page_title: History of FC Barcelona
section_title: Núñez and the stabilization years (1978–2000)
hierarchical_section_title: History of FC Barcelona / Núñez and the stabilization years (1978–2000)
caption_attribution_description: Català: Cruyff a la banqueta del Camp Nou, com a entrenador de la selecció de Catalunya. Español: Cruyff en el banquillo del Camp Nou, como entrenador de la selección de Cataluña.
context_page_description: The history of Futbol Club Barcelona goes from the football club's founding in 1899 and up to current time. FC Barcelona, also known simply as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The team was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Spanish footballers led by Joan Gamper. The club played amateur football until 1910 in various regional competitions. In 1910, the club participated in their first of many European competitions, and has since amassed fourteen UEFA trophies and a sextuple. In 1928, Barcelona co-founded La Liga, the top-tier in Spanish football, along with a string of other clubs. As of 2020, Barcelona has never been relegated from La Liga, a record they share with Athletic Bilbao and arch-rival Real Madrid.
  The history of Barcelona has often been political. Though it was a club created and run by foreigners, Barcelona gradually became a club associated with Catalan values. In Spain's transition to autocracy in 1925, Catalonia became increasingly hostile towards the central government in Madrid.
context_section_description: In 1978, Josep Lluís Núñez became the first elected president of FC Barcelona, and, since then, the members of Barcelona have elected the club president. The process of electing a president of Barcelona was closely tied to Spain's transition to democracy in 1975 and the end of Franco's dictatorship. The new president's main objective was to develop Barcelona into a world-class club by giving it stability both on and off the pitch. His presidency was to last for 22 years, and it deeply affected the image of Barcelona, as Núñez held to a strict policy regarding wages and discipline, letting go of such world-class players as Diego Maradona, Romário and Ronaldo rather than meeting their demands.
  On 16 May 1979, the club won its first UEFA Cup Winners' Cup by beating Fortuna Düsseldorf 4–3 in Basel in a final watched by more than 30,000 travelling blaugrana fans. The same year, Núñez began to invest in the club's youth program by converting La Masia to a dormitory for young academy players from abroad. The name of the dormitory would later become synonymous with the youth program of Barcelona.
  In June 1982, Diego Maradona was signed for a world record fee of £5 million from Boca Juniors. In the following season, under coach César Luis Menotti, Barcelona won the Copa del Rey, beating Real Madrid. Maradona's time with Barcelona, however, was short-lived and he soon left for Napoli. At the start of the 1984–85 season, Terry Venables was hired as manager and he won La Liga with noteworthy displays by German midfielder Bernd Schuster. The next season, he took the team to their second European Cup final, only to lose on penalties to Steaua București after a 0–0 draw in Seville.
  Around this time, tensions began to arise between what was perceived as president Núñez's dictatorial rule and the nationalist support group, Boixos Nois. The group, identified with left-wing separatism, repeatedly demanded the resignation of Núñez and openly defied him through chants and banners at matches. At the same time, Barcelona experienced an eruption in skinheads, who often identified with right-wing separatism. The skinheads slowly transferred the Boixos Nois' ideology from liberalism to fascism, which caused division within the group and a sudden support for Núñez's presidency. Inspired by British hooligans, the remaining Boixos Nois became violent, causing havoc leading to large-scale arrests.
  After the 1986 FIFA World Cup, Barcelona signed the English top-scorer Gary Lineker, along with goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta, but the team could not achieve success, as Schuster was excluded from the team. Terry Venables was subsequently fired at the beginning of the 1987–88 season and replaced with Luis Aragonés. The season finished with the players rebelling against president Núñez, in an event known as the Hesperia mutiny, and a 1–0 victory at the Copa del Rey final against Real Sociedad.
  In 1988, Johan Cruyff returned to the club as manager and he assembled the so-called "Dream Team". He used a mix of Spanish players like Pep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero and Txiki Begiristain while signing international players such as Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário and Hristo Stoichkov.
  It was ten years after the inception of the youth program, La Masia, when the young players began to graduate and play for their first team. One of the first graduates who would later earn international acclaim was Pep Guardiola.
  Under Cruyff's guidance, Barcelona won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. They beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992 European Cup final at Wembley Stadium, with a free-kick goal from Dutch international Ronald Koeman. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the European Super Cup in 1992 and three Supercopa de España. With 11 trophies, Cruyff became the club's most successful manager to date. He also became the club's longest consecutive serving manager, serving eight years. Cruyff's fortune was to change, however, and in his final two seasons, after he failed to win any trophies, he fell out with presid
caption: As coach of the "Dream Team", Johan Cruyff won four consecutive league titles with Barcelona
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