Nationalist parties have won the regional elections in Catalonia. They plan to hold an independence referendum within eighteen months. Spain has said that it would challenge any such referendum in the courts.
Nationalist parties have won the regional elections in Catalonia. They plan to hold an independence referendum within eighteen months. Spain has said that it would challenge any such referendum in the courts.
El Clásico between Barcelona and Real Madrid is arguably the most iconic match in world football. However, if Catalonia became independent, Barcelona could not play in the Spanish league. Javier Tebas, the president of Spain’s professional football league tweeted, ‘If Spain breaks apart, the league breaks apart.’
Spain’s sports secretary Miguel Cardenal predicted that FC Barcelona would be starved of revenue and strong competition if it found itself in a Catalan-only league.
However, Catalan officials dismissed all this talk as scaremongering designed to affect the election result (if that was the intention, it failed). They pointed out that Monaco plays in the French league and Andorra in the Spanish league (and the leading Liechtenstein club plays in the Swiss league).
Paradoxically, Scotland is (not yet) independent, but has its own league system and national team. However, from time to time, there have been hints that its top clubs would like to play in the Premiership, but there have been too many practical obstacles.