The Big Call: Help This Blog And Your Club

Less than one year and a half ago, I started a little blog. Now it has turned into something quite big with thousands of visitors every day.

Over the last year, I've become convinced that - through the internet - the fans can play a crucial role in spreading the name and fame of the club of our hearts and in attracting new fans.

I have many (many!) more ideas, but the time is lacking since I'm already stretched to my limits trying to combine a professional life, a private life and this hobby.

I on the other hand also feel that a lot of people are willing to help out in one way or another. Some have offered their help already, to most I have said "wait some more, I'll launch a big call soon". They must have thought this day would never come...

A few already joined in and I have to admit that I have truly been surprised by not only the motivation and the willingness to help but also the quality of their contributions.

I think now could be the right time to bring new people in and to take all of this step by step to another level. I think it would be great to form a group of people from all over the world working together on one project and developing some of their skills further. And on the way, making new friends.

And we all know how these things go: you visit someone, he offers you a room and you meet his beautiful sister on your morning trip to the shower. If it happens, we'll all invite ourselves to the wedding!!!

But enough sentimental stuff. What are we looking for?



1. news gatherers
We need people who go out on websites and look for Barcelone-related news. Maybe you're already surfing around the whole day looking for news: perfect.

Of course, Spanish, Catalan and English websites are the main sources of information, so every help is welcome there. But it would especially be nice if we could have some people to cover the Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian, French and German media too.

Everybody is of course also invited to send us reports that appear in whatever media anywhere in the world and that are linked to FC Barcelona.


2. report writers
In a second phase, people could help to transform the news found on the web into articles that can be put on the blog. Decent English should be enough, let's say that my not-at-all-perfect english is the standard, so that cannot be very hard to match.


3. opinion writers
Do you have an opinion you want to share with others and you're tired of just putting some comment on blogs, forums or sites where it immediately disappears in an ocean of comments? Grab your chance, turn your opinion into an article and send it to us, we'll publish it if it has some value.


4. translators
We're looking for people who can translate articles from Spanish to English. There is a lot of interesting stuff out there about the club and it would be nice we could bring that to you.

We've lost some people along the road (mainly my fault because I didn't have time for people management), but now we're going to organize things better. Al is so happy he'll be Head of Translations... Non-Barça fans welcome!


5. lay-out
You are too polite to say it, but I will say it in your place: the lay-out of this blog is just *...fill in what you really think...*. I know it and despite the fact that I think the content is the most important thing, this site could use a serious make-over.

So all people who are willing to think about how we could do this and want to form some kind of global dream-team to make it work are invited to do so. Same here: people who're not Barça fans are as welcome. Unless their Madrid fans. Tolerance has its limits.


6. videos
Good videos are a great way to reach out to people, so if you have the skills and/or ideas to make videos, join in. We're also looking for people wanting to help out making compilation videos by going through existing videos.


7. funny stuff
I cannot draw and my computer skills are limited, but I think it would be totally great if we could produce our own cartoons and photoshopped stuff and get them out there on the web. None-Barça fans also welcome!


8. new subjects
We want to broaden the scope of subjects treated a little. Therefore, we would like for example to have people writing about the history of the club, the economic situation of the club, the youth teams and so on. We also want people who could focus on statistics next season.

And last but not least: we want to create our own wag squad that goes out there and finds us the best pictures (and all other relevant information) of the wives and girlfriends of the players. If you're interested in one of these subjects, let us know.


9. your suggestions
You think we're forgetting something? You have ideas about things we should include in the blog? Let us know!




For all this, you can mail me at:

fcbtransfers [at] yahoo [dot] com

just give me some little info about yourself (name or nick, age, daytime activity --- you can lie, don't worry) and what you would be willing to do and I'll get back to you asap. If you want to help but you don't really know how: don't worry, there's enough to do, we'll find you something.

We'll repeat this call every few months from now on, so if you don't have time now, feel free to join in later.

The team difficulty can do better than last season, but the fans can!
Visca'l Barça!