The Galician side is set to host Rubén Baraja’s squad this Tuesday.
Arosa SC welcomes Valencia CF this Tuesday for the second round of the 2023-2024 Copa del Rey. The Galician club advances to the next phase of the competition despite a 0-3 defeat in their opening match against Granada last November.
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Why Arosa SC advances to the Copa del Rey second round after a 0-3 loss to Granada
Arosa SC previously played the current Copa del Rey edition at the A Lomba Stadium, suffering a 0-3 defeat to Granada on November 2. Yet, they progressed to the next round. The reason lies in tournament eligibility rules rather than a mere on-field result.
On November 7, Granada were eliminated from the Copa del Rey, despite having won their match against Arosa on the field a few days earlier. The cause: Nasrid’s team fielded a player who did not meet competition eligibility requirements. The goalkeeper Adri López, over 23 years old and registered with Recreativo Granada, was included among the starters in a cup match designated for non-professional participation. This violated the cup’s regulatory framework, leading to Granada’s disqualification.
According to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), the Copa del Rey is not a professional championship. The rules state that the competition, along with the King’s Cup and similar tournaments, is an official state-level competition with non-professional status, where sporting governance rests with the RFEF. While such a goalkeeper would be permissible in La Liga, the Cup has different eligibility criteria that aim to preserve its amateur character at certain levels.
The lineup that appeared in La Liga would have been valid for league play, but not for knockout rounds of the Copa del Rey. Curiously, Granada had previously faced a similar scenario in the prior season when Adri López, then also older than 23, appeared for the cup matches but did not face sanctions at that time, as no formal complaint had been raised.
A fruitless path
On the field, Granada defeated Arosa 0-3 with goals from José Callejón, Shon Weissman, and Famara Diédhiou. That result would have eliminated Arosa from the cup’s progression in the knockout format, but the administrative decision altered the path of the competition and created an unexpected second-round encounter for Arosa against Valencia.
In the broader context of knockout cup competitions, these incidents highlight how eligibility rules can shape outcomes just as decisively as on-field performances. They illustrate the tension between professional status and the cup’s historical roots, where clubs from lower tiers can defend a place against top-tier teams under well-defined regulations. For fans and clubs in Canada and the United States following Spanish football, the episode underscores the importance of understanding competition rules, squad registration, and the sometimes intricate governance of cup tournaments.