reported on their opposition back in April,<\/a> with Madrid executives believing the elimination of home advantage for a team in a single game could have a material impact on the outcome of eventual league positions.<\/p>\nAll of these factors appear to have conspired against La Liga\u2019s ambitions, breeding sufficient uncertainty and ultimately leading to a change of plans.<\/p>\n
Adam Crafton<\/p>\n
Why was there such negative reaction in Spain? And where do Real Madrid come in?<\/p>\n
The reaction to the idea of playing in Miami, and how it was organised, was more mixed than entirely negative, and broke down along already existing faultlines within Spanish football.<\/p>\n
Most Spanish clubs \u2014 their presidents, directors and executives at least \u2014 have been generally in favour of the idea in recent years. And both Barcelona and Villarreal were firmly behind playing in the U.S. this December.<\/p>\n
Many domestic supporters were against it, but the club hierarchies involved were willing to go against those wishes. Javier Tebas is used to fans protesting against his La Liga presidency, and often gives the impression that international expansion and new markets are more important than catering to the views of existing local supporters.<\/p>\n
But last week\u2019s player protests, organised by the AFE, was another factor in how it all unravelled, and there was genuine anger among the squads.<\/p>\n
Some of the Barca and Villarreal players due to play in the game also felt the idea had been rammed through without taking their views into account. There is general unhappiness about the match calendar among many top players, and this involved more travel and hassle (without any benefits for those actually playing the game).<\/p>\n
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\n La Liga president Javier Tebas (Arnold Jerocki\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
La Liga\u2019s team captains, meanwhile, were unhappy with Tebas not being able to find time in his schedule to meet them and discuss the project. Nor were they pleased with the league\u2019s requests for broadcasters not to show their protests on TV last weekend.<\/p>\n
However, the biggest factor was the opposition of Real Madrid, and how the Miami game became caught up in the bitter battle for power and influence between Madrid president Florentino Perez and La Liga\u2019s Tebas.<\/p>\n
Perez\u2019s uneasy and complex relationship with his Barcelona counterpart, Joan Laporta, was also hurt recently by Barca moving closer to UEFA and away from the long-stalled Super League project so strongly backed by Real Madrid. \u201cIf Madrid lined up with Barcelona on this project, nobody would be able to stop it,\u201d said one industry source, speaking anonymously to protect their position, like others consulted for this article.<\/p>\n
Multiple sources told The Athletic that Madrid\u2019s two official complaints to the Spanish government\u2019s Higher Sports Council (Consejo Superior de Deportes, CSD), which alleged that La Liga did not have the right to take a domestic game overseas, and raised the possibility of Tebas even being suspended from his position, was the most important factor in the ultimate decision to cancel the game in Miami.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, CSD president Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes said Tuesday\u2019s events showed \u201cthis was not the way to do things\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a statement, he added: \u201cBefore taking an initiative of this nature \u2014 a decision so important that it could undoubtedly have affected the integrity of the competition \u2014 there needed to be dialogue and agreement among the participants, among all the clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the future, if there are any ideas along these lines, we must start from this need for dialogue, agreement and absolute transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uribes also said \u201cadequate rules\u201d should also be drawn up for \u201cthis type of initiative\u201d, adding further: \u201cIn any case, at the CSD we will always prefer to bring sporting events to Spain and not take them away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dermot Corrigan<\/p>\n
Is there any chance of the plan being resurrected?<\/p>\n
As of Tuesday night, nobody involved in the planning for this game expected the match to go ahead in Miami. There was some confusion, as La Liga said the match was cancelled, while promoters Relevent said it was \u201cpostponed\u201d. However, Relevent\u2019s term referred to the concept \u2014 a La Liga game being played in the U.S. \u2014 rather than the specific game.<\/p>\n
There are plenty of reasons a La Liga game outside of Spain may still happen in the future. Barcelona said in a statement that the club \u201cregrets the wasted opportunity to expand the brand of the competition in a strategic market with the capacity to grow and generate resources for the benefit of all\u201d.<\/p>\n
La Liga also said in its statement that such initiatives are \u201cessential to ensure the growth of Spanish football\u201d as it strives to keep pace with the English Premier League, whose broadcast deals dwarf those of its competitors across Europe.<\/p>\n
So, we should expect this idea to resurface. When Barcelona played Real Madrid in a pre-season friendly at Hard Rock in 2017, the gate was over $30million (\u00a322.5m) in ticket revenue, and La Liga had ambitions to hit similar numbers with this competitive game. The financial incentives and potential for exposure remain, but La Liga will need to come to prior arrangements with its players, while Tebas\u2019 forever war with Real Madrid may also need to be resolved in order to play a game outside of Spain.<\/p>\n
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\n Real Madrid president Florentino Perez (Jose Breton\/Pics Action\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
La Liga\u2019s joint venture with Relevent, through the vehicle of La Liga North America, remains intact. Since 2018, Relevent has brokered an eight-year $1.4billion media rights deal with the ESPN+ streaming service in the U.S. and Canada, which allows the platform to stream all 380 La Liga games in both English and Spanish to an audience of over 25 million subscribers. There is no obligation to play a game in the U.S. as part of the deal, although ESPN executives previously told The Athletic a game in the local market would be beneficial. Audience figures have grown considerably, while La Liga business in North America has also secured sponsorships with Walmart, Loews and Verizon.<\/p>\n
FIFA has previously said it would review its policy about domestic games abroad, approving the formation of a working group on the matter. FIFA is seeking a way forward that appeases stakeholders across global football who often have wildly competing agendas.<\/p>\n
