'El Clasico' at risk if Catalonia becomes independent

Spanish football federation (RFEF) president Javier Tebas Tuesday said that in the hypothetical case of the region of Catalonia becoming independent from Spain, FC Barcelona and Espanyol would not be able to continuing playing football in La Liga.

Tebas' words add a new dimension to the ongoing debate over the Catalan Independence Referendum which is scheduled Nov 9, although the Spanish Constitutional Court has ruled that all preparations should be put on hold as a result of the Spanish government's appeal that the vote is unconstitutional, reports Xinhua.

According to Tebas, should that vote go ahead and the Catalans vote to separate from Spain, Catalan football clubs would need to form their own league.

"They will not play in La Liga if Catalonia becomes independent and they will not do so for the following reasons: the Sporting Law has an additional clause which says there is only one non-Spanish state which can play in la Liga or in official Spanish competitions and that is Andorra," said Tebas, who explained that any change to that law would have to be made in the Spanish Parliament.

"We would have to see if the affected sector was in agreement with that or not," he added.

FC Barcelona is one of the biggest football clubs, not just in Spain, but also in the world and the 'Clasico' between Barcelona and Real Madrid is the biggest club match in the world and should the two teams play in different leagues it would probably have negative effects for all concerned.