FT columnist, Simon Kuper, on FC Barcelona, from Cruyff to Messi, global powerhouse to financial turmoil.

FC Barcelona is not only the most popular sports club ever, it’s one of the world’s most influential organisations, with four million visitors to its Camp Nou stadium each year and some 250 million followers on social media.

FT columnist and author of The Happy Traitor, Simon Kuper was given unprecedented access to the inner sanctum as he charted the club’s transformations over recent decades, from Johan Cruyff’s arrival in the 1970s to a global powerhouse now dealing with financial turmoil and the departure of talisman Lionel Messi.

Simon will be speaking to former Chairman of the Football Association David Triesman.

Simon Kuper is the co-author of bestselling Soccernomics. His first book, Football Against the Enemy, won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and is acknowledged as one of football’s seminal books. Simon writes a weekly sports column in the FT and has previously written football columns for The Times and The Observer.

David Triesman is a Labour peer and Group Director at the Merchant Bank, Salamanca Group. He sits as a non-executive director at Havin Bank, Funding Affordable Homes and is taking a leading role in the development of a new investment business in Cuba in partnership with Havin Bank. He was a Board Member of Wembley National Stadium and was Chairman of the Football Association. Politically, he served as Under-Secretary of State in the FCO and later in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and held ministerial roles in Energy, Business and Higher Education, and Europe. Lord Triesman was appointed as a Lord in Waiting to HMQ in 2004.