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Midnight feast for Barça

FC Barcelona fans get into the party spirit at the Camp Nou

5.9.2003
FC Barcelona showed that they knew the meaning of hospitality as they laid on a midnight feast for supporters attending their late-night fixture against Sevilla FC on Tuesday. Or should that be Wednesday? Barça demonstrated their mastery of the fixture schedule by arranging the kick-off for 00.05 local time so the game could be played before all of their most prized players had departed for international duty and yet avoid contravening the FIFA ruling which states that teams cannot play two matches in under 48 hours. Club president Joan Laporta turned the evening into a party. The Camp Nou doors opened at 21.15 and local comedian Santi Millán entertained the masses who munched away on a free pre-match snack of peanuts, Catalan sausage and chocolate biscuits, washed down with gazpacho - a refreshing, cold, tomato soup. Former Barça stars Ronald Koeman and Hristo Stoichkov contributed with telephone messages broadcast over the stadium's PA system, but some remain suspicious of the late-night option. "How are you going to expect your wife to believe that you are off to see the football at midnight?" pondered RC Deportivo La Coruña coach Javier Irureta. "She is just going to think you are cheating on her."

Uefa.com & Getty Images