Barcelona (AFP)

For decades, Joan and Roger have not missed a single Barça-Real clasico at Camp Nou.

But this time, the virus is forcing them to stay at home: on Saturday (4 p.m.), the most watched club match in the world will be played in front of 100,000 empty seats.

President of one of the associations of historical supporters of the Catalan club, Joan Bertran assures to have attended all the FC Barcelona - Real Madrid disputed in the blaugrana enclosure for 48 years.

"It's not just a football game, it's all there is around: the rituals, the beers, the atmosphere, the passion ... This Saturday will be very sad. It will not be a Barça-Madrid ", regrets this 52-year-old supporter who has not returned to Camp Nou since the outbreak of the coronavirus in March.

The global pandemic has forced football to stop.

And when it resumed, the public was not invited, for health reasons.

While other European countries have allowed limited attendance, in Spain professional matches are still played behind closed doors, including the clash between Barça and Real, a more than a century-old rivalry that attracts more than 650 to each match. million viewers around the world, according to the Spanish League (LaLiga).

"There are concerts and plays in closed spaces, but I, since March, have not been allowed to go to a large stadium with 100,000 seats in the open air ... It doesn't. has no meaning, football is being criminalized ", protests Bertran.

Height of despair, he will also not be able to resort to plan B, which consists of meeting with the other members of the group of supporters of Pena Anguera, playing a friendly match between them and watching the match in the association bar. , when it takes place in the Spanish capital.

- Nostalgia -

Faced with a rapid increase in the number of cases, the Catalan regional government imposed last week the closure of bars and restaurants, usually packed for the clasico.

"Here, we were showing the matches on a giant screen, there were 70-80 people shouting and cheering on their team, it was as full as an egg," said Bertran nostalgically.

"This time, we won't even be able to see the game here," he said sadly.

Even if the match schedule (4:00 p.m. / 2:00 p.m. GMT) is not ideal for Spanish customs, where it is lunchtime, the manager of Ovella Negra (Le Mouton Noir, in Catalan), thought that 'he could fill his enormous brewery, an old industrial building in Barcelona where many Barça supporters have their habits.

"We go from having to accommodate 600 people for the clasico to collect zero euros", regrets Albert Devesa, outraged by the measure taken in this region for at least two weeks.

"We imagined that in a month they would lower the curtain to us at 10 p.m. or shut us down, downright ... But we thought we could have a normal service for Barça-Real. Not even. The closure, c ' is really very hard, ”he says.

- "The smell of the lawn" -

The bars and restaurants that line Europe's largest stadium, Camp Nou (99,000 seats), in an uncrowded area of ​​town, have mostly lowered the curtain, with the exception of a few that serve as take-out food.

And many of the souvenir shops surrounding Barca's stadium have simply disappeared, helpless in the face of the lack of tourists and supporters.

"If we continue like this, the jerseys will lose their colors," half jokes one of the last tenants.

It is in this district that Roger Banal lived, socio (supporter-shareholder) of the Catalan club from the beginning of the 1970s. "Culé (Barcelonese) to the marrow", he used to leave the stadium promptly. final whistle to review the game immediately on television.

On Saturday, he will watch it live on the screen, with his family, on the sofa of his house in Sabadell, about thirty kilometers from the Catalan capital.

"But I will put on the scarf and the shirt of Barça, yes," assures this 60-year-old retiree.

"It won't be the same: the atmosphere, the feeling of entering the stands and smelling the smell of the lawn. Now, when I pass through a park and the grass has just been mown, it reminds me Camp Nou. Honestly, we miss him a lot, "he concludes.

© 2020 AFP