Amid the ongoing Scottish Premiership title debate, Spanish FA chief, Luis Rubiales, has suggested, as quoted by AS, that it would be ‘unfair’ for Barcelona to be awarded the La Liga title should the season fail to restart.
Barca are currently two points clear of Real Madrid at the top of the table with each side having 11 more matches to play before the end of the campaign.
However, with Spain currently observing a lockdown, there’s scepticism that those remaining fixtures will ever be played.
UEFA have made sacrifices in order to give domestic leagues the best possible opportunity to be completed, by postponing the European Championships for a year [UEFA.com], but even an extension until the end of June may prove insufficient.
In an interesting set of comments, Rubiales appears to have denied rumours that Barcelona would be crowned winners if the season was curtailed.
“We have been working with UEFA for many days, by phone and by videoconference,” he said, as quoted by AS. We have put forward some proposals that have been satisfactorily approved. We already know what the situations are for the European, local and Euro competitions.”
“The competitions have to be finished before June 30. All teams have to play all the matches. That is what we discussed with the 55 member federations and with the Executive Committee. We have all voted favourably.”
“The 19-20 season has to end with the same rules and not change, although the situation is exceptional. I cannot guarantee that the competition will end, as others have risked saying, before June 30. It is unfair that the competition ends with the classification as it is now.”
Verdict
Rubiales’ views here clearly mirror those set out by Rangers managing director, Stewart Robertson, earlier in the week [Rangers.co.uk].
The club, as well as many supporters and several ex-players, have suggested that handing Celtic the title before they had mathematically secured it would be wrong.
The title race is closer in Spain and there are more matches left to be played, but the fact that Rubiales has made the Spanish FA’s position so clear could strengthen Rangers’ argument.
Whilst a call from Spain not to award titles or to render their campaign null and void might not necessarily set a precedent across Europe, it’s conceivable that it could have some influence on SFA and SPFL decision-makers.