The expectation, at least before the events of this week, was that FIFA would consider agreeing to guidelines that restrict the number of games that could be played in a specific foreign territory per calendar year by a single competition, or even a single team \u2014 so as to prevent a local league such as MLS in the U.S. being cannibalised by leagues seeking a slice of their market share \u2014 but any limits could also risk anti-trust litigation.<\/p>\n
Adam Crafton<\/p>\n
How damaging is this for La Liga and others?<\/p>\n
La Liga president Tebas is clearly the most damaged figure in all of this, given he has made playing games overseas a big part of his attempts to grow Spanish football\u2019s revenues and how he became personally identified with the idea.<\/p>\n
Tebas himself even travelled to Miami in early October to attend the Sports Summit USA 2025, where he announced: \u201cI believe that, barring a few minor formalities, it\u2019s practically done. I can say that on Saturday, December 20, an official La Liga match between Villarreal and FC Barcelona will be played at the Hard Rock in Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n
To get to that point, Tebas had pushed hard against opponents, gaining the support of Spanish FA president Rafael Louzan, and even getting a green light from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, which would have cost a substantial amount of political capital.<\/p>\n
The way the project unravelled at such a late stage is not a great look for La Liga\u2019s partners in all this, Relevent Sports, either.<\/p>\n
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\n Barcelona president Joan Laporta (David Zorrakino\/Europa Press via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The two clubs that were to play in the game will also suffer some fallout. Barca president Laporta had just hours earlier dismissed Madrid\u2019s protests against the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cReal Madrid can say what they want, and will do what suits them. I\u2019m Barcelona president and we will play in Miami on December 20,\u201d he told reporters at the World in Progress conference organised by Spanish media group PRISA on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Laporta also knew that many of his own players were against the idea, so the often awkward relationship between Barca\u2019s dressing room and boardroom will not have been helped.<\/p>\n
Villarreal CEO Fernando Roig Negueroles was captured live on Spanish TV reacting with anger as he found out about the news midway through his team\u2019s defeat by Manchester City. That will have been personally embarrassing, while Villarreal\u2019s president, Fernando Roig Sr, will also feel some damage.<\/p>\n
Dermot Corrigan<\/p>\n
What will La Liga do now?<\/p>\n
In a statement posted on X, Tebas called the cancellation of the Miami match a \u201cmissed opportunity\u201d and said, \u201cLa Liga will continue working, with rigour and conviction, so that Spanish football remains competitive\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sources previously involved in planning to play La Liga games overseas told The Athletic that it was unlikely that Tebas would completely give up on the idea, given how much he has already personally invested in it.<\/p>\n
The biggest hurdle to overcome now appears to be getting the Spanish government\u2019s backing for the idea, which will not be easy given the opposition from Madrid and many local fans. Getting the players on board with the idea \u2014 perhaps through some kind of revenue sharing \u2014 would also really help.<\/p>\n
Whether Relevent remains involved in the plans for overseas games, and whether the U.S. is the venue for another attempt at the idea, remains to be seen. Other countries may appear as options. The Spanish Super Cup is already played each year in Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi government\u2019s Riyadh Season is an official La Liga sponsor.<\/p>\n
For the moment, the idea of playing a La Liga game outside Spain is dead. Whether it can be resurrected, and how that might be done? Time will tell.<\/p>\n
Dermot Corrigan<\/p>\n
What about the plans for a Serie A game in Australia?<\/p>\n
It is, for now, business as usual for Serie A. The league continues to work on obtaining final approvals from FIFA and Football Australia for February\u2019s match between Como and Milan to be held in Perth.<\/p>\n
In contrast with La Liga, Serie A has time on its side. The extra two months should give organisers enough time to market and sell out the game in Western Australia. Nor has there been as much public opposition \u2014 so far.<\/p>\n
But the decision to take it Down Under has sparked debate since UEFA president Ceferin \u201creluctantly\u201d gave his consent.<\/p>\n
Milan\u2019s Adrien Rabiot told French newspaper Le Figaro it was \u201ccompletely crazy\u201d<\/a> and \u201cabsurd\u201d. Speaking to reporters outside a Serie A assembly in Rome on October 8, Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo countered: \u201cRabiot forgets, like all players who make millions of euros, that they\u2019re paid to do a job.\u201d<\/p>\nThe league feels it has been up front about its intention for a long time. It has explained its motives: Serie A needs to grow its brand if it is to establish itself as the best of the rest at a time when the Premier League is a commercial super league with revenue multiples far in excess of its peers.<\/p>\n
What Serie A is doing, the league argues, is no different from the NFL, NBA and MLB taking games abroad or the Tour de France, Giro d\u2019Italia and Vuelta a Espana starting grand tours outside of France, Italy and Spain.<\/p>\n
This has generated some sarcasm with fans and media saying Perth is welcome to one of the many 0-0s in Serie A this season. On a more serious note, pundits have asked what if Milan, currently top of the table, are still in a title race come February. What if the travel and heat fatigue the players? What if it ravages the team like the last international break?<\/p>\n
James Horncastle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The advanced plans to stage a La Liga match between Villarreal and Barcelona in Miami in December spectacularly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5008,5009,5010,123,125,124,5692,13223,2062,4442,9578],"class_list":["post-16868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-barcelona","tag-champions-league","tag-la-liga","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-mls","tag-premier-league","tag-soccer","tag-sports-business","tag-villarreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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