Hey folks, it’s time for the eagerly awaited Logo and Banner Vote! It’s voting day and you didn’t even know! It should be a worldwide holiday, to be honest. There were fewer submissions than I had hoped for, but those that did come in proved we have some talented designers/artists out there. I’ve narrowed it down to a couple of submissions, so please vote for your favorite!

Note that I haven’t included designer names on this round, but will, upon being given permission, release names for the winner. If your submission isn’t on here, I’m sorry! Please only vote once! Continue Reading

You kids know the rules. We put up a picture, and you get to create your own captions for it. The grand prize is the approval and cyber laughter of everyone in this fun-filled space. Ready? (Yes, that’s our own King of Catalunya, Joan Laporta.)

Have you ever wanted to try your hand at designing logos and banners? Well, here’s the deal, folks: we’re looking to improve the look of this here blog (I know, that’s crazy!), so we’re offering you just such a chance. Because this is a community-based blog and one that highly respects both the insight and talents of our readers, we’re opening this design competition to you.

What’s more, when we have all of your submissions, we’ll pick the best of the bunch and put them on display for you to vote on! I know there are some really creative people out there, but I’m also positive that there are some of you out there with hidden talent and we’d all love to see what you can do. Just remember, if it’s totally awesomely awesome, it will become the BFB Twitter and Facebook logo as well! Yay!

I’m trying to think of a great prize for the winner, but all I can come up with is that I’ll write a poem in your honor as well as photoshopping something awesome. Maybe I’ll write you into a Banquillo too, if you’re lucky. Please suggest something else I can give the winner that would be fun and appropriate for all ages.

Rules

Because we have both the logo and the banner to go with here, there are different sizes you can work with.

Logo: 200 X 90
Banner: 728 X 90

1. All logos and banners should have some way of identifying this as the Barcelona Football Blog (for instance, you can use BFB as the initials if you feel you are space-constrained).
2. Try to use Barcelona’s colors, but you don’t have to.
3. Please keep it clean and family-friendly. That means, for instance, no pictures of Natalie Portman’s head photoshopped onto Jenna Jameson’s body; it also means nothing that could be construed as racist, homophobic, or otherwise derogatory towards any group or individual.
4. Please submit your, uh, submissions by one week from today: Thursday, November 26, 2009.
5. Be creative! (Also, feel free to have fun with this, eh?)

You can send your submissions to info[at]barcelonafootballblog[dot]com and I’ll let you know that I have received it.

Here’s an example of why I’m probably not going to win this competition:

I drew that. I mean, I made that with a computer program and lots of copying and pasting and typing. You can now do the same! Please make it better than that.

Remember, send submissions to info[at]barcelonafootballblog[dot]com.

A young man will stand
His posture straight and grand
Looking towards the sky
And though he’ll not ask why
Thousands will scream his name
Some in joy, others in shame
He sports the precious number ten
Perhaps he’s the greatest there’s ever been
Perhaps he’s just a boy playing a game.

He’ll catch a ball with his feet
Defenders will twirl and have a seat
Vexed, perplexed, and cross-eyed
Shrugging as if to say “Well, I tried,”
But the poor defender will hear
The fans laugh and jeer
As our hero jukes then stutters
While more defenders fall in clutters
This time, the fans will start to cheer.

The goalie stands still and straight
“Maybe he won’t see me till it’s too late!”
But the young man has already seen him
And the goalie’s chances go to none from slim
He lines up a solid blast
The ball is off his foot so fast!
There it goes, quickly curving
It’s weaving and wobbling and swerving
And it smacks the net at last.

I feel like I’m about to have a heart attack
I pause and rewind it back
What a run, what a move, what a play,
I could watch this video all day
There’s nothing else on after all
And it’s raining out ’cause it’s Fall
Oh, damn you international break
What rumors and news mockeries you make
Perhaps I’ll go outside with my own ball.

Open thread below, folks.

Call me crazy, but this kinda makes me feel bad for the chumps who sign up. If Barcaloco has a deal with Penya-LA, that’s all find and dandy and I’m down with that, but for a small yearly fee you get to get exclusive information from them?

As a result of the new partnership [between Barcaloco and Penya-Los Angeles], we have launched the Barcaloco Fan Club, which for a small yearly fee member’s will receive exclusive opportunities with FC Barcelona. Just a few of these opportunities include discount tickets when FC Barcelona plays matches in the US, the chance to travel with Penya-LA to watch FC Barcelona play at the Camp Nou, a tour of the Barcelona Youth training academy and even the chance to be introduced as part of the Barcaloco Fan Club on the pitch before a match at the Camp Nou!

Um. That yearly fee is exactly what becoming a member is all about, plus, if Penya-LA is anything like Penya-NYC, then they give out all of this stuff for free anyway (tickets to Rome for the final, for instance, you just have to buy the tickets themselves at whatever the face value was and then get your ass to Rome; the point is that the they had those tickets given to them by FCB in order to extend the opportunity to members of the Penya, which is free), meaning that Penya-LA and Barcaloco appear to be attempting to make money off of something that’s given to them by the club for free as part of being part of the Penya system.

These are great opportunities, no doubt, and it’s cool that FCB would be willing to give their foreign fans the chance to take these tours and attend matches as a group, but that sounds awfully fishy to me, to be honest. I have no problem with Barcaloco, by the way (and completely respect what they’ve got going on), but this just appears to be a calculated effort to earn make money off of what are essentially free bonuses to Penya-LA. I like the detail that they’re going to try to get a bar to watch the games at, just like Penya-NYC has Nevada Smiths, but other than that, it sounds underhanded. Am I wrong in reading it this way?

Does anyone here have a connection to Penya-LA that can explain it to me further, in case I did make a mistake in judging this promotion? And for those of you who are wondering, I have no problem with anyone making money off of services that they provide in conjunction with FCB, just that if these are free tickets/promotions being given to Penya-LA, I don’t see it as okay to act as if they’re exclusive deals that you can then sell because you have a monopoly on information. That’s all.

I cheered a bit when the USMNT scored to tie 2-2 against Costa Rica; I felt bad for the Ticos who were going to have to face Uruguay in the playoff, but here’s something that will allow you to understand why Honduras going to the World Cup is pretty freakin’ cool too. It’s in Spanish and it’s the radio, but I think you’ll know when the US scores the tying goal.

Who says football isn’t powerful?

(Thanks to Bill Simmons’ twitter for this one)