The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has rejected LaLiga’s request to postpone the upcoming match between Sevilla and Barcelona due to player involvement in South American World Cup qualifiers, but a “challenge” will be lodged.
LaLiga has filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against FIFA’s decision to implement a two-day extension to the CONMEBOL calendar for fixtures in September and October, a move made in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
LaLiga responded by requesting that two matches on September 11 – Sevilla vs Barcelona and Villarreal vs Deportivo Alaves – be postponed due to players only arriving back in Spain earlier that day. While the RFEF has rejected the request, LaLiga insists it will continue to fight for those postponements, adamant the decision “is not in accordance with the law” claim Marca.
A statement read: “LaLiga expresses its absolute disagreement with the resolution of the president of the Competition Committee, issued by delegation of the president of the RFEF, to reject the postponement requests submitted by both Villarreal – with respect to the Villarreal v Deportivo Alaves match set for Saturday, September 11 at 18:30 – and Sevilla – for the Sevilla v Barcelona match set for Saturday, September 11 at 21:00 – and by LaLiga, organiser of this competition.”
“The reason for these requests is to be able to maintain the integrity of the competition as a consequence of the extension of the FIFA period in September (CONMEBOL confederation) established by circular 1776 of August 13, setting the end of said period on Thursday, September 9 (early morning on Friday the 10th in Europe, with many players landing in Spain on Saturday morning and having to play games hours later).”
“Finally, these requests have been rejected as it is considered, inexplicably, that based on article 239 of the general regulations of the RFEF, the circumstances raised are not identified as a cause of force majeure, motivated by an unforeseeable circumstance such as the current one that goes beyond of the mere summons of the players in the manner established by the regulations.”
“In this sense, with this resolution of the RFEF (FIFA representative in Spain), the approach made by FIFA itself to oppose the precautionary measure requested by LaLiga before the CAS is being contradicted, indicating that it was easier for LaLiga to postpone these matches than for FIFA to postpone those of the CONMEBOL qualifiers. For all these reasons, LaLiga will challenge the aforementioned resolution considering it is not in accordance with the law.”
