MADRID, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The Spanish Football League (LFP) and Granada 74 have threatened to take legal action against UEFA and FIFA for recommending that the club should be excluded from the second division.
"We will take out a suit against FIFA and UEFA because they
haven't the authority to go against Spanish law,"
vice-president of the LFP Javier Tebas was quoted as saying in
sports daily Marca on Tuesday.
UEFA and FIFA said on Monday that the Spanish Football
Federation (RFEF) should not allow the new team to take part in
the league because they had purchased their place in the second
division.
The two governing bodies believe the move violates the
principle that clubs should be promoted for sporting results on
the field of play and not through financial or commercial
operations.
Granada 74 earned promotion from the Andalucian league to
the regionally based Tercera (fourth) division last season.
But they were catapulted into the second division when club
president Carlos Marsa took advantage of new LFP regulations to
buy up second division Ciudad de Murcia for an estimated 20
million euros and move the club's headquarters to Motril on the
coast, some 70 km south of Granada.
Marsa has said his action is permitted in Spanish law and
that he will sue the Spanish Football Federation if the club is
not allowed to start the league, which begins next weekend.
"The Spanish Football Federation will have to pay huge
costs for the economic and psychological damage that we are
suffering," he told sports daily
AS.
The Spanish Football Federation have refused to allow its
referees to officiate the team's pre-season matches.
