Spain vs. England Proposed Friendly Moved to Alicante over Gerard Pique Fears

The proposed international friendly between Spain and England has been moved from the Santiago Bernabeu stadium to Alicante in the wake of La Roja's 2-0 win over Slovakia, a match in which star defender Gerard Pique was once again the subject of abuse from the Spanish fans.

As reported by AS English, that is thought to be the reason behind moving the match:

Pique was whistled and jeered throughout the match by large sections of the home fans, and as shared by Barcastuff, it has been happening regularly since the veteran defender spoke out in favour of a referendum regarding Catalan independence:

"

note: pique has been whistled in ESP home games after he spoke out in favour of a referendum on catalan independence last year #fcblive

— barcastuff (@barcastuff) September 6, 2015"

England have already qualified for Euro 2016, and Spain are expected to follow. If La Roja progress to the competition's main draw, a friendly will be scheduled in November.

While one of the bigger stadiums is usually reserved for matches in which a big team like the Three Lions visit, having Pique play at the very heart of the country at this particular time may not be such a good idea.

Speaking to Cadena SER (h/t Goal's Stephen Crawford), former Barcelona team-mate Cesc Fabregas spoke out in support of Pique and expressed his hopes the jeering will soon stop, as it's affecting everyone on the pitch:

"

It's just not a national team issue. It's a Barcelona vs Madrid issue.

Pique has always given his best. He's always been there with a smile on his face when we've needed him, just like the rest of our team-mates.

We're a team and he is part of that, so it affects all of us negatively.

We're recovering from a bad World Cup and we need to keep the standards high in order to reach Euro 2016. We cannot be distracted by such stupid things, we need everyone's support.

"

Twenty-eight-year-old Pique has never made a secret of his feelings on Catalan independence, even going as far as planting a Catalan flag in the middle of the pitch after Barcelona's 3-1 win over Juventus in last year's Champions League final, via the Daily Mail's Chris Pleasance.

His stance never seemed to impact the fans' feelings until October of last year, when he publicly spoke out in favour of the referendum, per Goal's Miles Chambers.

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