FC Barcelona has banned Real Madrid fans from entering Camp Nou to watch El Clasico.
Spain’s two biggest clubs are currently vying for the La Liga title, with the Catalans five points clear after Madrid beat Valencia 2-0 on Thursday.
Providing both teams keep winning until then, Los Blancos can reduce that deficit to just two points by topping their bitter rivals away from home on March 19.
As communicated by Barca’s official website, however, it doesn’t look as if any of their fans will be permitted inside Europe’s biggest stadium to cheer Carlo Ancelotti’s men on.
If heading to the tickets section of FCBarcelona.com, and selecting the Clasico on the mentioned date, a clear message is found. “The purchase for fans of Real Madrid is not allowed,” it reads.
Barca say this move comes in compliance with the provisions of Law 19/2007 from 11 July, which was made “against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport and its implementing regulation, as well as the Internal Regulation of the FC Barcelona sports venue”.
“With the sole purpose of safeguarding the effective separation of fans and ensuring security during the event, fans of the visiting team will not be able to purchase tickets in the areas reserved for local fans,” it adds.
Any Madrid fans attempting to access Camp Nou in the home end with “clothing or symbols of the visiting team will be denied”, it is promised, and in no case will any refunds on what is usually the most expensive ticket of the season be made.
It is of course possible that Madrid are allocated a small number of away tickets, which, as Barca’s website says, must be purchased through the club from the Spanish capital.
Above all, rather than being a specific anti-Madrid move, the action is to avoid a repeat of what happened in the Europa League last season when traveling Eintracht Frankfurt fans bought home end tickets and borrowed those of season ticket holders to turn Camp Nou into their own Deutsche Bank Park.
Booed during the warm up on their own patch, Barca lost the vital match before it had even kicked off. They limped to a 4-3 aggregate exit to the eventual winners of the competition, and will now do all they can to make sure Manchester United’s support don’t recreate such scenes in under a fortnight when they visit in the same tournament for a playoff that provides access to the knockout phases.
Barca put a similar policy in place for their Copa del Rey quarterfinal against Real Sociedad last week, but then backed out last minute meaning La Real fans could sit anywhere in the ground wearing their team’s colors as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat.
In the semi-finals, Barca will play Real Madrid home and away with the first leg set for the Bernabeu on March 2 and the return at Camp Nou scheduled on April 5.
Source: forbes.com
