Fierce opposition from players and football’s governing bodies forces the league to abandon its controversial overseas match.
In a significant retreat, Spain’s LaLiga has officially cancelled its plan to stage a regular-season match between Villarreal and Barcelona in Miami this December. The decision comes after weeks of mounting opposition from players, unions, and international football governing bodies, who argued the overseas game damaged the sport’s competitive integrity.
LaLiga cited “uncertainty that has arisen in Spain” as the reason, following “conversations” with its US promoter, Relevent Sports. The project had met with widespread condemnation, particularly from the Spanish players’ union and individual footballers, who argued that moving Villarreal’s tough home game to a neutral site unfairly benefited Barcelona.
While LaLiga insisted the project “fully complied with all federative regulations,” this claim was misleading. Critical approval was still pending from the US Soccer Federation and Concacaf, the governing bodies for the sport in the United States. Concacaf had emphasized it was conducting a thorough review, contradicting LaLiga president Javier Tebas’s earlier assertion that securing sanctions was a mere formality.
The cancellation marks a major setback for LaLiga’s international expansion strategy. In a statement, the league argued that such initiatives are “essential” to compete with the financial power of the Premier League and UEFA, essentially admitting it cannot keep pace in the global broadcast market.
Relevent Sports, LaLiga’s promoter, stated it had asked to “postpone” the match, citing “insufficient time to properly execute an event of this scale.” The cancellation likely ends a venture that had become a public relations headache for all involved.
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