Lionel Messi fires Barcelona to victory in a game that never should have been played

An empty stadium witnessed Messi's brace and a game played under lamentable circumstances

FC Barcelona played Las Palmas at an empty Nou Camp (Getty 2017)

So often a Lionel Messi brace and a 3-0 win over one of La Liga’s smaller sides gets glossed over and this occasion will be no different.

But on Sunday it is because in the bigger picture this Barcelona victory was irrelevant.

This was a game that should never have been played and, for a league that has never been shy of switching its fixtures at short notice – with complete disregard for fans, teams or anyone else – you do wonder why La Liga didn’t see this coming?

How stupid could they possibly be to think that on the day of Catalonia’s independence referendum - which has seen incredibly heightened tensions in the region for weeks now – that it would be possible to play a football match in Barcelona?

Gerard Pique described a scene where the dressing room was split over whether they should play. The board was reluctant and the club’s director for institutional relations resigned after it emerged La Liga and Las Palmas had railroaded the hosts into fulfilling the fixture.

“There were arguments to play the game today just as there were arguments to not play the game,” said Pique.

“In the end La Liga and Las Palmas wanted to play the game. There were all sorts of opinions and in the end the club made the decision to play the game”

Asked if he would have played the game had it been his decision, Pique was non-committal: “My opinion doesn't matter very much. Lots of players expressed an opinion before the game. The club decided to play and we united behind that decision.

“But I understand perfectly why a lot of the supporters will think that the team should not have played this game today.”

Pique is now set to hook up with Spain on international duty this week but that already strained relationship – with Pique repeatedly having been booed by Spain fans – is likely to be put under further pressure by Pique’s comments. The defender was also photographed voting in the referendum that Madrid had deemed illegal.

“For many years people could not vote here and this is a right that should be defended by all means within the law possible. I am Catalan and I feel Catalan and today more than ever I feel proud of the Catalan people.

"It was very difficult to play without our supporters and after all that has happened throughout Catalonia. It was my worse experience as a player," Pique said.

“I think I can keep playing for the Spain team because I think that there are many many people throughout the country that are completely against the acts we have seen today and who believe in the democracy.”

And then he delivered the killer line.

“If the Spain manager or the Spanish FA think I'm a problem then I have no problem in stepping aside and leaving the team.”

Pique’s international future will no doubt dominate the next few days after a game that Barcelona won by the exact score that would have been Las Palmas’ victory had the club simply refused to play the fixture.

The match itself was played out to a backdrop of 99,000 empty seats. With Messi now past 30 and heading towards the end of his career, any chair unfilled that could have been used to watch him is an affront to football.

But all of that is small fry given what was going on elsewhere in the region – an affront to democracy.