El Clasico violence fears as police ramp up security for Barcelona vs Real Madrid clash

Barcelona and Real Madrid will be protected by 3,000 police and security staff amid the threat of possible violence as a huge planned protest takes place at the Nou Camp.

The Clasico match was originally scheduled for October 26 but it was postponed following mass demonstrations after nine Catalan separatist leaders were jailed.

Catalan protest group Tsunami Democratic has organised a mass protest at 4pm, four hours before kick-off, with 32,000 people expected at four designated points around the Barcelona stadium.

Special steps will be implemented to ensure the safety of players and supporters.

A total of 1,000 police officers and an additional 2,000 security staff will be deployed around the ground and those inside will keep a close eye on fans.

Banners with ‘Spain, sit and talk’ will be allowed in the stadium but if the messages are deemed to incite violence, racism or xenophobia, they will not be permitted.

The possibility of pitch invasions interrupting the game is a bigger concern for security staff because they are difficult to prevent.

The match has been classified as high risk due to the planned protests and a terrorism alert has also been considered.

Barca had wanted the original game to go ahead as planned and said there would be no safety ­concerns if it were to take place. Real then offered to switch the match to the Bernabeu but their rivals refused and the two teams agreed on December 18 as the new date.

The teams will both spend the build-up to the match at the Sofia Hotel, just 600 metres from the ground, where they will be just three floors apart.

Madrid were due to fly at 11am and arrive at the hotel not long after midday, with Barca set to turn up by coach a little past 12.30pm. They will have lunch at the venue, in separate parts of the building, before making their way to the Nou Camp in a ­convoy of buses and vans, flanked by a police escort, just before 6pm.

“It’s something different,” Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. “The rules are the rules. They told us we had to leave the hotel together and we will.”

It had been thought, as Zidane stated, that the teams would leave at the same time. But the security co-ordinator for the match, Lluis Venteo, told El Larguero yesterday night: “The Barcelona and Real Madrid buses won’t go together. Barcelona’s is scheduled to leave first and then Madrid’s.”

The match officials will leave from the same location, having switched hotel at the request of the security staff, a little later on.

Barcelona players would normally relax at home and arrive at the Nou Camp by car and coach Ernesto Valverde said yesterday: “It’s a small change but not significant. It’s ­something we do at away games: eat at the hotel, then go to the stadium.”

La Liga president Javier Tebas, who opposes Catalan ­independence, did not want the game to be used as a political platform for the secession movement.

But, two months down the line, it will be. It is unclear what is planned but Tsunami Democratic says its intention is not for the match to be suspended, only for its ­message for dialogue to resolve the conflict between Catalonia and the Spanish state to be broadcast around the world.