The death of Barça’s doctor Carlos Miñarro took everyone by surprise and left the Barça squad devastated and in shock, as he had caught them and the fans already in the stadium off guard. The match was suspended just a few minutes before the start of the 27th LaLiga matchday against Osasuna. Why was it possible to suspend it so quickly?
The decision to cancel the match between Barça and Osasuna is covered by the General Regulations of the RFEF as it is a case of force majeure. Its article 262, which deals with the calendar and suspension, literally states that “The suspension and postponement of a match to a date that would alter the order of the calendar may not be authorized except for reasons of force majeure that are undoubtedly regulated, accredited or recorded”.
What are these causes of force majeure?: “The loss of kit or sportswear shall not be understood as a cause of force majeure for suspending a match, and the team suffering from this shall be obliged to hold the match with the means at its disposal and the venue shall provide the necessary equipment as far as possible”.
Nor is the non-availability of certain players considered a reason for cancellation. On the other hand, force majeure is considered to be “the fact that, due to unforeseeable circumstances, a number of players simultaneously become unavailable, reducing the squad to fewer than eleven.”
Article 263 literally states that “The Royal Spanish Football Federation has the power to suspend any match when it foresees the impossibility of holding it due to exceptional circumstances”. And this situation meets this cause of force majeure adopted by both parties.
Osasuna, in favor at all times
The president of Osasuna, Luis Sabalza, was one of the first to publicly express his support for the suspension of the match against Barça. The red and white leader explained that since the news broke, “we have all agreed to suspend the match”, among other reasons “because you can’t be playing a match knowing that the person you have lived with permanently for so long is no longer there,” he said on DAZN.
“First the clubs had to agree, logically, and then the referee, who understood perfectly and thought it was the right thing to do.“ ‘From there, we contacted the authorities, RFEF and LaLiga,’ he added. ”We can all experience a similar situation,” added the president of the Navarrese club.