BARCELONA, Spain – Barcelona football fans on Tuesday defied a European ban on displaying Catalan independence flags, when they waved the same flags and chanted for independence before a game with Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen.
It has been customary for Barcelona Football Club (FCB) fans to show the Catalan independence flag at the 17.14 minute of each match.
But the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) imposed a 30,000 euros fine on the Barcelona club last July, after a massive presence of the flags and chants in favor of Catalan independence at a finals match in Berlin.
Before the match at Camp Nou in Barcelona on Tuesday – in which the home team scored a 2-1 victory -- Barca fans whistled and hooted during the playing of the Champions League anthem.
The local newspaper La Vanguardia said the fans were expressing their rejection of the UEFA sanctions.
Madrid and Catalonia’s independence row intensified on Tuesday, after the Spanish government ordered an investigation against the head of its autonomous Catalonia region for calling a 2014 referendum.
Last Sunday, a sizeable victory by pro-independence parties in local elections in Catalonia gave new wing to Catalan demands for secession from Spain.
Madrid intensified the row by announcing Tuesday it was starting proceedings against acting Catalan President Artur Mas for a 2013 independence referendum.
Catalonia, a region of 7.5 million people, does not have the constitutional power to hold elections for independence.
Madrid’s move against Mas triggered a wave of support by leftist parties that are unsympathetic to his center-right movement, but oppose the interference by Madrid.
The parties in favor of independence obtained 47.8 percent of the votes in Sunday’s polls. The turnout of 78 percent was also regarded as an important indicator of the Catalan mood.
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