La Liga are reportedly putting plans in motion to stage Barcelona’s away match against Villarreal at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, with a meeting scheduled on Monday with the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to seek approval.
The match is currently scheduled for Dec. 21 at Villareal’s Estadio de la Ceramica but La liga have already held preliminary talks and will now take the proposal to the RFEF, according to The Athletic, La Liga would then need the approval of UEFA, FIFA, the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) and Concacaf before the match would officially receive the all-clear to take place in South Florida. Currently, the NFL’s Miami Dolphins are scheduled to play the Cincinnati Bengals at Hard Rock Stadium on the same day, which could impact the date of the Barcelona-Villarreal match.
La Liga president Javier Tebas has been in favor of staging matches overseas for several years, though Real Madrid are reportedly in opposition. The Spanish league has been trying to stage competitive matches overseas since 2018, an issue that inspired a lawsuit in which FIFA and the USSF were defendants until it was resolved out of court in recent months. Though the terms of the out-of-court agreements are not public information, it seemingly lifted any barriers for leagues to stage matches in other countries, starting a race between Europe’s top leagues to be the first to act upon the plan.
Here’s an overview of the push from Europe’s top leagues to host competitive fixtures around the world.
When did La Liga first try to stage a game in the U.S.?
La Liga attempted to stage a match in the Miami area between Barcelona and Girona, originally scheduled to be played at Girona’s home venue of Estadi Montilivi, in 2018. Relevent Sports, an event promoter founded by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, was organizing the match, but they did not receive approval from the relevant authorities in order to stage the game. La Liga also wanted to bring an Atletico Madrid match to the U.S. in 2019 but ran into the same problems.
What was the lawsuit about?
In 2018, Relevent sued both FIFA and the USSF, accusing the latter of acting as a monopoly by issuing a directive that said competitive matches should be played in their home territory. The USSF was also named as a defendant in the antitrust lawsuit but the issue was resolved out of court in the last year and change. Relevent and FIFA settled without prejudice, which means the former can raise the issue again in future litigation if they feel the situation calls for it. Relevent also settled their case with the USSF, who are unlikely to stand in the way of any organizers attempting to host international competitive fixtures in American stadiums.
Are other leagues doing the same?
While La Liga seem most likely to be the first league to host a competitive match in the U.S., they are not the only ones plotting out such a plan. Serie A are considering staging AC Milan’s fixture against Como in Australia in February, since the match will likely have to be rescheduled anyway. That fixture is currently set for the weekend of February 7-8 at Milan’s San Siro but the venue will instead host the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, cohosted by Milan and Cortina.
“The board has given a positive opinion to the league’s request to play Milan-Como in Perth,” the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) said in a statement last month. “So we are closing in on what would be a historic ‘away’ match abroad, taking into account that the complex authorization procedure also needs the formal green light from the Australian federation, UEFA, the Asian Football Federation and FIFA.”
In similar fashion to La Liga, Serie A would need several rounds of approval from the likes of the FIGC, UEFA, FIFA, Football Federation Australia and the Asian Football Confederation before the match gets the green light.
