It is no coincidence that the founder of FC Barcelona was a Swiss businessman

Penalty kick, corner kick, offside – the fact that the English brought football to Switzerland around 1850 still has an impact. While the Germans speak of penalty kicks, corner kicks and offside, the English terms are still used here. It is less well known that Switzerland not only imported football, but also frequently exported it.

The most common is the story of Hans Max Gamper. Born in Winterthur, raised in Zurich, a sporty all-rounder with successes in cycling and athletics. And a very big love: football.

This text has been produced in collaboration with Swiss Sports History, the portal for Swiss sports history. The focus is on school mediation and information for the media, researchers and the public.

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“Hans Gamper was a go-getter and crazy sports enthusiast who was also very active himself,” says sports historian Michael Jucker. It comes as no surprise that FC Zürich, which he co-founded, was a polysport club in Gamper’s time. He also organized the first athletics meeting in Zurich. “Gamper was driven by the idea that sport also has a social value and that health is important,” says Jucker. Today, Zurich’s Gamperstrasse, on the edge of the Langstrasse district, is dedicated to the pioneer for his services.

In the fall of 1899 a short report appeared in the newspaper Los Deportes. Hans Gamper ended up in Barcelona, ​​​​where he settled. Now he is looking for comrades-in-arms for his favorite pastime. In this report, football means “Foot-Vall” and Hans Gamper is written as “Kans Kamper”. Perhaps the difficult pronunciation of his name for Catalans is one of the reasons why he will call himself Joan in the future, the native form of Johannes.

The former Swiss champion, it says on the eighth line, also wants to organize a few matches in Barcelona. Anyone who likes this sport should contact him or drop by the editorial office on Tuesday or Friday evening.

It’s that note that gets the ball rolling on October 22. Five weeks and a few meetings later, on November 29, 1899, the Barcelona Football Club was founded. Another Swiss, Walter “Gualteri” Wild, takes over the presidency, Gamper himself is the captain of the team.

Curious is the first match, which the new club played a week later against a selection of Englishmen living in Barcelona. It is true that a Barça player, Arthur Witty, scored the only goal, but Witty came forward in front of the opposition so that both teams could play ten each, making it fairer than eleven against nine.

It is a myth that Barcelona plays in red and blue because Hans Gamper took over the colors from FC Basel. There are several theories about how this choice of color came about. Once brought into play FC Excelsior Zurich, a predecessor of FCZ, another time pencils (Gamper worked as an accountant) were red and blue, another time he was inspired by the Ticino cantonal coat of arms because a sister lived there.

English witty brothers Arthur and Ernest may have also adopted the colors of the Merchant Taylor rugby team, the school they attended. And possibly none of this is true if Otto Maier is to be believed. The German striker was one of the club’s founders and is said to have maintained until his death in 1965 that he knew the secret: Barcelona have red and blue jerseys because they are the colors of a Swabian company Hartmann.

Sports historian Michael Jucker refers to FC Barcelona’s club historians. About two years ago they explained that the choice of color probably had something to do with the England rugby team. “The theory sounds very plausible,” Jucker says, protesting with a smile, “But maybe in two years someone else will come along and bring a new variant into play.” However, the historian considers a possible connection with FC Basel very unlikely.

Joan Gamper was not the only Swiss who helped establish football in other countries. The Swiss played an important role in the fact that some members broke away from AC Milan and founded FC Internazionale – Inter Milan. “In Italy alone, about 20 club foundations can be traced back to Swiss co-founders,” says Jucker. Thanks to Swiss football players, the game also spread to French and Spanish cities.

The scientist explains that Switzerland had very good connections with England and that many Swiss merchants worked there. “They returned home, brought football and molded it in this country. After a phase in which many clubs were founded at the end of the 19th century, merchants and students also moved abroad and took the sport with them. Together with the confectioners, football was a Swiss export product in the late 19th and early 20th century.”

In the early days, football was far from being a working-class sport. “Originally he wasn’t in England either,” emphasizes Michael Jucker. Football was played in elite schools, also in Switzerland initially mainly in boarding schools and gymnasiums. «The image of working-class sport was only later attributed to football. It has more to do with the attractiveness for the spectators and also with the fact that the practice is relatively cheap and therefore attractive for workers.” Jucker mentions another reason that can be seen in Zurich, among others. “The stadiums such as the Hardau , the Utogrund, but also the Letzigrund and the Hardturm were all located in industrial areas or on the outskirts. That’s another reason why football got its image as a working-class sport.”

The well-educated Hans Gamper was not an exception in terms of social class, but the rule. However, he was outnumbered with his dedication to what would become the most popular sport in the world. Football was initially frowned upon, especially on the mainland. “In the beginning it was foreign and it is also a pretty raw sport. The Catholic Church almost demonized football,” explains historian Jucker. “In Central Switzerland, for example, young men who played anyway were not given a waffle during Sunday service.”

Joan Gamper also had bad experiences with the church. In 1903, the reformed had to leave his club because the Spanish constitution only allowed Catholicism as a religion. Five years later and probably thanks to his marriage to Maria Emma Pilloud, a Catholic from Freiburg, the Swiss was popular again, so that in 1908 he became president of FC Barcelona. The founder now had to become the savior, because financially the club was doing very badly.

The resurrection succeeded under Gamper. It was thanks to his activity and partly his own money that in 1909 a stadium with a capacity of 5000 spectators could be inaugurated. To this day, the pride of Catalonia is linked to its founder: in the summer pre-season, Barça plays against renowned opponents for the Joan Gamper Trophy.

Unfortunately, Gamper’s time at Barcelona came to an end. When he organized a friendly against an England team in 1925, the two national anthems were played before kick-off. Because the Catalan spectators booed the Spaniards and clapped at the British, Gamper was forced to resign. What was probably even more serious: from then on, he was forbidden any contact with FC Barcelona, ​​his life’s work.

On July 30, 1930, Hans Max “Joan” Gamper drew a gun in his home at 4 Carrer de Girona and took his own life. During the global economic crisis the year before, he reportedly lost his entire fortune, now he was desperate and at his wits’ end. Gamper lived to be 52 years old. The heart of his FC Barcelona continues to beat unabated, perhaps more intensely than ever since the turn of the millennium and until the departure of the magical Lionel Messi in the summer of 2021.

The Argentinian magic flea Messi has set numerous records at “Barça”. But Joan Gamper still holds a club record: he is the only Barcelona player to score nine goals in one match. And that three times.