LFP President insists 'Clasico' will go ahead despite terrorist threat

Javier Tebas, the President of the Spanish Football League (LFP) on Wednesday insisted that for the time being the biggest game of the season, which sees Real Madrid entertain FC Barcelona in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Saturday night, is in no danger of being postponed because of the risk of terrorism.

Last Friday's events in Paris have placed the game, which will see 78,000 fans congregate in the center of Madrid on Friday evening, under a security spotlight after Basque separatist group ETA twice targeted the match in 2002 and 2004, firstly with a car bomb, which lightly injured nine people and a false bomb alert, which forced the ground to be evacuated.

Now with Spain under a level four (out of five alert) for a possible attack by DAESH (Islamic State) and the fact Spain's friendly game in Belgium was cancelled on Tuesday night for security reasons, the 'Clasico' will covered by a massive security operation involving around 1,000 police.

For the moment, however, Tebas said there was no immediate threat.

"If security forces see any danger we will act, but at the moment there is not the least risk the game will be suspended," said the LFP President.

"There will be a special security operation for the Clasico, but I think there would have been in any case without anyone realizing," he said.

Tebas also pointed out that with a full league program scheduled for the weekend, the Clasico was not the only game on the calendar. "We are not just worried about the Clasico, but for every game. There is no risk of a league match being suspended," he insisted. Endit