UEFA Cup ties involving Spanish clubs go ahead

Four UEFA Cup matches involving Spanish sides will go ahead as scheduled on Thursday evening despite calls for their postponement because of bomb attacks in Madrid that killed more than 173 people.

European soccer's governing body UEFA said the games would be played but that they would be preceded by a minute's silence and that players would wear black armbands as a mark of respect for the victims.

"After consultations with the Spanish Government via the Spanish FE, UEFA concluded that the matches should go ahead as originally scheduled," UEFA said in a statement.

"The events of this morning are tragic and shocking and on behalf of UEFA I would like to offer our sincerest condolences to those individuals and families involved," UEFA chief executive officer Lars-Christer Olsson said.

"By playing the games tonight under these difficult circumstances we hope to show to the world the true spirit of fair play and respect in football."

Earlier Valencia president Jaime Orti told Radio Marca that the four Spanish clubs involved in Thursday's matches had asked UEFA to consider postponing the games as a result of the attacks.

"This is a tragic day for Spain," Orti said. "It's a day when we can hardly be thinking about football and we believe that neither the players nor the clubs are ready to play these games."

Barcelona play Celtic in Glasgow, Real Mallorca travel to Newcastle United, Villarreal host Italian side AS Roma while Valencia play Genclerbirligi in Ankara.

The attacks came the morning after Real Madrid played Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

The German team, who were knocked out of the competition, were having breakfast at their hotel a few kilometres from the scene of one of the bomb blasts but still managed to leave for the airport as planned.

It is not known if any Bayern fans were amongst the dead and injured.

Madrid is also hosting the men's Olympic qualifying hockey tournament at the Club de Campo on the outskirts of the city this week.

The International Hockey Federation said that play was due to continue on Thursday, pending a meeting of team managers.

The events in Madrid have raised concerns over security at this summer's European soccer championships in neighbouring Portugal.

Lieutenant-General Leonel de Carvalho, the head of the Portuguese government's security panel for the event, said the attacks had pointed up the need for tight security at Euro 2004.

Carvalho told TSF radio that Portugal did not face the potential extremist threat that Spain did, but that the Madrid blasts "are one more call for attention that more care be taken".

He added that the organisers had no plans to change their arrangements because of what had happened in Spain.

Portugal is expecting a half-million fans to attend the three-week tournament, which starts on June 12.

Their security effort is focussed on controlling crowds and hooliganism rather than terrorist threats.