Hercules Vice-President Valentin Botella has explained the circumstances around awarding November’s Spain-England friendly to third-tier club.
The match was originally set for Santiago Bernabeu but it’s suggested that concerns over the reception Barcelona’s Gerard Pique would receive prompted a change.
Pique has been targeted by Spain supporters in recent home fixtures for comments made about Los Blancos or his politics.
“[The RFEF] didn’t say anything about Pique and I didn’t want to ask,” Botella, an RFEF board member, told AS.
“It’s great news for us because we have Spain here after four years.
“[Monday] morning, Angel Maria Villar called me, the President in person, asking to use the Rico Perez and if we were still interested in hosting Spain-England.
“He wanted the final ok to make it official and I gave it to him.
“I learned from the media that the Bernabeu was to be the site of the match. I knew Alicante was one of the candidates but a month ago there was no news. Villar gave us the great news [on Monday].”