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President of Spanish Football League criticizes Barca tweet congratulating new Catalan President

Xinhua, January 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

Javier Tebas, the President of the Spanish Football League (LFP), on Monday criticized FC Barcelona for sending a tweet congratulating the Carles Puigdemont on his investiture as President of the Catalan region in the north-east of Spain.

Puigdemont will head a coalition government of pro-independence collectives Junts pel Si and CUP and has said he will work towards securing Catalan independence within 18 months.

Sunday saw Barcelona send a tweet saying "congratulations President Puigdemont. We wish you luck in this historic and passionate period which our country Catalonia is beginning today," which Tebas described as "surprising."

"I don't approve of it, especially because it is congratulating a person, Carles Puigdemont which wants to break the unity of Spain, who supports independence in a radical manner and who is going against the law of our country, our constitution and our state," said Tebas, who insisted that Barcelona could not play in the Spanish league if Catalonia became independent.

"They couldn't do so because that is the law ... if Catalonia became independent, not only Barcelona, but no other Catalan team would be able to do so," he added. Endit