{"id":112831,"date":"2026-08-07T15:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T15:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/112831\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T15:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T15:40:14","slug":"ceuta-crisis-forces-fc-barcelona-to-swap-ittihad-tanger-for-basel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/112831\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceuta Crisis Forces FC Barcelona to Swap Ittihad Tanger for Basel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rabat \u2013 FC Barcelona is expected to play its third pre-season friendly match against Swiss club FC Basel. The news comes as FC Barcelona canceled its scheduled match against Moroccan side Ittihad Tanger due to the Ceuta migration crisis.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marca.com\/futbol\/barcelona\/2026\/08\/07\/barca-punto-cerrar-amistoso-frente-basilea.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Marca said today that <\/a>Barcelona is in advanced talks to play Basel on Sunday, August 16, at the Swiss club\u2019s home ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The report described an optimistic mood inside the Barcelona camp, with an official agreement expected within hours. Negotiations between the two clubs are close to completion, and an official announcement is expected shortly.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the Basel fixture, Barcelona is also preparing for the Joan Gamper Trophy against Egypt\u2019s Al Ahly on August 19, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Barcelona confirmed that it was scrapping the Tangier match, which had been set for August 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The club cited \u201cuncertainty and the current circumstances\u201d following developments linked to the arrival of a large number of migrants in Ceuta,\u00a0 saying in its statement that going ahead with the fixture \u201cwould be inappropriate\u201d given the situation.<\/p>\n<p>The cancellation costs Barcelona an estimated \u20ac4.5 million ($4.9 million), the fee reportedly agreed for the club\u2019s participation in the Morocco trip.<\/p>\n<p>The decision left Hansi Flick\u2019s technical staff needing to move quickly, with the German coach seeking an immediate alternative to preserve the team\u2019s match fitness ahead of the LaLiga campaign, which opens on August 23 against Elche.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Flick has already overseen a triangular tournament in Udine, Italy, against Nottingham Forest and Udinese as part of the club\u2019s preseason preparations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rabat \u2013 FC Barcelona is expected to play its third pre-season friendly match against Swiss club FC Basel.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[77,54939,54895,54998],"class_list":["post-112831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basel","tag-basel","tag-ceuta","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-ittihad-tanger"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117054984982755584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}