You’ve got school in the morning
Spain are at risk of breaking German laws should Lamine Yamal feature against France tonight.
At 16-years-old, Yamal has been one of the stars of the tournament and is establishing himself as someone who can become the best in the world.
Given his age, there’s been plenty of jokes about the fact Yamal is still in school and while in Germany has been revising for his exams as part of his mandatory education.
This though has also created a problem for Spain and his availability.
Spain could face huge fine due to Yamal
Naturally you always want to play your best players but Luis de la Fuente may be forced to omit Yamal from his squad for their semi-final in Munich
German law states that anybody under the age of 18 is not permitted to work past 20:00. Athletes are given the benefit of the doubt however and allowed to participate until 23:00 but this will still be a problem.
Since Spain’s game kicks off at 21:00 German time, there is the possibility that the game could overrun – especially if it goes to extra time and penalties.
Additionally, since they’re likely to qualify, should any of Spain’s knockout games kick off at 21:00 and go into extra time they will run past the curfew, putting La Roja at risk of having to pay a £30k fine if they breach the rules.
A fine largely depends on if the German government take action however it’s reported that they’re relatively relaxed about it and probably wouldn’t hand Spain a fine while De la Fuente has already confirmed that he would be playing Yamal during an earlier stage of the tournament.
Should Spain win tonight they will face the winner of the second semi-final between England and The Netherlands.
