Unhappy Barcelona in late dash to Pamplona for La Liga match against Osasuna

Barcelona were making a hurried 150-km trip by train and bus to Pamplona for their La Liga match against Osasuna on Saturday after originally believing the fixture had been postponed to Sunday, the club said.

A wildcat strike by air traffic controllers had caused travel chaos at the start of a holiday weekend in Spain and Barca were unable to take their flight to Pamplona on Saturday morning for a game scheduled to start at 19:00 GMT.                                           

After Barca put out a statement to this effect saying an agreement had been reached, the Spanish football federation (RFEF) and Osasuna quickly denied it, to say the match would go ahead as planned.

Spanish airspace opened again later in the afternoon, but Barca had set off by train to Zaragoza.

With an hour to go before kickoff at the Reyno de Navarra stadium, Barca were on a coach between Zaragoza and Pamplona and scheduled to arrive at around 19:00.

"They (RFEF) had assured us that if the air space wasn''t opened the match would be postponed," Barca vice-president Jordi Cardoner was quoted as saying in Spanish media.   

"At 1.30 in the afternoon, the federation confirmed the postponement to our president and at 3 o'clock for unknown reasons they changed their opinion and told us the match would go ahead as planned.  

"Obviously there has been a misunderstanding."

After the Spanish champions had put out their statement to say the game had been postponed to Sunday, Osasuna put out a contradictory statement to say they had had no official confirmation of the change.

A spokesperson for the RFEF backed Osasuna's claim.

"The game has not been postponed," he told Reuters by telephone. "The RFEF expect the weekend's matches to go ahead as planned and the Barca game to be played at 1900. There is still time. 

"If Barca don't turn up, the disciplinary committee will have to decide what to do." 

Saturday's other two matches were unaffected. 

Valencia travelled by coach to the Spanish capital on Friday afternoon to play Real Madrid on Saturday (2100), while Atletico Madrid went in the opposite direction, also by coach, in order to play Valencia-based Levante on Saturday (17:00 GMT).