Barcelona President Sandro Rosell has apologized for the 45-minute delay of his team's match against Osasuna on Saturday.
With flights in Spain grounded due to a strike by air traffic controllers, the club announced on its website that the game would be postponed until Sunday, provoking a protest from Osasuna, which claimed it had received no notification of the change.
Barcelona then reversed the decision and rushed to the game, arriving in time to warm up for 15 minutes before beating Osasuna 3-0.
"I assume the responsibility for the events preceding Saturday's game," said Rosell. "I personally led the dealings with the Spanish federation."
But he added that the club was acting on information that later turned out to be incorrect.
"I believed the words of the directors of the Spanish football federation and the Spanish airport authorities," he said.
After the match, Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was critical of the runup to the game.
"The information that we had was that the airport would be open," the Barcelona coach said. "If we had known that they were closing the airports we would have taken the train and bus, just like we ended up doing."
The Spanish sports press had criticized the reported suspension of the game with the sports daily Marca calling it a "present" from the federation to the league leaders.
