European power outage derails travel, events, and sports
Joan Laporta did not reach Switzerland for the UEFA Youth League final and hence missed witnessing FC Barcelona's victory in person. The cause was a significant power outage affecting several countries in Europe.
Residents of several countries in Western Europe faced an unusual day. On Monday, a large number of residents in Spain, Portugal, France, and Andorra experienced power cuts.
The outage affected Iga Świątek, for example. On Monday, the Polish tennis player was due to play a match in the WTA tournament in Madrid. However, in the afternoon, her match against Diana Shnaider was cancelled because, without power, it was impossible to operate the systems supporting the umpires or the cameras on the courts.
Joan Laporta also had to alter his plans. The president of FC Barcelona was intending to watch the UEFA Youth League final live on Monday, in which the young Catalan team was participating. The final took place in Nyon, Switzerland. It is now known that Joan Laporta did not make it to the stadium.
The power outage disrupted transport in Spain, among other places. Joan Laporta was caught by surprise by these issues, as were many others, and it was too late to adjust his plans.
Although emergency power was activated at airports, travellers still had to reach them. Unfortunately, Joan Laporta missed the flight from Barcelona to Geneva, so he had to settle for watching the television broadcast. That is, assuming he could turn on his TV.
There was no lack of reasons to celebrate, as FC Barcelona triumphed 4-1 against Turkey's Trabzonspor. They claimed the trophy for the third time in their history, having previously won the UEFA Youth League in 2014 and 2018. Just over an hour was enough for the Blaugrana to score four goals, courtesy of Ibrahim Diarra, Andres Cuenca, Hugo Alba, and Ibrahim Diarra again.
