Barcelona set for unusual three-team pre-season test in Italy

Barcelona will return to a three-team pre-season tournament for the first time in 24 years when they take part in the inaugural Friuli Venezia Giulia Cup in Udine on Saturday.

The Catalan club will face Italian side Udinese and English club Nottingham Forest in a competition that will use a format rarely seen in modern pre-season football. Barcelona will play both opponents in separate 45-minute matches, rather than in conventional full-length friendlies.

The tournament represents a notable return to a style of preparation that was once a regular part of Barcelona’s summer schedule. Although three-team competitions have become less common in recent years, the club has a long history of participating in them before the start of a new campaign.

Barcelona’s most recent appearance in such an event came during preparations for the 2002-03 season, when they travelled to Amsterdam to play Ajax and Parma.

The matches in that tournament were staged on separate days and lasted 90 minutes each, according to Barcelona’s official website. Barcelona, managed at the time by Dutchman Louis van Gaal, began with a 4-2 victory over Parma.

Juan Roman Riquelme, who had recently joined the club, was the outstanding performer in that match, scoring twice. Two days later, Barcelona were beaten by Ajax, who were led by a young Rafael van der Vaart.

A year earlier, in June 2001, Barcelona had organised a special three-team tournament in honour of former goalkeeper Francisco Javier Gonzalez Urruticoechea, better known as Urruti.

Espanyol and Real Sociedad were invited to take part in the event, which was held at the Mini Estadi. The ground hosted Barcelona’s reserve-team matches and was located next to Camp Nou.

The competition consisted of three 30-minute matches between the participating clubs. Barcelona won the tournament after drawing with Real Sociedad before beating Espanyol 1-0 in a friendly derby.

Three-team tournaments were particularly popular during the 1990s, when European clubs commonly used them as part of their preparations for the forthcoming season.

Between 1990 and 2000, Barcelona competed in seven such tournaments. They were held in Oviedo, Marbella, Tenerife, Salamanca, Florence, Amsterdam and Barcelona, with each forming part of the club’s pre-season programme.

Barcelona’s first involvement in a three-team tournament came much earlier, in June 1947, when they travelled to Palma de Mallorca.

The matches were played at Es Forti, which was then the home ground of Real Mallorca. The stadium had opened in 1945 and remained the club’s official home until 1999.

Barcelona secured the trophy by beating Mallorca 3-0 in their opening match and then defeating Atletico Madrid 6-0 in the second game.

Manuel Badenes was the leading scorer of the event, finding the net six times across the two matches. His contribution helped Barcelona claim the first three-team tournament title in the club’s history.

The forthcoming event in Udine will therefore mark more than an unusual part of Barcelona’s preparations for the 2026-27 season. It will also revive a competition format that featured prominently in the club’s history, but has largely disappeared from the modern pre-season calendar.