The Dream Team was going to be an extremely hard act to follow, and defeat in the 1994 European Cup Final in Athens marked the end of an era.

Johan Cruyff left under controversial circumstances in 1996 and new era began, which bore its first fruits in 1997 with another Cup Winners Cup and the Copa del Rey. The following season, Barça won the League, Cup and European Super Cup.

Despite the results on the pitch, the departure of Cruyff created something of a divide between the membership, which would have a profound effect on the way club was run. And this all happened against a background of further major developments in the way football was financed, including huge sponsorship deals, television and image rights, pay per view coverage, and rescission clauses in players contracts. The management of big football clubs in this unstoppable climate of change was becoming an increasingly more complex process. In the meantime, the club celebrated its Centenary year with yet another major expression of the Barcelona spirit. But the fans were still divided, eventually leading to the end of the Josep Lluís Núñez presidency, who was briefly succeeded by Joan Gaspart before, in 2003, Joan Laporta was voted into office.

With Bobby Robson and then Louis Van Gaal on the bench, the club achieved some good results, especially in 1996-97, when the Cup Winners Cup was won, to be closely followed by two consecutive League titles. But there was still a feeling that this was the end of an era, and the rift between the membership grew wider. The poor results of the 1999-2000 season were enough to convince President Núñez that it was time to resign.