BARCELONA BOSS ERNESTO Valverde insisted he is unconcerned over Levante’s official complaint regarding their selection of Chumi in the first leg of their Copa del Rey clash.
Young defender Chumi started last week’s 2-1 loss to Levante despite being due to serve a suspension after picking up five bookings while playing for Barcelona B in the Segunda Division B.
Barca won the reverse fixture at Camp Nou 3-0 on Thursday — Ousmane Dembele scoring twice and Lionel Messi adding the third - to advance to the quarter-finals courtesy of a 4-2 aggregate success, with the draw for the last eight due to take place on Friday.
However, speaking prior to kick-off on Thursday, Levante president Quico Catalan had stated his club’s intention to lodge a complaint to the Royal Spanish Football Federation, reportedly over Chumi’s involvement in the first encounter.
Yet Valverde is confident Barcelona will not be kicked out of the competition and that Chumi was eligible to feature in the Copa del Rey.
“We have no doubt about Chumi,” he told reporters in his post-match news conference.
“Not before, not after, or during.
“We believe that tomorrow we must be in the draw. We are sure that we did it well.
“We knew perfectly well that Chumi was sanctioned, he could not be used in the match against Eibar [in LaLiga].
“We are convinced of what we have done. We have acted in an absolutely correct way. We have won where we had to win. It is very clear.”
Subscribe to our new podcast, Heineken Rugby Weekly on The42, here:
Best of luck to him. Fantastic prospect prior to his injuries, could very well have been in challenging for the starting hooker jersey in Japan. Hopefully the gametime gives him a chance a chance to recapture some form. Tough to see him getting a look in a Munster with Scannell, Marshall and O’Byrne ahead of him and Barron tearing up trees coming through the academy.
@Johnny 5: also Munster have Billy Scannell in the academy, he was on the ireland u20 extended panel
@Patrick O Connell: have watched him a lot, every bit as good and better as brother Niall at the same age. His time will come at next years u20s.
Nice to see mike going for some game time. Nothing worse than seeing good players not playing. Best of luck to him.
@Jim Demps: Great move for Mike. Good luck to him.