BARCELONA’S La Liga clash against Sevilla will no longer take place this weekend.
The game has been postponed after La Liga chiefs won an appeal to Spain’s High Council for Sports to push the fixture back to a later date, The Athletic report.
They had initially asked FIFA to extend the league’s stars break due to the backlog of three games they’ve had to play in the international break caused by the delayed South American World Cup qualifiers.
But FIFA had denied the La Liga’s request at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Which led the Spanish football bosses to appeal the decision as they didn’t think the players would be in any condition to compete.
Along with Barca’s game against Sevilla being axed, Villarreal’s game against Alaves will also no longer go ahead.
Speaking on their successful appeal, Barca said: “High Council for Sports (CSD) has adjudicated in favour of the injunction requested by La Liga to postpone the fixture between Sevilla and Barca set for Saturday 11 September.
“The game was set to start at 9pm CEST in the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville but will now be played at a later date.
“The request was made after the Spanish Football Federation’s Competition Committee came out against La Liga wish for the fixtures between Sevilla and Barca and Villarreal and Alaves to be postponed.
“On 29 August La Liga released a press statement announcing that they have made a request to the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to postpone the two games from week’s list of fixtures as well as to modify kick off times of other fixtures.
“After (the) failure of La Liga’s injunction against FIFA’s decision to prolong the time away of South American international players in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The decision was taken ‘as there will be players who return to their clubs on Friday after having played three games during the international break and many of them have games on Saturday and Sunday.
“All of which makes clear that will not be in any state to compete on an equal footing.”
The South American World Cup qualifiers were thrown into chaos when the Covid pandemic hit last year.
Cases were rife in the region which led to all games being suspended until this year.
Several La Liga stars were involved in the Brazil vs Argentina farce a few days ago that was axed after just seven minutes.
The game was brought to an abrupt end when federal officials invaded the pitch to reprimand three Argentina stars who were accused of falsifying documents to enter Brazil illegally.
The trio included Spurs pair Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero and Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martinez.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
