Barca to fly to London early due to volcano ash

The Barcelona squad will fly to London on Tuesday evening for the Champions League final, two days earlier than planned, due to the disruption to air travel caused by the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano, the club said. The club had intended to leave on Thursday for Saturday's final at Wembley against Manchester United. "Due to the uncertainty caused by ash from the Grimsvoetn volcano, the first team of Barcelona will travel to London on Tuesday at 10pm," it said in a statement on its website Tuesday. It said a board spokesman would address a press conference at 5pm (1500GMT) Tuesday to explain travel details for supporters. The plume of ash from the volcano has already reached Britain and halted hundreds of flights. Barca was also seeking to avoid a repeat of last year, when the squad travelled 1,000 kilometres by coach to Milan for their Champions League semi-final because the ash cloud from another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjoell, disrupted air travel throughout Europe. The Catalan giants lost that match 3-1 against Inter.