La Liga president Javier Tebas Medrano has already warned that La Liga would have to wave goodbye to clubs in the region if there was to be a national split, but hopes it won’t become a reality.
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FC Barcelona will not be taking sides in the forthcoming elections for the Catalan regional assembly on September 27 in which voters will decide between pro-independence groups or those in favour of the region remaining part of Spain.
Catalans will soon vote for a new regional government, which, depending on the outcome, could lead ever closer to a formal declaration of independence from Spain and the central government in Madrid.
An agreement struck between France and Algeria allowed for Algerians born before 1963, independence year, to keep their French nationality. Spanish bank associations have also warned that banking groups might have to reconsider their positions in Catalonia in the case of independence.
Spain’s sports minister Miguel Cardenal echoed Tebas’ concerns, explaining that Barcelona would have to ask to be registered for the league. He tweeted in Spanish, saying: “If Spain is broken up, La Liga breaks too. To say this, that (the Catalans) could maintain nationality – is an occurrence that has not been said”.
Artur Mas, Catalonia’s pro-independence regional president, meanwhile told AFP: “If the Spanish state does not change the constitution, we will automatically have Spanish nationality”.
The situation in the country has been heating up for some time now.
“The lack of an accord would be collective suicide” for Spain, he added. Catalans complain about how much of their tax money is redistributed to the rest of Spain.
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Three polls for Spanish newspapers El Pais, La Vanguardia and ABC show the main pro-independence movement Junts pel Si (JxSi, or the “Together for Yes” coalition) winning between 63 and 67 seats, or around 41 percent of the vote, Reuters reported, just shy of an absolute parliamentary majority of 68 seats.
