Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque has been drawn into the institutional row over the 2015-16 La Liga calendar, saying moving the final game of the season back a week will damage the national team's chances at Euro 2016.
The Spanish government this week intervened to move around the fixture list which had previously been announced by the Liga (LFP) authorities, with the government having also had to get involved in July when the LFP and RFEF (national federation) had been unable to agree on the date to kick off the 2015-16 campaign.
The Liga season will now be completed on May 22, a week later than the initially announced final gameweek of May 15, the weekend when most of Europe's other major leagues are ending.
"It seems like nobody thinks of Spain" the veteran coach has told AS in a story which makes the Spanish sports daily's cover on Friday morning.
Buenos días. Aquí tenéis la portada de este viernes http://t.co/t4WGyTjpsu pic.twitter.com/sdvK7VPJl2
- AS (@diarioas) August 14, 2015
Inside the paper the La Roja coach -- who is directly employed by the RFEF -- said in an interview that finishing the Liga season on May 22 would severely disrupt his plans for preparing the national squad to defend their European Championship trophy in the tournament which begins in France on June 10.
"I have the feeling that nobody thinks about Spain, that they do not take into account the interests of the national team," Del Bosque said. "Somebody must have thought that one week makes no difference, but it does. Because many Spain players are at foreign teams, and will finish before the internationals in La Liga.
"That means a serious problem for the training camp calendar, preparation for the Euros... if we qualify, of course. Because if you need to give them some rest days, some will be coming in while others are finishing up, and they will also need some days of holidays. So there will be few days of everyone training together. It's a mess."
Further complicating the situation is that the Copa del Rey final had previously been due to be played on the weekend the La Liga season now ends, but has now been provisionally set for May 7 -- meaning the two finalists' league games for that weekend will likely need to be moved too.
It is also quite likely that Del Bosque's will be without at least some of his key players until the 2016 Champions League final is played on Saturday, July 28 in Milan, less than two weeks before Euro 2016's first game.
The changes also saw the dates of both Clasicos between Barcelona and Real Madrid being moved from the dates initially set out when the first schedule was published last month.