La Liga clubs Rayo Vallecano and Huesca, have joined fellow top division strugglers, Valladolid, in preventing their players from joining Catalonia national team.
Valladolid manager, Sergio Gonzalez, was also supposed to join up as part of the coaching staff.
The club, 16th in the league standings, decided to block Ruben Alcaraz and Jordi Masip from joining the national side, which is not recognised by FIFA or UEFA, ahead of a friendly with Venezuela on Monday.
The three teams have insisted that the decision is sporting, rather than political as tension continues to rise between the autonomous region and the Madrid central government following an illegal referendum on independence in October, 2017.
Twelve people, most of them former officials of the regional government, are currently standing trial for their roles in the vote, while the former head of regional government, Carles Puigdemont, is in exile in Belgium.
A Valladolid statement read: “The club respects the Catalonian Federation, but is putting their sporting interests first, heading into a decisive part of the season and we want to avoid any possible injury risks with our footballers.”
Fellow strugglers, Huesca and Rayo, who sit bottom and second bottom, said in statements on Wednesday that Alberto Garcia, Alex Moreno, Enric Gallego and Alex Gallar would also not join up with Catalonia, citing potential injury worries.
Catalonia coach, Gerard Moreno, admitted that he was disappointed but accepted the decisions taken by the players’ clubs.
“We had permission to play this game but we just need to accept the clubs’ decisions.
“I think the lads really wanted to come and play, that’s normal, but I accept what the clubs have said; everyone has their motives,” he said.
Former Spain internationals Gerard Pique, who stepped down from national team duty after last year’s World Cup, and Xavi Hernandez, will represent the region in which they were born.
Other familiar names in the squad include Stoke City’s Bojan Krkic, Oriol Romeu of Southampton and Marc Bartra of Real Betis.
