For Barcelona FC, this centenary is not just a polite anniversary toast. It is a reminder that 100 years can produce glory, pain, reinvention and, at times, a brutal sense of perspective. The basketball section reached its 100th birthday on Monday, 24 August 2026, and did so in a period described as one of its lowest moments in terms of titles. That is the uncomfortable truth behind the celebration: history is magnificent, but history does not win games.
The event was held at the Auditori 1899, where Joan Laporta was set to open the celebration with a speech paying tribute to the section’s century-long story. The timing could hardly be cleaner. On the same day, the first team was scheduled to begin preseason with its first training session, launching a 2026/27 season that Barcelona plan to frame with centenary celebrations throughout the campaign. In other words, the club is not treating this as a museum piece. It is trying to turn a milestone into momentum.
A century of everything, not just the good bits
The original decision came on 24 August 1926, when the FC Barcelona Board of Directors approved the creation of the basketball section at the club’s former social headquarters in Plaza del Teatro. The wording itself has the ring of a club building something bigger than it could fully imagine at the time: "Se aprueba la proposición del señor Cusell, creando la sección de Basket-Ball del Futbol Club Barcelona". From that point on, the section has lived every kind of sporting life. Celebrated victories. Painful defeats. Big nights. Long waits. That is what 100 years in sport actually looks like.
And right now, Barcelona are leaning into the reset. The club has worked to assemble an almost entirely new squad, with a new coach, and the sense is obvious enough: this centenary comes with a football-club-style demand to stop looking back for too long and start proving something now. Three new players are part of that refresh, and the first training session is where the season stops being ceremonial and starts being real.
That is why this anniversary matters beyond the photos and speeches. A centenary is supposed to celebrate legacy, yes, but it also exposes where the present stands. Barcelona’s basketball section has a century of identity behind it, but it enters this season with a squad built to change the mood fast. The club can celebrate 100 years without pretending the next chapter will write itself. In fact, the whole point is the opposite: a century of history deserves a team that looks ready to add to it.
