Barcelona players were forced to sprint towards the tunnel after their title celebrations on Sunday night, but the club were given fair warning by the police.
According to Cadena SER, the Catalan police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, had asked Barcelona not to celebrate on the pitch after the final whistle against Espanyol. Fans would subsequently breach the pitchside security and go after the Barcelona players.
The reason being that the pitchside security is entrusted to the home side and their private service that they hire – the Mossos were only able to protect the players once inside the tunnel. It does perhaps show the need for a review of the way security is handled, particularly as the game was designated as ‘high-risk’ by La Liga.
The league have since announced they will be working with Espanyol to identify fans and ban them from football grounds, as well as reporting them to the relevant authorities. Many expect that Espanyol will be used as an example with a strong punishment to de-incentivise fans from similar actions, although so far this season, sanctions have tended to be individual when fans have fallen foul of the law.
