RFEF reject Barcelona and Osasuna appeal over game with stars to miss game | OneFootball

Barcelona and Osasuna will be played within 48 hours of some of their players being on international duty, after the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) rejected an appeal from both sides to reschedule the match.

The game at Montjuic was postponed two weeks ago when Barcelona team doctor Carles Minarro Garcia sadly passed away just hours before the game. Last week the RFEF, reportedly at the request of La Liga, rearranged the game for Thursday the 27th of March, just two days after the international fixtures finish.

It means that Barcelona will likely be without Uruguayan Ronald Araujo, and Brazilian Raphinha, who are in action against Bolivia and Argentina respectively on Tuesday night. In the latter case, Raphinha’s game will finish in the early hours of the morning. Gerard Martin, Fermin Lopez and Pablo Torre are also in action for Spain’s under-21 side, meanwhile Osasuna’s starting central defender, Enzo Boyomo is playing for Cameroon against Libya the same night.

Photo by Marca

Both sides decided to appeal the decision, on the grounds that it would have a significant impact on their sides to play their game then. Osasuna were also due to face Athletic Club on Friday night, but that game will also be moved to Sunday night as a result, following the announcement from the RFEF that the appeal has been rejected.

Due to Barcelona’s participation in the Copa del Rey and Champions League, the only guaranteed available date was between the penultimate and ultimate La Liga matchdays, when the league were keen to do unified kick-off times, and said that it could impact on the integrity of the competition as a result. Other than that, there seemed to be no impediment to the game taking place then, as La Liga only began unifying kick-off times for the penultimate matchday in recent years.