BarcelonaThe arrival of the Champions League in Montjuïc, with Barça beating Antwerp 5-0, ended on Tuesday with the European competition nightmare. But for the residents of Poble Sec it was not such a sweet premiere. The flood of Belgian fans before the game, which partially blocked the Parallel and the Maria Cristina avenue, brought a “collapse” of traffic in the neighborhood, according to the residents, and in the passage of the supporters through Carrer Lleida, heading towards the Lluís Companys Stadium, there were throwing of objects and confrontations with fans and Mossos, with the result that six officers were injured. Some facts that the neighborhood describes as “unacceptable” and that they call for reversing, with the involvement of Barça, in view of the next matches of the European league.
In a statement released this Thursday, the Association of Residents of Poble Sec demands that the “competent authorities improve the management of these thousands of visiting fans” so that they do not generate “conflicts” in the neighborhood or in the rest of the city . In this sense, they demand from the Mossos a more exhaustive control of the route of the fans and propose to the City Council that, with the “collaboration and financing” of the Blaugrana club, install a fan zone in the Anella Olímpica on the days of the Champions League, when the large groups of European fans land in Barcelona.
“These people tend to drink a lot of alcohol and the situation gets out of control”, regrets Sergi Gàzquez, president of the Association, in statements to ARA, who admits that so far – in the Gamper and in the League matches already played in Montjuïc – they had not yet encountered a situation like this. “This has just happened in the group stage of the Champions League. We don’t even want to imagine what would happen in a semi-final,” he warned, noting that Tuesday’s matches took place next to Escola Jacint Verdaguer in the evening ( around 8 p.m.) in hours of “exit of extracurricular activities”.
According to the neighbors, however, the proposal of the fan zone it would allow to concentrate a large part of these fans from the morning near the stadium and avoid the problems that “mass displacements” cause in the neighborhood. Mossos sources, however, circumscribe the incidents at the time when the numerous Belgian fans headed towards the stadium, where the incidents against the police took place. In fact, they assure that the device was dimensioned following the usual protocols, and that they even expanded the number of cash deployed in the area, bearing in mind that it was the first Champions League game to be played in Montjuïc.
Silence from the club
At the request of this newspaper, Barça has refused to make “any comment” on the solution proposed by the neighbors. In fact, the same sources decline to comment on the statement itself claiming that it does not address the club when they speak of the “competent authorities”, which they identify with the administration and the security forces.
The silence is precisely what the Association criticizes the club, which it criticizes for not having agreed to meet there to address the impact of the Blaugrana’s landing in Montjuïc. “We have been asking Elena Fort for a meeting since March [vicepresidenta institucional del Barça] and they haven’t even answered us”, complains Gàzquez. Club sources say that they have indeed met with residents of the Sants-Montjuïc district with the help of the City Council, and that, in any case, it is the council who specifies the interlocutors. But for Gàzquez, it is not enough. “We are happy that Barça is now another neighbor of the neighborhood and we accept it, but that means having co-responsibility, listening to the neighbors and getting involved,” he concludes.
2023-09-21 17:27:10
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