BARCELONA (Reuters) - Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu said the club decided to play Sunday's game against Las Palmas behind closed doors to show opposition to police violence against voters in Catalonia's independence referendum and not over safety concerns. Barca tried to have the game postponed but were told by La Liga that there were no grounds to do so in the interests of safety. "This (playing without fans) was a measure to show our rejection of what took place today," Bartomeu told television network BeIn Sports. "We decided that instead of postponing the game, which is what we wanted, we'd play behind closed doors. "If we hadn't played we'd have lost six points, three for the result and three as a punishment," added Bartomeu.

Source: The Star October 01, 2017 19:52 UTC