Barcelona pay tribute to the late stadium announcer Manel Vich

Barça fans paid an emotional tribute to Manel Vich, the voice of Camp Nou for 58 years,  before today's Catalan derby meeting with Epanyol. Last Monday, the Barça board of director had decided to honour Vich ahead of the match. Before the game, the recorded voice of Vich was played over the stadium's PA with his habitual: "Good evening and welcome to the stadium" (in Catalan: "Bona nit i benviguts a l'estadi"); his famous phrase could be branded by the club next season if Vich's family give their permission. Up in Vich's old announcer's box, his seat was empty and his microphone lay unplugged on his old table. The team line-ups were not announced, nor were the goals, substitutions. All information on the game was relayed silently via the Camp Nou video screen.

Barça had also planned to hold a minute's silence in Vich's honour before kick-off but spectators turned it into a rousing ovation. Vich, as Diario AS' Barcelona correspondent Santi Giménez wrote in his obituary on 29 April was the first stadium announcer to dare to speak in Catalan over the PA system at Camp when using any of the regional languages in Spain was a punishable offence. Vich's distictive "S'ha perdut un nen" (a lost child has been found) became a Camp Nou classic.