After the Audi Cup, FC Barcelona's next destination is Washington DC, with an agenda full of solidarity, social, and institutional events, highlighting the values and identity of the Club. Sandro Rosell will join up with Barça’s tour there.
Also with the Washington Supporters Club
Barça’s institutional agenda will also include a meeting with supporters. There will be visit
to the headquarters of the Washington DC Supporters Club, founded at the end of 2009, which brings
together Barça fans from the U.S. capital. On that Thursday evening Vice President Jordi Cardoner,
Director of the Social Area, will head up the Barça delegation.
The capital of the United States is the first stop of the U.S. tour. For the third time in the last
four years, Barça are going to the U.S., where, over and above the usual football activities (the
match against Manchester United is the most important of the tour), there’ll be a series of
partnership agreements, press conferences and working meetings, affecting different areas of FC
Barcelona. In some of these events, Sandro Rosell, FC Barcelona President, and Antoni Rossich,
General Manager, who will join the Barça tour in Washington DC, will also be present.
One of the events with most international projection will be with the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, Newseum, where the agreement with FC Barcelona Foundation in the fight to
eradicate polio will be the principal objective. Working ties will also be established for the
coming years. The presence of Bill Gates is expected at the event, together with Sandro Rosell, Pep
Guardiola, and the first team players Seydou Keita and Iniesta.
Reception
with the Red Skins
On Friday afternoon, representatives of FC Barcelona will attend the gala dinner
organized and hosted by the Red Skins, owners of the Fed Ex Field Stadium, where Barça will play
against Manchester United. Apart from the joint press conference with the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the directors of the FC Barcelona Foundation also have working meetings with other
social work organizations. This is the case of the U.S. Soccer Foundation and the InterAmerican
Development Bank, where director Ramon Pont, and General Manager of the Foundation, Josep Cortada,
will work to define and strengthen alliances.
Guardiola and Zubizarreta put their boots on again
After the game against Manchester United, Barça’s opponent in the CL Final at
Wembley, and reigning champions of the Premier League, Barça will stay on one more day in the U.S.
capital. It will be a day when we will be able to see Pep Guardiola and Andoni Zubizarreta relive,
albeit briefly, their times as players. Both will take part in a charity match at Kastles Stadium,
organized by former player Mia Hamm, the U.S. ambassador for FC Barcelona. It is also expected that
Kobe Bryant, the Lakers player and self-proclaimed Barça fan, will take part in this charity match,
and will meet some of Pep Guardiola’s players, at an event organized by Turkish Airlines.