Josep Sunyol

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Josep Sunyol Garriga (July 21 1898-August 6 1936), also known as Josep Suñol, was a Catalan lawyer, journalist, politician and president of FC Barcelona.

Sunyol was born in Barcelona and came from both a wealthy family and a long line of Catalan political militants. He was a member of Accio Catala, a left-wing/anarchist group and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya.

In 1928 he became a director of FC Barcelona and in 1930 he founded the left-wing newspaper La Rambla, which opposed the Primo de Rivera regime. In 1931 he was elected to the Cortes as an ERC deputy. He was subsequently re-elected in 1933 and 1936. He also served as president of the Reial Automovil Club de Catalunya and as a director of the Federació Catalana de Futbol and in 1935 he was elected president of FC Barcelona.

On August 6 1936, during the early days of the Spanish Civil War, Sunyol was caught in an ambush in the Sierra de Guadarrama and was killed by pro-Franco troops. His body was only exhumed in the 1990s after a pressure group Els Amics de Josep Sunyol (The Friends of Josep Sunyol) campaigned for FC Barcelona to recognise the 60th anniversary of his death.

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