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Sports and football

Football

If you think about Spain and sports, most people think about football and that’s not really a strange thing. The Spanish are completely mad about football and the Spanish clubs are huge companies. A tremendous part of their turnover comes from merchandise which is partly kept going by the PR-teams.

World Championship history:
• 1978 - First round
• 1982 - Second round
• 1986 - Quarter finales
• 1990 - Second round
• 1994 - Quarter finales
• 1998 - First round
• 2002 - Quarter finale
• 2006 - Eight finale
• 2010 - Qualification

European Championship history:
• 1964 - Champion
• 1968 - Not qualified
• 1972 - Not qualified
• 1976 - Not qualified
• 1980 - First round
• 1984 - Second
• 1988 - First round
• 1992 - Not qualified
• 1996 - Quarter finale
• 2000 - Quarter finale
• 2004 - First round
• 2008 - Champion

Champions Cup / UEFA Champions League:
• Real Madrid (1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1966, 1998, 2000, 2002)
• FC Barcelona (1992, 2006, 2009)

UEFA Cup:
• Real Madrid (1985, 1986)
• Valencia CF (2004)
• Sevilla FC (2006, 2007)

UEFA Super Cup:
• FC Barcelona (1992, 1997)
• Valencia CF (1981, 2005)
• Real Madrid (2002)
• Sevilla FC (2006)

Intercontinental Cup:
• Real Madrid (1960, 1998, 2002)
• Atlético Madrid (1974)

Some famous players at this moment: Iker Casillas, Albert Ferrer, Raúl González, Julen Guerrero, Josep Guardiola, Fernando Hierro, Andrés Iniesta, David Villa, Fernando Torres

Other sports

• Barcelona organised the Olympic Summer Games in 1992. (List of points: 1992 nr 6, 1996 nr 13, 2000 nr 25, 2004 nr 20, 2008 nr 14). On the Winter Olympic Games, by the way, Spain hardly ever won anything.

• Also basketball is played at a high level in Spain. In 2006 Spain became world champions. Famous players at this moment are: Pau Gasol, Sergio Rodriguez, Jorge Garbajosa, Rudy Fernandez, Ricky Rubio en Jose Manuel Calderon.

• Other successful sports are tennis (Rafael Nadal, Juan Carlos Ferrero), cycling (Round of Spain, Alberto Contador & Carlos Sastre), car racing (Grand Prix F1 Barcelona & Valencia, Fernando Alonso), sailing, hockey, water polo, golf, windsurf, canoeing, motor racing, handball and fencing.