Barca centre opened in Senegal

By Piers Edwards
BBC Sport, Senegal

Barcelona president Joan Laporta in Richard Toll, Senegal

In an era when football is dominated by both exorbitant wages and transfer fees, Spanish giants FC Barcelona believe they are pioneering a fresh image for the sport.

Barca president Joan Laporta has inaugurated a Centre for Education and Sport in the northern Senegalese town of Richard Toll.

It is the first of many humanitarian projects Barcelona intend to open around the world to help disadvantaged children in terms of education, nutrition and health care.

"We are sending a message to the world that less fortunate people are not alone; football and FC Barcelona is thinking of them and trying to improve their daily life," the 45-year-old lawyer told BBC Sport.

Children at the Barcelona Centre for Education and Sport

More to come

Although the Catalan club has been involved in many humanitarian projects since the creation of the FC Barcelona Foundation in 1994, the Senegalese centre is the first that has been organised by the foundation itself.

The centre will provide a classroom, the town's first paediatrician, workshops, a library and food for children whose parents cannot provide it, as well as educate around 230 boys and girls (aged between 6 and 16) who have never been to school before.

Next year, similar centres will be opening in Mali, Burkina Faso, Morocco as well as in India and in Latin America, but Richard Toll's 150,000 inhabitants are the first to benefit.

"We chose Senegal as it is a country close to us in terms of immigration - lots of Senegalese work in Catalonia - and it's also in sub-Saharan Africa, which is where we primarily want to work," Foundation head Marta Segu told BBC Sport.

The club is keen to stress that the purpose of these centres is not to develop young talent but to aid some of the poorest children in the world.

This is in keeping with the alliance with Unicef, who became Barcelona's first ever shirt sponsors last year, and unusually the club are paying for the privilege (US$2.15m each year).

More than a club

Barca colours sit alongside Senegal's at the new facility

"With Unicef, we decided that we want to be 'more than a club' (Barca's motto) on a global level," Segu continued.

"We were aware that many children, who come from very poor families, live in this area of Senegal where they have no access to education, health care or any resources in fact."

Amidst the excitement surrounding the visit, no one thought to remove a dead cow lying by the pitch where an exhibition match was being played but this was barely noticed.

"Today is a historic day for FC Barcelona and I am very proud," Laporta explained.