Barcelona will close a section behind the goal at the Olympic Stadium “indefinitely,” starting against Brest on Tuesday, due to a dispute with supporters’ groups over unpaid fines, the club have announced.
Barça say an agreement with the groups that make up the Espai d’Animació (EDA) — the singing section in the North Goal stand — to pay any fines resulting from their behaviour has not been fulfilled.
Sources told ESPN the total amount outstanding is around €21,000 ($22,092).
“Given the agreements signed between the club and the supporters’ groups, the club, after repeated warnings, initiated the process to recover the money owed for sanctions imposed for [the fans’] behaviour last season,” Barça said in a statement.
“This behaviour resulted in 14 disciplinary proceedings for violations of the current regulations in this section of the stadium. During this process, the supporters’ groups have been granted three separate deadlines to fulfil their obligations. The last one expired on Monday at midnight.
“As the different groups have now been informed, having failed to comply with their obligations, the club will close the EDA indefinitely. The club reiterates its willingness to engage with the groups in question to discuss the EDA’s situation once they have met their obligations.”
The ban will begin on Tuesday, when Barça host Brest in the Champions League at the Olympic Stadium. The Catalan side are at home again on Saturday when they play Las Palmas in LaLiga.
“We wanted to meet with the club to discuss the situation and the club was willing to, but only if we paid the €21,000 they are demanding, something we could not do because it would mean assuming responsibility as a group,” Albert Yarza, president of the Penya Almogàvers, told reporters — the Penya Almogàvers are one of the groups that make up the EDA.
“The club today told us that we cannot go to the stadium and we have asked for a meeting to resolve the issue, but without the conditional payment of that money.
“We will collaborate. The members of the EDA pass three filters: Ours, the club’s and the [police’s]. We ask our members not to follow any chants that may come from outside [of the EDA]. We don’t have to be the police on this issue, the club has the tools to locate and sanction people who behave in a reprehensible and punishable way.
“You cannot criminalise an entire collective for individual actions. There are 572 of us in the EDA and there are 14 fines.”
The EDA occupy a section behind one of the goals at the stadium — where Barça are playing temporarily while Camp Nou is regenerated — which is made up of around 600 seats.
Barça say the EDA’s “mission is to create an atmosphere of support for the team that encourages the rest of the public to join in from the first minute of every game.”