Spain national team may refuse to play an official match for political reasons
The draw for next UEFA World Cup qualifiers is ready, but Spain has found a political problem with one of its rivals and might not play.
The UEFA qualifiers’ draw for Qatar World Cup next year took place yesterday, and Spain got into group B as first seeded. Spain is a serious candidate to win the group and directly get a ticket to Qatar. But the draw has also made them think twice about playing one of their rivals, for home and away matches.
Given Spanish government has tried to undermine the separatist movements of Catalonia and the Basque region, the country committed to not recognize any new country that has separated from one bigger so their regions cannot take that as a set precedent. That is the case of one country of the group.
That new country is Kosovo. Separated from Serbia a few years ago, is not recognized by Spain. That means Spain has two options. They can refuse to play at home and choose a neutral venue, something that happened before, or simply refuse to play at all, something that would weaken their possibilities of qualifying.
The other teams in the group are Sweden, Greece and Georgia. Sweden is thought to be second of their group and reach the play-off, and have established themselves a team to fear after they surprised the entire world at 2018 qualifiers, knocking out Netherlands in the group stage and Italy in the play-off.
