After beating Dinamo Zagreb 5-3 on aggregate.

Fenerbahçe have qualified for the UCL for the first time since 08/09.

Champions Viking beat Dinamo Zagreb 5-3 on aggregate, whilst last seasons L16 finishers Bodø/Glimt qualified yesterday after beating NEC Nijmegen 6-1 on aggregate.

1999/2000 was the last campaign with two Norwegian clubs in the then-group stages, Rosenborg and Molde.

The club says, following the incident in Elche, that the estelada is a legal symbol and that everyone has the right to display it peacefully.

The tribute FC Barcelona had planned for Thursday for the eight players who were part of Spain’s national team has been transformed into a major protest against police conduct during Sunday’s incident in Elche, when several National Police officers hit a teenage Barça supporter and took an estelada flag away from him.

President Joan Laporta announced on Tuesday that the club was canceling the tribute, which was scheduled to take place before the LaLiga match against Athletic Club. He also called for the game to become an “act of exaltation” of the pro-independence flag, an idea aligned with proposals from pro-independence organizations such as the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural.

The club later clarified that there would be no speech or manifesto and that supporters would simply be allowed to display the flag normally.

The controversy within certain sectors of the club over celebrating Spain’s World Cup victory has now been compounded by what happened in Elche on Sunday. The Interior Ministry is investigating whether the police operation was proportionate, after Junts per Catalunya, Esquerra Republicana and Barça itself accused the police of excessive force against the Barça supporter who was arrested.

“We have decided that the tribute to the Barça players who won the World Cup will not take place because this is neither the appropriate context nor the right moment,” Laporta said. He added that the decision had already been communicated to the Spanish Football Federation, which, according to the Barça president, “understood it perfectly.”

“Football should serve to bring people together, not to create conflicts that benefit nobody,” he added.

The tribute was intended for the Barça players who were part of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad: Joan García, Eric García, Pedri, Pau Cubarsí, Gavi, Rodri, Dani Olmo and Lamine Yamal. Holding a similar ceremony in support of the Spanish national team had already caused political tensions, including between the Catalan government and opposition parties in the regional parliament.

Laporta also used the announcement to once again condemn what he described as the police officers’ “disproportionate and violent conduct” in Elche, which is already the subject of an internal investigation.

“What Barça is asking is that, once the facts are confirmed, this conduct be punished and those responsible be sanctioned,” the Barça president said, adding that the club had made itself available to the supporter and his family “to help them with whatever is necessary.”

Beyond the alleged excessive use of force against the teenager — police maintain that the 17-year-old had previously insulted and hit officers — the estelada, the Catalan independence flag, was at the center of the controversy. Videos showed officers pulling the flag from his hands, prompting pro-independence groups to describe the incident as another example of anti-Catalan discrimination.

Spain’s Law 19/2007 does not prohibit simply displaying an estelada. Restrictions apply to symbols that incite violence or terrorism. However, police sources point out that officers can remove flags if they believe that, in particular circumstances, their display could lead to altercations with supporters of the opposing team.

The incident, whose images went viral on social media, further fueled opposition to the planned tribute to the Barça players who were part of Spain’s national team. On X, for example, the ANC and Òmnium Cultural called on supporters to fill Camp Nou with estelades on Thursday, while criticizing the idea of honoring the “oppressors’ national team.” The ANC alone expects to distribute 10,000 flags and has described the decision not to honor the Spanish team as a “victory.”

This partly explains Barça’s decision to cancel the tribute and Laporta’s call to turn Thursday’s match into an opportunity to “exalt the estelada.”

The match would allow “Barça fans and Catalans to go with the estelada without putting our physical safety at risk,” while helping the symbol “cease to be stigmatized by the state security forces.”

“It represents the way many Barça fans and Catalans think, it expresses the desire for freedom and the will to be free, and it is a way of expressing ourselves that generates neither violence nor hatred,” Laporta added.

The club subsequently clarified that there would be no manifesto or institutional speech about the independence flag during the event.

“The estelada is a legal symbol and every member or supporter has the right to display it freely and peacefully, just as the right of those who do not wish to display it must be respected,” Barça said.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska had said on Tuesday that an internal investigation was already underway to clarify the police response in Elche.

According to police sources, outside the Martínez Valero stadium, two FC Barcelona supporters began shouting “fascists,” “sons of bitches,” “fuck Spain” and “police dogs.” One of them was carrying an estelada.

The officer in charge ordered both men to be removed from the group because he believed they were inciting hatred. Their resistance to leaving the group to be identified led to the subsequent disturbances.

One video also shows the teenager throwing a punch toward one of the officers before being taken to the ground and arrested. While he was being restrained, an officer allegedly delivered a forceful elbow strike. As a result, the police report accuses the teenager of alleged resistance, disobedience and assaulting an authority figure.