Admittedly, the idea of the mighty FC Barcelona one day becoming a Premier League team seems a little fat-fetched.
It is, however, a possibility… at least according to Gerard Figueras – sport minister for Catalonia, the region in which the city of Barcelona lies.
On Sunday, Catalonia intends to hold a referendum on whether the region should be independent from the rest of Spain, despite promises from the Spanish government that the vote will be blocked.
If Catalonia ever does become an independent nation, Figueras believes that the La Liga teams that call the region home should have the right to choose where they play their football, with the Premier League a possibility that might be open to them.
“In the case of independence, Catalan teams in La Liga – Barcelona, Espanyol and Girona – will have to decide where they want to play: in the Spanish league or a neighbouring country like Italy, France or the Premier League,” he is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
“Now in Spain there are teams from other countries who play in national leagues: clubs from Andorra in football and basketball.
“Monaco play in France. In England there are Welsh clubs. I don’t think that UEFA has anything against seeing another club play in a different league from their country.”
Spain’s insistence that the vote is ‘illegal’ means the issue of the region’s independence is unlikely to be resolved any time soon. With that, the very remote chance that Barca may end up in the Greatest League on Earth™ seems like a topic of conversation for another day.
