Sometimes we need for authentic atrocities to happen so we can dive into history and take stock of who we really are. The official confirmation of FC Barcelona’s new shirt for next season is an abomination, an insult to the club’s history and tradition, and most importantly, an affront to Barcelona fans all over the world.

First, let's get this out of the way: Futbol Club Barcelona has used horizontal stripes in the shirts of some sporting sections, with Athleticism and Basketball the most remembered. In the latter, it was last used in the 1971/72 season. Just because the shirt featured on other sections doesn't mean it should change how the club's main image is perceived by fans throughout Catalonia and the world.

It’s been 115 years since the foundation of the club, and it's important to highlight what the weekly paper Los Deportes published on the second foundational reunion of the Club, which took place on December 13, 1899 and which you can read in the image below.

“It was decided the colors this society will use will be dark blue and scarlet with perpendicular stripes on the chest, along Barcelona’s crest.”

This publication has always been taken as a historical reference. Newspapers like La Vanguardia and La Publicidad on December 15, 1899 also mentioned said reunion, only the second in the club’s history, which decided the members of Barcelona's first ever board and the club colors. The founding principles were outlined: the club’s board, colors and patterns. Can the Barcelona of today ignore what the pioneers, including Walter Wild and Hans Gamper, once said? Is this all about income and marketing campaigns? Is the club being manhandled by the kit manufacturer in exchange of a few millions?

For 115 years, generations of Barça members and supporters have witnessed superb players wearing and thriving in this shirt with vertical stripes. Paulino Alcántara broke goal nets with it. Samitier broke records with it. Then there were Cesar and Kubala, who did so well the club had to build the Camp Nou just to accommodate the fans who wanted to watch the great Barcelona of the Five Cups.

Johan Cruyff ended a league drought of 13 years wearing it. Maradona tormented Real Madrid in its colors and stripes. So did Romário, Laudrup and Stoichkov. Josep Guardiola became a player and then captain while wearing it. We saw the likes of Xavi, Puyol and Iniesta rise through the youth teams proudly wearing this same shirt on their backs. Ronaldinho won it all along with Eto’o. And Messi has scored over 400 goals in these vertical stripes, while winning, more than once, each title there is to be won in European football.

FC Barcelona won 84 trophies, the most in world football, while wearing the legendary Blaugrana shirt with its vertical stripes. No one had ever thought about changing our actual, literal identity: the combination of colors and perpendicular stripes that made it easy to show which club we chose to love and support.

Until December 1, 2014. On that date, certain employees from a company from Oregon presented a design that completely disrespected over 115 years of a winning visual identity. Nike sat down with President Bartomeu in a meeting with such secrecy that even part of the Barcelona board wasn’t present, introducing the visual direction for the 2015/16 season. Several different models were on the table, including a beautiful shirt inspired by the club's centenary.

Bartomeu and the Barcelona marketing department decided to choose the design with the horizontal stripes. The Catalan media claimed the club’s objective is to become the highest football shirt seller in the world and the backlash from breaking traditions would be temporary, as it didn’t mean much for the fans abroad. The foreign fans, people like you and me who couldn’t become official club members without going through a strenuous process, suddenly mattered again, but only for financial reasons. And with a daring claim that the shirt was based on the flags used by the supporters at the Camp Nou, the same stadium that many non-members will never visit to watch a football match. Clear contradictions.

Tradition, identity, history and a sense of belonging were being pushed aside in favor of selling more shirts than Manchester United and Real Madrid.

The cherry on top is that considering the Barcelona fans reactions on social media since the designs were leaked and confirmed, it’s unlikely the shirt will ever sell as much as the marketing department first thought it would.

There are sacred traditions that no amount of money could ever buy.