The Spanish Royal Football Federation (RFEF) has released a statement at the end of an extraordinary meeting to discuss the match scheduled for next Wednesday between Barça and Real Madrid at Camp Nou. As plans by Catalan protest platform Tsunami Democràtic move ahead, the directing body of Spanish football met to debate its options.
The RFEF notes that, as in any match, it "has no kind of competence in matters of security". That responsibility falls to the contractor hired by Barça to maintain order within the stadium.
They add that "the prevailing regulations will be applied if situations of force majeure occur". That means that, depending on the scale of whatever happens, if something happens causing problems for the game to go ahead, the match could even be postponed.
Photo: EFE
"The RFEF is in contact with the police forces to coordinate the arrival of the refereeing team to the Camp Nou facilities according to the established protocols," they say. Yesterday, Tsunami announced the focal points of their demonstration from hours before the match would be the four main entrances to the stadium.
The options, besides the match going ahead normally, are to postpone it beforehand for reasons unrelated to sport, for it to be forced to be postponed during the game, or that some or all of the players and/or referees won't be able to reach the stadium. This would be the second time the match has been postponed, and the option would arise of it moving to an neutral ground. Although at this point everything is very speculative, nothing can be discounted.