MADRID: The cancelation of La Liga’s plan to hold a Barcelona match in Miami in December is a “missed opportunity” for Spanish football, the league’s president said Wednesday, while elsewhere its collapse was celebrated.
Champions Barca were set to face Villarreal in the United States on December 20, which would have been the first European league fixture to be played abroad.
The match will now be held at Villarreal’s Estadio de la Ceramica home as normal.
La Liga said their promoter for the match decided to cancel the organization of the event because of “uncertainty generated in Spain in recent weeks.”
The league’s president Javier Tebas took to X to express regret at not being able to seize “this historic opportunity,” adding that Spanish football had missed a chance to “develop, to project itself in the world and reinforce its future.”
Villarreal were furious about the timing of the announcement to cancel the plans — the news breaking during their Champions League defeat by Manchester City on Tuesday — and also blasted La Liga’s management of the whole event.
“(We) wish to express our deep displeasure with La Liga over the poor handling of the match scheduled to be played in Miami,” said the club in a statement.
Villarreal said there had been “no progress” in terms of organization and the club would have “withdrawn from the project” themselves later in the week if various issues were not resolved to their satisfaction at a planned meeting with La Liga.
The plan to hold the match in the United States had also been criticized by various parties within Spain, contributing toward its cancelation.
The Spanish Footballers’ Association (AFE) organized protests against it last weekend, with players from every team remaining immobile for 15 seconds at the start of each league match.
Spanish giants Real Madrid also railed against it institutionally, while goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said Tuesday it would adulterate the competition.
Madrid captain Dani Carvajal told Tebas the game being held abroad would be “a stain” on the competition.
Tebas added: “We are appealing to the ‘integrity of the competition’ from those who have been questioning this same integrity for years, putting pressure on referees and managers, constructing distorted narratives or using political and media pressure as a sporting tool.”
The president of Spain’s Sports Council (CSD), Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes, said La Liga had not gone the right way about trying to arrange the game.
“The episode we experienced with Miami... shows that this is not the way to do things,” he said on Wednesday.
“Before taking an initiative of this nature — a decision so significant that it could undoubtedly have affected the integrity of the competition — it was necessary to have dialogue, an agreement among the participants, all the clubs.
“Of course, the players should be considered, as well as the fans.”
- ‘Seismic victory’ -
Rodriguez Uribes said “absolute transparency” was necessary, as well as “appropriate regulations” in place for this kind of game, which do not currently exist.
“At the CSD we will always prefer — as we have said from the very beginning — to bring sporting events to Spain rather than take them out,” he added.
The AFE released a statement highlighting “the lack of transparency, dialogue, and coherence” from La Liga around the game.
“The players spoke out unanimously on the pitch last week to send a powerful message: without players, there is no football,” added the footballers’ association.
In February, Serie A still plan to hold a match between AC Milan and Como in Perth, Australia, despite a similar backlash from both fans and players.
Football Supporters Europe (FSE), a representative body on fan issues, celebrated the cancelation of the Miami match as a “seismic victory,” and warned the Italian top flight to abandon their plans.
“Doubling down on this failed idea would be an act of self-inflicted damage to the league’s reputation, to Italian football, and to the game as a whole,” said FSE in a statement.
