Barcelona travel to London Tuesday

"Given the uncertainty caused by the ash from the Grimsvotn volcano, the FC Barcelona first team will travel to London today, Tuesday, at 22:00 hours," Barca said in a statement on their website.

Toni Freixa, spokesman for the Spanish club´s board of directors, said Barca had three options for the journey to play Manchester United on Saturday at Wembley stadium:

A direct flight to London on Tuesday evening, a flight to Paris on Tuesday evening and a train through the Channel Tunnel to London on Wednesday morning or an overnight train to Paris Tuesday and a train to London the next morning.

Barcelona's players and officials had planned to travel to the British capital on Thursday.

"We are looking to reduce the risk for the first team to zero," Freixa said.

Europe's air traffic control organisation said on Monday if volcanic emissions continued at the same rate the cloud could reach western French and northern Spanish airspace on Thursday.

Barca were forced to travel by bus to Milan for their Champions League semi-final first leg against Inter last season after a different Icelandic volcano erupted and caused air travel gridlock across Europe.

They lost the match 3-1 and went out 3-2 on aggregate after the return leg in Barcelona.