FCBARCELONA.CAT

22.02.2008 10:42

City of Barcelona prepares to welcome Celtic

www.fcbarcelona.cat

Barcelona is getting ready for Celtic’s arrival for the return leg of the Champions League tie on March 4. The City Council is appealing to Celtic supporters to enjoy the city in a civilian manner.

"Whoever wins, the city won’t lose." That is one of the slogans the Barcelona City Council is using to ensure the fellowship and fair play among the Celtic and FC Barcelona supporters seen at Celtic Park is further strengthened when the tie resumes in Catalonia. The council is particularly keen to ensure that urban infrastructure is respected.

Therefore, a series of measures will be implanted to make sure that Celtic and Barça supporters alike are able to enjoy their time together is a responsible and civil way. The city is well aware that there were absolutely no incidents on Celtic’s two recent visits here, and as seen this week at Celtic Park, there is a special relationship between these two clubs that everybody is keen to see maintained.

Five areas of action

The Council will be collaborating with FC Barcelona and through its Security and Mobility Commission will be focussing on five main areas as they ensure enthusiasm for the Champions League has no negative effects on the city.

- Get everybody involved: The council has been working with Barça, Celtic and UEFA to coordinate the different services to avoid any negative effects on the city due to the arrival of such enormous numbers of supporters. The Barcelona and Catalan Tourist Boards, the British Consulate and other agents, such as the Airport and representatives of the city’s commercial and social networks will be cooperating to make sure everything goes ahead as planned.

- Information about supporters: Through different tour operators, as much information as possible is being collected about the number of people expected to arrive, how many days they will stay in the city and when they will return to Glasgow, as well as the type of fans arriving and the hotels they will be staying at.

- Campaign in the major Scottish media and the Celtic magazine: A major media campaign in collaboration between the clubs and the most widely read newspapers in Scotland, The Daily Record and The Sun Scotland, as well as Celtic’s own magazine. The aim is to ensure fans do not do anything untoward while in Barcelona. Examples include, "the fiesta is on the pitch and not in the city ", or "whoever wins, the city doesn’t lose ". 10,000 pamphlets are being printed to inform travellers about the best ways of getting along together.

- Information about the city’s regulations: The Council will be making a special effort to use bars, establishments and supermarkets to inform supporters about regulations for using public spaces and consuming alcohol.

- Measures to manage the presence of huge numbers of Scottish supporters: To control the numbers of fans, the airport will be providing instructions in English, including the distribution of flyers and there will also be a Meeting Point.

As well as these five main areas, the Mossos d'Esquadra police force will be keeping a tight control on things to make sure the Barça v Celtic match in the Champions League passes off without major incident.