Neither Valentine, nor elections. Is duly Espanyol focused on their momentous game on Sunday against Mallorca with direct promotion at stake – not so the leadership, since the vermilions add 51 points, by 46 of the parakeets -, so everything else is in the background this February 14. Valentine's Day at best will be relegated to night. But the votes for the Parliament of Catalonia are discarded –for those who would like to attend– by force.
Neither the players nor the Espanyol coaching staff may go to their respective polling stations to cast their vote in the Catalan elections due to the meeting time, at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, and its derivatives. The team travels to Palma on Saturday afternoon, after training, and he plans to land back in Barcelona around seven on Sunday, without margin, since at eight o'clock the tables are closed, not to mention that the last hour is reserved according to the recommendations to the population that is quarantined by COVID-19.
They will only be able to participate in the Catalan elections those who have been sufficiently prevented from having cast their vote by mail. And maybe not even with those. Some member of the expedition that will travel to Mallorca tried to exercise their right well in advance – the deadline ended last Friday the 5th – but had to abandon the case without success due to the enormous amount of bureaucratic procedures that the entire process required.
It will not be the first time that an election to the Parliament has affected Espanyol's first team in some way. In the previous call, On December 21, 2017, Marc Navarro had to act as president of a table electoral in the Badalonese neighborhood of Bufalà. And in those of September 27, 2015 Pau López was required as a second member in Olot, which on that occasion was spared because that day Espanyol played in Riazor, against Deportivo, and the authorities attended to his exemption appeal.