Barcelona’s LaLiga clash with Sevilla is POSTPONED after clubs complained about a lack of players due to South Americans only arriving back on Friday… but Real Madrid WILL have to play despite having four big names missing
- Sevilla vs Barcelona and Villarreal vs Alaves have been postponed this weekend
- Sevilla would have been hardest hit, with three players in the Argentina squad
- Real Madrid will still have to play on Sunday, before a European game in the week
- This is despite the likes of Fede Valverde, Casemiro and Vinicius Jr all being away
The LaLiga showdown between Sevilla and Barcelona this weekend has been postponed after both clubs complained about the unavailability of their South American stars.
Sevilla would have been hit hardest, with the Argentinian trio of Gonzalo Montiel, Papu Gomez and Marcos Acuna all in action on Friday night, rendering them all-but-unavailable for Saturday’s scheduled match, while Ronald Araujo would have missed out for Barca.
Both clubs are then in Champions League action on Tuesday, and therefore the High Council for Sports (CSD) in Spain have ruled in favour of postponing the game.
Barcelona centre back Ronald Araujo (left) is away on international duty with Uruguay
Papu Gomez is one of three Sevilla players that would have missed the Barcelona match
The news will come as a considerable blow to Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, who aren’t understood to have requested for their own matches to be postponed.
They are both in action on Sunday, and then will go straight into their Champions League campaigns on Wednesday night.
In the case of Real Madrid, Fede Valverde, Eder Militao, Casemiro and Vinicius Jr are all scheduled to play on Thursday night – the early hours of Friday in Europe – before returning to Madrid ahead of the game against Celta Vigo on Sunday.
Villarreal’s game against Alaves has also been postponed, while all other LaLiga matches will continue as normal.
In a statement revealing the news on Tuesday afternoon, Barcelona 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 Sánchez Pizjuán 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 Barça and Villarreal and Alavés 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 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 World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina was suspended in incredible scenes
It has already been an interesting international break for Brazil and Argentina’s internationals, with their World Cup qualifying game abandoned after public health officials stormed the pitch.
Four Premier League-based Argentinian players were detained for ‘dodging quarantine’, and Spurs pair Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso are now set to be fined by their clubs for flying on international duty with permission.
Premier League clubs are now seemingly very wary of releasing their players for international matches, with Aston Villa chief Christian Purslow admitting he is ‘incredibly nervous’.
The Argentina players were accused of having broken Brazil’s Covid quarantine rules
Sevilla’s Marcos Acuna (centre) is another player who was involved in the quarantine farce
