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Barca supports Catalonia's independence vote

Barcelona still supports Cataloniaâs push to vote on secession from the rest of Spain despite warnings that independence would mean the clubâs exclusion from the Spanish league

The Jakarta Post

Barcelona

Sun, October 12, 2014 Published on Oct. 12, 2014 Published on 2014-10-12T07:15:47+07:00

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arcelona still supports Catalonia's push to vote on secession from the rest of Spain despite warnings that independence would mean the club's exclusion from the Spanish league.

Barcelona 'was one of the first institutions to declare it was in favor of the right to decide,' it said in a statement on Friday.

Catalonia's regional government wants to hold a nonbinding referendum on independence on Nov. 9. A Spanish court has suspended the vote to rule on its legality.

On Tuesday, the president of the Spanish soccer league, Javier Tebas,

said Barcelona and the other soccer teams in the northeastern region would be excluded from Spanish competitions if Catalonia became a separate state.

Tebas said the country's sports law entitles only one non-Spanish territory ' Andorra ' to legally participate in the league or other official competitions. If Catalonia were to gain independence, the law would have to be altered to let Catalan clubs, including Espanyol and second-division teams Girona and Sabadell, back in.

Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema said he wanted Barcelona in the league, which is historically dominated by the two rival clubs.