Pep Guardiola would have refused to play FC Barcelona’s match with Las Palmas amid Catalan independence row

Barcelona beat Las Palmas 3-0 behind closed doors on Sunday
Alex Caparros/Getty Images
James Olley2 October 2017

Pep Guardiola claims he would have opted against playing Barcelona’s La Liga fixture against Las Palmas if he was still in charge at Camp Nou.

The Barca board decided to play the game behind closed doors after the Catalan independence referendum was overshadowed by violence, with hundreds of voters and protesters injured during clashes with police.

They initially requested for the match to be postponed but that proposal was rejected by La Liga. Lionel Messi scored twice as Barcelona won 3-0 but Manchester City boss Guardiola, who was the club’s manager from 2008 to 2012, told Catalunya Radio and RAC1: “I would not have played the match. And if we did have to play it, then not behind closed doors. We don’t want them to think that we dislike Spain.

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“Spain is an incredible country. But there is a need to understand that there is a population which wishes to decide its own future.”

The referendum had been declared illegal by Spain’s constitutional court, leading to riot police removing some voters from polling stations and firing rubber bullets into angry crowds.