BARCELONA’S Champions League tie with Napoli next week will be played behind closed doors amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Although the Italian club is not situated inside the worst-hit areas of the country, authorities were keen to take no chances.
The Camp Nou is likely to be empty for Napoli’s visit on March 18Credit: Reuters
The decision was made on Tuesday morning after an emergency meeting between Barcelona officials, the Spanish health and sports ministries, and Catalan public health body.
The LaLiga club were represented by CEO Oscar Grau at the assembly and reportedly did not push back against the plan to shut fans out of the match.
With the last-16 tie level at 1-1, the second leg is planned for Wednesday, March 18 at 8pm in the Camp Nou.
On Monday, Catalan newspaper L’Esportiu reported an expected decision that the game will go ahead behind closed doors.
Some 5,000 Napoli fans were expected in the stadium and it was previously raised that only away supporters would be barred.
However the authorities wanted to take no risks, having also postponed the Barcelona Marathon to October.
Catalan secretary for sport Gerard Figueras stated yesterday: “Applying health protocols leads us to think that the wisest decision is to play Barcelona-Napoli behind closed doors.
“Public health criteria must go beyond sports and economics.”
Barcelona have relatively recent experience of playing behind closed doors after fans were shut out from their LaLiga game against Las Palmas in October 2017 due to violent independent protests across the region.
The coronavirus outbreak has taken a huge toll on sporting events around the world with the Champions League the latest to be affected.
Paris Saint-Germain’s game against Borussia Dortmund will take place in an empty stadium as well as tonight’s match between Valencia and Atalanta.
Los Che midfielder Dani Parejo last night pointed out his frustration at the precaution being imposed on football and not on the popular Las Fallas festival which attracts thousands of people to the city.
Also falling foul of the virus outbreak are the Europa League games between Wolves and Olympiacos, Getafe and Inter Milan and Sevilla versus Roma.
As of Monday night, 463 people had died from the illness in Italy with five deaths in the UK from over 300 cases.
Yet Spurs’ game against RB Leipzig tonight will allow fans into the arena after a ruling by German officials.
FA set to axe 3pm blackout on showing Premier League kick-offs if coronavirus forces games behind closed doors
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
