Citing “the uncertainty that has arisen in Spain over the past few weeks,” LaLiga announced on Tuesday it was scrapping plans to hold a league match between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami this December.
Uefa, the governing body for European football, approved the match’s move to the United States two weeks ago but did so “reluctantly,” saying it found no framework within Fifa statutes to oppose the move.
Then came then protests. Players stood still for the first 15 seconds of their La Liga games over the weekend in a coordinated response by the Spanish Footballers’ Association to the league’s “lack of transparency, dialogue and coherence”.
“LaLiga deeply regrets that this project, which represented a historic and unparalleled opportunity for the international expansion of Spanish soccer, will not be able to move forward,” the league’s statement said.
“Holding an official match outside our borders would have been a decisive step in the global growth of the competition, strengthening the international presence of clubs, the positioning of players, and the visibility of Spanish soccer in a strategic market such as the United States.
“The project fully complied with all federative regulations and did not affect the integrity of the competition, as confirmed by the competent institutions responsible for ensuring compliance, which opposed it for other reasons.”
The league’s statement went on to say that “renouncing such opportunities” to find new markets “hinders the generation of new income”.