In the Referee's Book

In this weekly column As the notes on the dust cover point out, at around 250 million FC Barcel has more social media followers than all 32 NFL teams put together! Also, before the advent of keepfootballbeautiful.com the most followers of any sports organization!

Simon Kuper has written excellent books about Ajax (the Jews) and Soccernomics (winners and losers in the numbers game) In The Barcelona Complex (Penguin Press, 2021) Kuper draws intimate portraits of Cruyff, Messi, Guardiola and the club they made, and unmade! He illustrates how Barcelona’s cathedral of football was built by one Johan Cruyff. He begins with a dramatis personae which includes the Cruyff family; Robert Enke the goalkeeper who committed suicide; Antoni Gaudi the Catalan architect; Guardiola; Thierry Henri; Zlatan Ibrohimovic; Andres Iniesta; Ronald Koeman; Michael Laudrup who a season after helping Barca beat Real Madrid 5-0 helped Madrid beat Barca 5-0; Gary Lineker; Maradona; Messi; Rinus Michels counventor of total football; Gerard Pique; Inma Puig sports psychologist; Rijkaard, Rivaldo; Romario; Ronaldinho; Ronaldo; Luis Suarez and

Xavi

The fans are called culer or backsides.