Valencia have issued a clarification after it appeared they had ordered youth team players to attend the Copa del Rey semi-final second leg with Barcelona.
Marca reported an email sent to players from some of the youth teams in the club’s academy that appeared to insist they attended Wednesday night’s game.
The club are said to fear Mestalla will be empty for the visit of La Blaugrana, who lead 7-0 from the first leg.
There has been an attempt to organise a boycott via Twitter, with a hashtag calling for the stadium to be left empty for the match in protest at the club’s situation.
Marca published the email sent to the youth team players, which appeared to say the game is considered a training session and therefore the players must attend.
It was added that anyone who didn’t attend wouldn’t be allowed to train on Thursday as a result, as to skip the game, the players would have to be injured.
Los Che have however released a statement denying that is the case, stressing attendance is ‘completely voluntary’ as it has been on other occasions.
