October 18 – This month’s El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid has been called off because of fears of civil unrest just 24 hours after reports suggested that Spanish football chiefs would reject reversing the two league fixtures between the clubs.
The match was scheduled for October 26 but days of violent demonstrations throughout Catalonia after nine Catalan separatist leaders were jailed prompted calls by La Liga to switch the game to Madrid.
Both clubs disagreed with that and instead the game has been postponed and a new date – likely to be in December – must be agreed by Monday.
The league’s organising body made an official request to the Spanish FA (RFEF) for the game to be rearranged and that was approved today.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across Catalonia and the RFEF said it was up to the two clubs to arrange a new date after deeming that it wasn’t safe to play on the same day of a proposed rally.
Barcelona has been brought virtually to a standstill and La Liga said a postponement had been requested because of “exceptional circumstances beyond our control”.
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