Football news - Barcelona clash with Spanish Football Federation as Pedri called to Olympics

ByThe Editorial Team

Published 30/06/2021 at 14:01 GMT

Teenage Barcelona star Pedri has already played 64 matches of football in the past 12 months, and there could be more to come after he was called up to the national side for the Olympics. But Barcelon are furious with the Spanish Football Federation, and even though Pedri wants to go to Tokyo, his club side will appeal his call-up as they worry the star will burnout ahead of the new season.

Barcelona and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) are at loggerheads after Pedri was called up to the Olympic side.

The 18-year-old midfielder has already played 52 games for Barcelona this season, four times for the Spanish Under-21s and eight times so far for the senior side.

With 64 games already in total, that could rise to 67 should Spain progress at Euro 2020. And with little rest in between, Barcelona are not happy that Pedri now faces a trip to Japan this summer.

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Pedri is understood to want to go to the Olympics, but should Spain go far in Tokyo the midfielder will have played non-stop football for almost a year before starting all over again as the La Liga season commences.

The Catalan Giants have obvious cause for concern that one of the brightest young stars will face burnout after such a packed season, but a nuance in the Spanish legal system is what has caused the clash with the RFEF.

Spain are through to the quarter-finals of Euro 2020

Image credit: Getty Images

EXPERT VIEW – Eurosport Spain’s Daniel Ecija

This difficult situation is the responsibility of the RFEF due to the current legislation in Spain. The Law of Sport requires Spanish teams to send their players to the Olympic Games if they are called. This does not happen in other countries. For example, Borja Mayoral, who plays for Roma, has not been allowed to attend the event. Ferran Torres (Manchester City) is also in the same situation.

Therefore Barcelona wants to file an appeal so that Pedri does not go to the Olympics. After a long season, if Spain reached the final, Pedri would only have two days of rest before travelling to Japan.

The problem is that according to the newspaper Marca, the Sports Director of the Federation, Francisco Molina, says that any player who is now at Euro 2020 has opened themselves up to the Olympics, including Pedri.

Nowadays it seems that Eric García, Pedri, Dani Olmo, Unai Simón, Mikel Oyarzabal and Pau Torres will play in the European Championships and Olympics too. Besides Barcelona, there are also other teams such as Real Madrid who would not be interested in their players going to the Olympics as they would miss the pre-season.

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