The Champions League quarter-finals will go ahead as scheduled this week despite an alleged terror threat issued via a media outlet linked to Islamic State, UEFA has said.
The pro-IS media channel has published several images calling for attacks at stadiums hosting quarter-final ties on Tuesday and Wednesday, including Manchester City’s game in Madrid with Réal as well as Arsenal’s home tie in London with Bayern Munich .
UEFA said it was aware of the threats, but said games in Madrid, Paris and London would go ahead as planned.
Tomorrow, there are two further games – one in Paris, between PSG and Barcelona, and a second game in Madrid, between Atletico and Borussia Dortmund.
Pilar Alegría, Spain’s sports minister, has issued a message of “calm” ahead of Manchester City’s game at the Bernabeu tonight and said “more than 2,000 police and civil guard officers” are being deployed.
The acting mayor of Madrid, Inmaculada Sanz, told Spanish media there was no specific threat afoot, adding the terrorist alert level in Spain was four out of five, which is classified as high risk.
“These announcements are usually propaganda actions to provoke fear,” she said. “Both the security forces and the intelligence services are studying any possible threat, but there is nothing that makes us foresee a situation of special risk.”
UEFA said in a statement: “UEFA is aware of alleged terrorist threats made towards this week’s UEFA Champions League matches and is closely liaising with the authorities at the respective venues.
“All matches are planned to go ahead as scheduled with appropriate security arrangements in place.”
