Sports club
A
sports club,
athletics club or
sports association is an eclectic institution oriented to multiple
sports, which fields many
teams and have varied sports departments in several sports at a same time, working under the same
umbrella organization. In a larger sense, it may also refer to any sports institution, even those that have only one
sports team or single sports department. In order to differentiate a single sports institution from a multisports institution, the term
multisports club is used. Generally, "athletics club" doesn't need that kind of disambiguation.
In general, "sports club" can also refer to any single sports team, like a
football club where the only sport is
football. For instance, many
British football clubs exist like
Chelsea FC,
Manchester United or
Celtic FC where the only fielded teams are
football teams. Each team from the
NBA (basketball),
NFL (American football) or
MLS (soccer)
North American
sports leagues, can be called also a sports club, but in practice, they focus solely on a single sport. On the other side, North American
varsity teams are generally organized into a structure forming a true multisports club, which belongs to an educational institution.
There are also many clubs named "FC"/
"CF" (English: Football Club/Portuguese
Clube de Futebol/Spanish
Club de Fútbol), among other designations, which are effectively full multisports clubs. For example, dozens of sports clubs with this designation are found in the
Iberian Peninsula like the
FC Porto,
Boavista FC, or
CF Belenenses in
Portugal, and
Real Madrid CF or
FC Barcelona in
Spain.
Generally, any sports club is characterized by having professional and amateur sports departments in various sports disciplines like
football (soccer),
basketball,
futsal,
volleyball,
handball,
rink hockey,
water polo,
rugby,
athletics,
boxing,
baseball,
tennis,
sport rowing,
gymnastics and other. An eclectic collection of competitive, recreational, and instructional athletic programs is available through club sports. The teams and
athletes belonging to a sports club compete in several different leagues, championships and tournaments wearing the same club logotype, equipment colors and using the same club name, sharing also the same club
fan base, supporters and facilities. Many sports clubs have an associate system where the affiliated supporters pay an annuity fee. In those cases, the supporter becomes eligible to attend the club's home matches and exhibitions across the entire season, and have the right to practice almost every kind of sport at the club's facilities. Registered associate member fees, attendance receipts,
sponsoring contracts, team
merchandising, TV rights, and athlete/player
transfer fees, are usually the primary sources of sports club financing.
In many regions of the world like
Europe,
North Africa,
Middle East,
Indian Subcontinent or
Latin America, sports clubs comprising several sports departments or branches are very popular and have developed into some of the most powerful and representative sports institutions in those places.
Several examples of this can be found everywhere:
*
Argentina:
Club Atlético River Plate,
Club Atlético Boca Juniors, or
Club Atlético Vélez Sársfield*
Bosnia and Herzegovina:
HŠK Zrinjski Mostar, or
Borac Banja Luka*
Brazil:
Associação Portuguesa de Desportos,
Flamengo, or
Vasco da Gama*
Bulgaria:
CSKA Sofia,
Levski Sofia,
Lokomotiv Sofia, or
Slavia Sofia*
Croatia:
HAŠK Mladost*
Denmark:
Aalborg Boldspilklub,
Aarhus Gymnastik Forening, or
Kjøbenhavns Boldklub*
Egypt:
Al-Zamalek*
Georgia:
Dinamo Tbilisi*
Germany:
VfB Stuttgart, or
Bayer Leverkusen*
Greece:
Panathinaikos,
Olympiacos,
AEK Athens,
PAOK,
Aris FC or
Iraklis*
India:
Mohun Bagan Athletic Club,
Sporting Clube de Goa, or
Dempo Sports Club*
Israel:
Maccabi Tel Aviv,
Maccabi Haifa, or
Hapoel Tel Aviv*
Italy:
S.S. Lazio*
Mexico:
Club Deportivo Guadalajara*
Morocco:
Raja Casablanca, or
Wydad Casablanca*
Netherlands:
PSV Eindhoven*
Paraguay:
Club Olimpia*
Portugal:
SL Benfica,
FC Porto,
Sporting CP, or
Associação Académica de Coimbra*
Qatar:
Al Sadd, or
Qatar Sports Club*
Romania:
Steaua Bucharest, or
U Cluj*
Russia:
CSKA Moscow,
Spartak Moscow, or
Dynamo Moscow*
Saudi Arabia:
Al-Ittihad*
Serbia:
Crvena Zvezda, or
Partizan Belgrade*
Spain:
FC Barcelona,
Real Madrid, or
CD Numancia*
Sweden:
AIK,
Djurgårdens IF,
Örgryte IS, or
IFK Göteborg*
Switzerland:
Lausanne Sports*
Tunisia:
Espérance Sportive de Tunis,
Étoile Sportive du Sahel, or
Club Africain*
Turkey:
Fenerbahçe,
Galatasaray, or
Besiktas JKIn the
United States of America major institutions like
The New York Athletic Club or many university sports institutions like the
California Golden Bears,
Stanford Cardinal or
Texas Longhorn Athletics are good examples of a sports club (''see
list of College Athletic Programs by US State).
