FCBARCELONA.CAT

31.01.2009 11:46

Barça featured on Al Jazeera

www.fcbarcelona.cat

FC Barcelona are continuing to grab international attention, as shown by their ongoing presence in the world’s media.

TV channel Al Jazeera broadcast an in-depth interview on Thursday with president Joan Laporta, related to his recent institutional trip to Morocco to inaugurate a solidarity centre set up by the Fundación FC Barcelona.

With a potential audience of 70 million, Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, is the leading TV station in the Middle East and other Arab countries. Much of its content is sports related, which focuses especially on football, for which they have four separate thematic channels broadcasting matches and reports to the Arabic speaking world. The interview with the FC Barcelona president went out on the ‘Al Jazeera Stars' show, as part of the build-up to the live broadcast of the Copa del Rey match between FCB and Espanyol.

Barça values

During his stay in Morocco, Joan Laporta spoke about the club’s current situation, including institutional matters like FC Barcelona’s global appeal and the way that it is “more than a club in the world”, promoting such values as effort, tolerance, peace and care for children at risk of exclusion.

Morocco the venue

The 40 minute show began with pictures of the opening of the XICS Centre in Tangiers, where the FCB delegation was welcomed by huge numbers of local children. But it was also clear that the television channel itself is hugely popular in the country, because the Algerian presenter Akhdar Berriche who conducted the interview also found himself signing autographs by the dozen. He is one of the most recognisable faces in the Arab sports media.