French prime minister offers Barcelona a place in France's Ligue 1
French prime Minister Manuel Valls has come out and said that he is ready to welcome Barcelona to Ligue 1 with open arms if the Catalan club is forced to move out of La Liga, Daily Mail reports.
Possibly, a referendum to separate Catalonia from Spain could be passed in the next few days. As Barcelona is the capital of the Catalonia region, the football club stands a threat to be ousted from La Liga, once the state is declared independent.
The French PM incidently has been a life-long supporter of the Catalan club, was born in Barcelona and lived there until he moved to France as a teenager. His father, Xavier Valls reportedly even played for the club. He was talking to the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche when he expressed his views.
He said, "Monaco play in Ligue One, so why not Barcelona?”
“I’m a huge football fan, a Barca fan. They're in my blood. France knows it and they ask me about it on the streets," he added.
AS Monaco was invited by the French Football Federation in 1933 to play in the Ligue 1. Monaco is not a part of France and is considered a tax haven. But, in 2014, the club was asked to pay a sum of €50m for the right to remain in Ligue 1 and to remain exonerated from the tax laws of the country.
Barcelona face tricky situation if Catalonia gains independence
Another option for Barcelona, if Catalonia gets independence, is to play in the Catalan league, comprising of teams like Espanyol, Sabadell and Gimnàstic de Tarragona. This would hamper their revenues by a large extent.
Miguel Cardenal, the President of the Spanish Sports Council also raised the same points.
“Clubs’ finances are decided by their TV revenues. In an independent Catalonia of eight million people, you could be a team based around a youth system like Ajax, Celtic, Standard Liege, etc and at most reach the last 16 of quarter-finals of the Champions League, for example,” he said, according to Euronews.
Therefore, Barcelona have only one viable option, and that is to move to Ligue 1, if Catalonia gains independence.
However, a representative of the French PM told Spanish news agency Efe that the words attributed to the Prime Minister are a false interpretation, and he considers the case as Spain’s internal problem.
Barcelona has also been fined by UEFA, as their fans are regularly spotted flying pro-independence flags during matches.