Major sports clubs
Sports clubs with over a hundred thousand associates or at least 4 million supporters or sympathizers, and several trophies won in multiple sports include:
Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü (Turkey)
Fenerbahçe SK from
Istanbul,
Turkey, is a major sports club. Its most popular branch is the
football team, but the club also competes in
basketball,
volleyball,
rowing,
boxing,
sailing,
athletics,
swimming and
table tennis. With an estimated 25 million supporters, Fenerbahçe is the most popular sports club in Turkey having also the highest average attendance in the
Turkish football league matches. In
2006, Fenerbahçe merged its basketball operations with those of Ülkerspor, which in recent years had become the country's second-strongest club in that sport after
Efes Pilsen.
Futbol Club Barcelona (Spain)
FC Barcelona from
Barcelona,
Spain, is one among many well known examples of a major multisports club (
club polideportivo in
Spanish). Although best known for its
La Liga football team and its reserve football team
FC Barcelona B, the club also incorporates other professional sports teams, having expanded into
basketball,
handball and
roller hockey. The teams involved in these sports are subsidised by the football section and wear the same colours. These include
Winterthur FCB and
FC Barcelona-Cifec.
The club also includes a number of prominent amateur sports teams that compete at
rugby union,
women's basketball,
women's football and
wheelchair basketball. These include
FCB Rugby,
UB-Barça,
FC Barcelona-Institut Guttman. Other amateur teams represent the club at
ice hockey,
five-a-side football,
athletics,
baseball,
cycling,
field hockey,
figure skating and
volleyball. With dozens of trophies in several sports and over 100,000 associates, FC Barcelona is a powerhouse in world sports. Its estimated number of supporters or sympathizers across Spain (mainly in Catalonia) and the world surpasses 5 million.
Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (Greece)
Panathinaikos from
Athens,
Greece, is a major multisports club with many departments (
24 different sports) and a large number of national and international titles won by them (a total of
487 as of June 2006). The club is mostly known for its three professional teams (
football,
basketball and
volleyball), where they compete at the highest level in Europe (Champions League, Euroleague and Top Teams Cup respectively), but it has a great number of distinctions from its other amateur departments. Although it does not have an associate system, it is one of the most popular Greek teams with an estimated 4 million supporters worldwide (3 million in Greece and 1 million in Greek diaspora).
Sport Lisboa e Benfica (Portugal)
SL Benfica from
Lisbon,
Portugal, fields teams in
football,
basketball,
rink hockey,
futsal,
volleyball,
handball,
water polo,
rugby,
cycling, and
athletics. In total, Benfica have won many international titles in all these sports including the 1961 and 1962
European Champions Cup in football, rink hockey-CERS Cup in 1991, 3 Iberian Cups and 1 Torneio Ibérico in rugby, and 5 in the Athletics European Cup. With dozens of trophies in several sports and over 150,000 associates, SL Benfica is a powerhouse in world sports. Its estimated number of supporters or sympathizers across Portugal and the world is about 12 million.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=368264&root=mls&cc=3888*
Football club*
Team*
Community Organizations
