Barcelona hope to escape ground ban after crowd violence
Barcelona hope to escape a ground ban for the violent incidents that held up Saturday's match with Real Madrid, after the referee's report confirmed that no player was hit by anything -- including a stuffed pig's head -- thrown from the crowd.
Barcelona hope to escape a ground ban for the violent incidents that held up Saturday's match with Real Madrid, after the referee's report confirmed that no player was hit by anything -- including a stuffed pig's head -- thrown from the crowd.
The match was suspended when Luis Figo, playing his second match at the Nou Camp since his transfer from Barcelona to Real Madrid in 2000, was subjected to a hail of missiles from the radical "boixos nois", or "mad boys", in the Barca crowd.
Figo was able to take the corner from the left-hand side of the field but when that resulted in another corner on the opposite side of the ground further objects were thrown and referee Luis Medina Cantalejo opted to halt the game.
He eventually decided to lead the players off the field for around five minutes, with the total delay officially recorded as 12 minutes. The game finished goalless.
Items thrown at Figo included plastic bottles, some of them containing liquid, one glass bottle, golf balls and "all manner of objects", according to Medina Cantalejo's report, which was published on the website of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on Monday.
Some Spanish newspapers carried a picture of the head of a roast suckling pig on the pitch, but it was not clear from where or when it had been thrown.
"None of the items hit Figo," the referee noted.
The RFEF will meet to discuss what action to take in the wake of the incidents, with one course of action being closure of the ground.
Barcelona president Joan Gaspart said after the game that Figo had provoked the crowd by deliberately cleaning up the debris around the corner flag before taking the corner, a suggestion that was laughed off by the player.
On Monday, the club changed tack, stating their case against a ground ban, while at the same time condemning the actions of the crowd.
"The club totally condemn the incidents in Saturday's game," club director Josep Maria Coronas said in a statement. "Non-violence has always held precedence over anything else."
He added: "No objective reasons exist to close the Nou Camp. Barcelona complied with all security requirements and at no time were the players placed in danger."
The incidents in Saturday's match provided the third case of serious crowd trouble in the last three years in matches between the two biggest rivals of Spanish football.
In October 2000, when Figo returned to his former club for the first time since his bitterly contested $56 million transfer, he was given a similarly violent welcome.
On that occasion the player did not take the corners but he was still subjected to a volley of abuse, as well as items such as lighters and mobile phones, every time he approached the touchline.
Barcelona were fined 9,000 euros ($9,002) for the behaviour of the crowd in that game, with the RFEF deciding that as no physical harm had been done to any player there were no grounds for the Nou Camp to be closed.
In March the following year at Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium, Barcelona goalkeeper Jose Manuel Reina was punched by a Real supporter during the second half as he went to retrieve the ball.
The supporter later apologised, and handed his season ticket back to the club. The RFEF fined Real 3,000 euros ($3,001) for the incident but took no further action.
The RFEF have acted, though, to order ground closures at Real Betis, Sevilla and Villarreal after incidents of crowd violence in recent seasons.