‘More than a club’: Barcelona refuse to play against Israeli team in disputed Jerusalem.

Barcelona football club have refused to play a friendly football game against Israeli team Beitar Jerusalem in the disputed city.

The owner of Israel’s Beitar football club says he has called off the friendly match following Catalan club’s refusal to hold the game in Jerusalem. Beitar owner Moshe Hogeg said in a statement he had decided not to sign the contract on the match because “I understood that the price I would have to pay is to boycott Jerusalem … to lend a hand to those who come out against Jerusalem”.

A Beitar spokesman said FC Barcelona had asked that the game be played in a city other than Jerusalem.

Moshe Lion, the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, told Israel’s Army Radio: “They (Barcelona) were not willing to come to Jerusalem. I don’t want to inflame matters, but they weren’t willing to sleep in Jerusalem or to visit Jerusalem either.”

More than a club:

“Més que un club” (“More than a club”) is Barcelona’s motto and time and again they have shown they will stand by their words.

Jerusalem, whose eastern sector  Israel captured in a 1967 Middle East war and annexed as its capital in a move not recognised internationally, while the Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

On Sunday, the Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta as saying the club had not confirmed it would hold any friendly match in Jerusalem.

Barcelona had a history of actions in “clear defence of the rights and freedoms of all peoples of the earth,” WAFA quoted Laporta as saying.