Spare a thought for these Barcelona fans who travelled to the Nou Camp from Melbourne on Sunday, only to find out the game with Las Palmas was to be played behind closed doors.
As reported by BBC, Barcelona were forced to play their game with Las Palmas behind closed doors amid clashes around Catalonia’s independence referendum.
While the Spanish government had promised to stop a poll that they declared as being illegal, it’s reported that Spanish league officials made the decision to play the game behind closed doors as they refused to postpone it.
It’s claimed at least 337 people have been injured in the angry clashes, and so in the interests of public safety, it was the appropriate decision to take to avoid further issues arising in and out of the stadium.
However, it’s a real sad story for this family of three, as noted by Andy Mitten in the tweet below, as they made the 10,449-mile journey from Melbourne to see the game, while they had booked three months ago with the view of seeing Neymar in action.
They won’t get either on their trip while the Brazilian has now moved on to Paris Saint-Germain, and so it remains to be seen if the club get wind of it and offer to do anything or if they’ve ultimately just had to make do with a holiday to Spain.
Debate will rage on over whether or not this was the right decision and there are serious matters at hand in Catalonia this weekend. However, you have to feel for these guys…
At Camp Nou. Much confusion. Speaking to this family who've travelled from Melbourne…booked 3 months ago to see Neymar. pic.twitter.com/xC0mt252uo
— Andy Mitten (@AndyMitten) October 1, 2017