The Mossos d’Esquadra agreed with the security of FC Barcelona that the players would not celebrate the title on the field, or that, at least, the celebrations would be discreet, if they won the game and the League against RCD Espanyol. In a derby in which the blue and white team also certified their difficulty in getting out of the relegation places, the Catalan police warned that it was a risk for the Barça players to celebrate on the grass, according to sources from Los Mossos and both clubs. Some indications that were repeated as the game progressed and that were not followed in the end. The game ended with a 10-minute invasion of the pitch, when the Barcelona players, bursting with joy, made a rondo in the center circle.
The clubs, together with the Mossos, prepared in various meetings the security of a match that was predicted to be high voltage, classified as high risk by the National Anti-Violence Commission. “In no case was an invasion of the countryside thought of,” police sources say. But from the outset, it was insisted that the celebration, in the event of a Barça victory, should be something very discreet on the field and leave the revelry for the locker room. The Barcelona players had been warned actively and passively, indicate various police sources, which coincide with the version explained by Barça and Espanyol.
Just starting the game, the security services, aware of everything that was happening, detected some elements of risk. After the first goal, Rafinha went to the referee for throwing a can. But Pedri stopped him. The police interpreted the attitude of the canary as a gesture to calm things down. But Barcelona’s win was noted in the stands. In the 70th minute, the alarms went off: there was a rumor of great anger among the Espanyol fans. At that time, a good part of the blue and white fans had already left the stands. Meanwhile, the mood was heating up in the south goal, where the Espanyol support stands are. Initially, the anger was directed at the board and the Espanyol players themselves. Private security in the area was reinforced, and the benches and the changing room tunnel were also taken into account. Riot police were also deployed at the rear of the stands. “Directive resignation!”, “Chinese, go now! [en referencia al máximo accionista y presidente, Chen Yansheng]”, they protested from the stands of the RCDE Stadium.
“At that moment, there are two or three people who are screaming,” explain police sources, about those who call the shots of what happened. Until the game ended. So, the violent deposited their anger on Barça. A possible context that the Barça players already knew. “We had explained to them that the celebration had to be discreet,” they point out from the Camp Nou offices. “And it was,” add the same sources. Ter Stegen, for example, who when the duel ended was defending the Barcelona goal next to the south stands, the area where the Espanyol radicals were, headed in the direction of the changing room tunnel. The same decision that the staff technical. However, the rest of the Barça group gathered in the central circle to celebrate the title. The Barcelona workers, minutes before the invasion took place, began to insist that their players go to the locker room. The notice, however, came late. There was a first attempt on the right side of the south goal, which private security managed to stop. The second, on the left, could no longer be contained and ended with more than a hundred people in the field. By then, the Mossos riot police and private security were stationed in the changing room tunnel.
One of the radical fans of Espanyol accessed that area, who according to police sources fell, leaning out from above. One of those present says that Barcelona’s private security was the first to contain the violent man. Later, they received the collaboration of their counterparts from Espanyol. It was then when some Barça players, led by Busquets, Jordi Alba, Marcos Alonso and Ronald Araujo, rebuked the fan, who was already on the ground. The brawl, which according to the LaLiga report, did not have any physical aggression, ended with a heated discussion between the Barcelona footballers and the Espanyol delegate.
The episode lasted about 10 minutes. The time to jump onto the field, escort the players to the changing room tunnel and then a roundtrip to the police line in the area. There was no attempt to attack the agents. “They arrived, they stopped, they left, they came back and they left again,” say Mossos sources, who ruled out going directly to the south goal in the most tense moments to avoid hard charges against the radical fans. Finally, the radicals left on their own foot, without anyone being arrested.
Resignation of the PP candidate who threw a camera at the RCDE Stadium
“Without celebrating the Barça players, this would not have happened,” lamented police sources. They do not deny, in any case, that the responsibility falls on the perpetrators of the field invasion. “The blame for what happened lies solely with the radicals. The responsibility, on the other hand, belongs to many people ”, they emphasize in Barcelona. The Mossos d’Esquadra will now analyze the images from the field, and will act against each of those involved. Dani Sirera, mayor of the PP in Barcelona, confirmed this morning that the Espanyol fan who threw a television camera on the grass after the derby occupies number nine of the PP candidacy in the municipality of Sant Joan Despí (Barcelona). During the incidents, Yago Darnell, a popular candidate, threw the camera. “Any act of violence is reprehensible. Attacking a camera is crazy. I condemn it. He is not a member of the PP and I am glad. The number that he occupies on the list is not to be elected, but we will ask him to abandon the candidacy, ”Sirera said at the press conference with the mayors organized by the Efe news agency. A few hours later, the PP candidate resigned, reports angels pinol.
The Catalan police will also have to decide whether to act against Espanyol and its security device. Mossos sources, however, insist that they acted correctly, and that they had a display at the level of the derby that was being played. “A field invasion like this is impossible to contain,” they insist. LaLiga has informed this Monday that it will denounce the violent invasion of the field that occurred at the RCDE Stadium, at the end of the game, “which dissolved the sardana for the league title of the Catalans, forced to quickly retire to the changing rooms”, according to a message published in social networks. On its Twitter profile, LaLiga announced that it has already “analyzed all the images since Sunday” of the events that occurred in Cornellà, so “in collaboration with RCD Espanyol, it will identify all those responsible to prevent them from returning to the stadiums”. and “will report the facts to the competent bodies.” In this case, it will be the Anti-Violence Commission that proposes the sanction.
It is not the only sanction that Espanyol could suffer. The Generalitat could fine the blue and white entity up to 600,000 euros if it considered the invasion of a hundred of its fans from the field to the RCDE Stadium to interrupt the celebration of the Barcelona players as a very serious offense.
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