Barcelona cancel friendly in Morocco due to Ceuta migrant crisis

Barcelona have cancelled a planned pre-season friendly in Morocco as a result of the ongoing migrant crisis in Ceuta . Over the last few days roughly 78,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the North African coast, with around 100 people dying in the surge and between 3,000 and 5,000 migrants remaining in the territory, according to Ceuta’s leader Juan Jesus Vivas. There has long been tension between Morocco and Spain over the enclave, with the former refusing to recognise Spanish sovereignty over it and Spain’s other north African enclave, Melilla. A humanitarian emergency is still ongoing while the crisis has sparked a fierce diplomatic row within the EU over fears of borders being overrun, with Spain criticised in some quarters for how it has handled it; the response included deploying armed forces to Ceuta and Melilla but some argued it did not go far enough to restore order. Now Barcelona have “ruled out” a friendly which was due to be held in Morocco. They had been scheduled to face IR Tangier, who are based in northwestern Morocco, on 15 August. A team statement released on Thursday said: “In light of the current uncertainty and circumstances, FC Barcelona considers playing the match would be inappropriate.” The cancellation means Barcelona’s already short pre-season campaign has been further curtailed. The La Liga champions had been due to play Preston North End behind closed doors on 3 August but that was cancelled at the Championship side’s request, reportedly because they did not have enough first-team players available. Barcelona begin their title defence against Elche on 23 August.