{"id":96536,"date":"2025-08-26T06:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T06:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/96536\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T06:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T06:51:10","slug":"spanish-national-team-coach-breaks-silence-on-barcelona-vs-villarreal-match-football-evolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/96536\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish national team coach breaks silence on Barcelona vs Villarreal match \u2013 \u201cFootball evolves\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The proposed La Liga clash between Barcelona and Villarreal being hosted in Miami, has been a subject of much discussion in Spain, with many figures opposing the move from La Liga.<\/p>\n<p>La Liga, with the support of the RFEF, has officially requested that Matchday 17\u2019s fixture between Barcelona and Villarreal be staged at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on December 20.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>If approved by UEFA and FIFA, this would mark the first time in history that a La Liga match is played outside Spanish territory.<\/p>\n<p>The move, however, has split opinion, with the Spanish Footballers\u2019 Association (AFE) releasing <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/spanish-players-association-publishes-official-statement-on-barcelona-villarreal-clash\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a statement opposing the plan;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">a statement opposing the plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Luis de la Fuente weighs in<\/p>\n<p>Now, Spanish national team coach Luis de la Fuente has become the latest figure to comment on the issue.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to RNE, as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mundodeportivo.com\/futbol\/fc-barcelona\/20250825\/1002520480\/fuente-da-opinion-sobre-villarreal-barca-miami.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mundo Deportivo;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Mundo Deportivo<\/a>, he admitted the idea may seem unusual at first, but insisted that the sport must embrace change.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/a0b475839314b2c858c758fa11c7c7a2.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Luis de la Fuente says fans must accept the change. (Photo by Aitor Alcalde\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems very strange now, but football evolves,\u201d said De la Fuente. \u201cYou have to accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Spain boss pointed to recent precedents, such as the Spanish Super Cup\u2019s relocation to Saudi Arabia, as examples of how the game has already shifted toward global expansion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are decisions that have to be made by consensus. Now it seems very strange to us, but football evolves; look at the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the Spain coach called for cooperation between football\u2019s decision-makers, stressing: \u201cWhenever decisions are made by the actors and protagonists for the good of football, we must accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>With the RFEF\u2019s green light to escalate the request, the proposal now awaits sign-offs from UEFA and FIFA (via the proper channels), plus U.S. authorities. Until then, the Miami game remains proposed, not final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The proposed La Liga clash between Barcelona and Villarreal being hosted in Miami, has been a subject of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,937,596,10981,70957,70959,14640,2020,70958,85,70961,70960],"class_list":["post-96536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barcelona","tag-football","tag-la-liga","tag-luis-de-la-fuente","tag-rfef","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-spain","tag-spanish-national-team","tag-sports","tag-the-spanish-footballers-association","tag-villarreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}