I received an email from the Club representative. I remember being at Plaça Reial, just next to La Rambla filming German fans who came to Barcelona to cheer for Borussia Dortmund, when I received an email from the Club representative.
Dear Adrian. We have been informed by the Confederation that you can proceed with your application.
In total we’ve exchanged more than 50 emails. Her help and patience were invaluable.
At that point I knew we’d make it and we’re done with the most difficult and time consuming tasks. It was 27th November and it still took us another long five months to finally get that last, most important announcement:
A few things about our Penya
- We’re based in Łódź, a 3rd biggest city in Poland.
- We decided to call ourselves Penya Blaugrana de Lodz because let’s face it – nobody would know how to pronounce Łódź
- Łódź literally means boat. Hence our logo.
- At the time of writing this post we have around 90 members
- We’re just the 4th official fan club in Poland
What happens now?
We’re in a difficult time. Initially we thought that once we got approved there would come the fun part – watching games together, meeting at pubs, travelling to Camp Nou or other away stadiums. But the reality kicked in. There’s nothing we can do against coronavirus so we will wait. Again. There are more important things in life than football.
We were eagerly waiting to come to our first World Penyes Congress in August during Copa Gamper but that’s already been cancelled. So there’s not much we can do now, especially with the games suspended.
You will hear about us again though. 2020 is a tough year but we will come back stronger in 2021.
Meanwhile you can find us on Facebook and Instagram
Visca el Barça, visca Catalunya y visca Łódź!
