BARCELONA, Spain (AP) Next week's "clasico" between Barcelona and Real Madrid was postponed Friday by the Spanish soccer federation to avoid coinciding with a large separatist rally in riot-stricken Catalonia.

The federation's competitions committee said Barcelona and Madrid have until Monday to decide on another date. Both teams said later Friday they would like to play the match on Dec. 18.

The Spanish league wanted the match to be moved from Barcelona to Madrid because of security concerns, with the return match automatically switched from Madrid to Barcelona. But the competitions committee rejected that idea, saying that it was against its rules to invert the order of the games.

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