FCBARCELONA.CAT

24.02.2010 14:20

Training cancelled due to late return from Stuttgart

www.fcbarcelona.cat

The players arrived back in Barcelona late due to a French air traffic controllers strike. As a consequence the training session scheduled for this afternoon was cancelled.

The Barça players are finally back in Barcelona after several hours of uncertainty on Wednesday morning. Their plane landed at Barcelona airport just after 2.15 pm. They were due to go straight to the training grounds but given the unexpected delay the session was cancelled.

The players will now begin their preparations for the weekend game against Malaga at 5.30 pm on Thursday. Touré will hold a press conference an hour before the training session starts.

Air traffic controllers strike

The Barça party stayed the night in Stuttgart and was due to return to Barcelona at 11 am. However, a strike by French air traffic controllers caused the departure of their flight to be delayed until 12.15.

A change of route

The route the Barça plane took back to Barcelona was changed in order to avoid France. They flew through the south of Austria, Italy (near Rome), the Balearic Islands and finally Barcelona. The change of route meant that the flight time was extended by30 minutes.