Staging La Liga game in Miami tests European soccer traditions, alliances

MONACO (AP) — At the Champions League draw in Monaco this week, UEFA hosted European soccer officials and marketing executives from the United States with a radical plan on their minds.

A Spanish proposal for Barcelona and Villarreal to play an official La Liga game in Miami on Dec. 20 is moving toward a decision by UEFA leaders when they meet in two weeks’ time.

Breaking the seal on finally letting European clubs play domestic league games abroad is seen by fans as a betrayal of tradition and risks a backlash of the kind that stopped the divisive and club-driven Super League project in 2021.

It also is a lucrative opportunity for clubs and leagues to build their brands and fan bases globally like the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB franchises have done by playing games in Europe and elsewhere.

What's more, it tests the delicate balance of European soccer’s commercial and sporting interests involving UEFA, the increasingly influential European Club Association, and the 34-nation European League group.

The Miami game is a promotion by U.S. agency Relevent, now a crucial partner of UEFA and the ECA, which has pushed for years to take a La Liga game to Hard Rock Stadium.

Relevent’s top executives were with UEFA in Monaco in a beachside hotel developing their strategy to sell tens of billions of dollars in Champions League commercial rights for six years of competitions starting in 2027.

In addition, the Italian league — like Spain, financially outmuscled by the English Premier League — wants to move an AC Milan-Como game in February to Perth, Australia.

UEFA’s permission is one essential step and the European soccer body might not have legal tools to stop the first, tradition-breaking move.

“We’re not happy but, as much as we checked legally, we don’t have much space here if the federations agree, and both federations agreed,” UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin told Politico in an interview published on Thursday.

Čeferin declined to discuss the topic with The Associated Press in Monaco.

Fans support tradition

The Europe-wide fans group that advises UEFA has long been hostile to “out-of-territory” games it believes are being rushed through without proper consultation or risk assessment.

“This feels completely rushed for something so monumental,” Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters Europe, told the AP in Monaco.

“I’m fairly confident that no one has looked into the long-term impact of such a decision or the capacity of those two leagues to organize such games,” he said. “No one has asked the fans. And we’re also consumers, we have rights as season-ticket holders.”

There is scepticism about Villarreal’s offer to pay the flight and hotel costs of about 20,000 fans with season tickets to go to Florida.

On the sporting side, fans suggest the integrity of a league is damaged if a team sacrifices home advantage at a vibrant venue like Villarreal’s El Madrigal Stadium. One solution could be to also play the return game abroad.

Real Madrid opposes Barcelona

Barcelona’s big rival Real Madrid made the same point this month when it warned of “a turning point” in world soccer.

Fans have a strong ally in Brussels. The European Commission's top official for sports, Glenn Micallef, this week called the proposed game in Miami “a betrayal.”

“This is the first big stress test for governance since the Super League,” Micallef, who has on his desk a formal complaint by player unions and leagues about the quality of decision-making in soccer. That complaint was narrowly focused on FIFA.

The European Leagues and ECA — which said its board of directors chaired by Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaifi should discuss the issue next week — have members on both sides of the debate, seeing risks and rewards from “out-of-territory” games.

Big legal win

Relevent’s long-time push to stage European league games in the U.S. got a key win in April last year when FIFA withdrew from a court case in New York brought by the agency co-founded by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.

Relevent challenged FIFA’s veto on organizing competitive league games and within weeks the governing body announced a working group to review changing its rules. That panel includes UEFA lawyers.

In Monaco, Relevent was approached for comment about talks around the Miami game.

Next UEFA meeting

Some soccer officials left Monaco sensing the Villarreal-Barcelona game is hard to stop, and could get approval from UEFA’s executive committee at a Sept. 11 meeting in Tirana, Albania.

Limiting the scope for future “out-of-territory” plans could be UEFA’s strategy, with Čeferin acknowledging to Politico that games could be accepted as an exception or for a clear logistical reason. AC Milan is due to host Como two days after the San Siro stages the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

“But, in principle, European teams should play in Europe,” the UEFA president said.

Fans fear more games will follow, chasing money in other countries.

“If that’s what drives the governance of European and global football,” Evian told the AP, “then we are in serious trouble.”

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