LaLiga’s overseas game project not dead, insists Tebas
Spanish football chief Javier Tebas insists LaLiga will “keep trying” to stage games overseas after being forced to shelve a planned fixture between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami in December.
The controversial move looked set to go ahead when European governing body Uefa “reluctantly” granted permission earlier this month but LaLiga announced it had pulled the match last night amid opposition from players.
It is the second time that the Spanish top flight has been forced to axe a game in Miami but Tebas, who has led the charge to promote LaLiga in the US in a bid to close the financial gap to the Premier League, has not given up.
“LaLiga will continue working, with rigour and conviction, to ensure that Spanish football remains competitive, standing up to those who seek to destroy it, but always with respect for its roots and ensuring its sustainability,” he said.
“Spanish football deserves to look to the future with ambition, not with fear. We will keep trying. This time, we were very close.”
Italy’s Serie A is still planning its own overseas game between AC Milan and Como in Perth, Australia, early next year.
LaLiga’s plan to move the Villarreal-Barcelona fixture to Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium was part of its long-term US marketing partnership with promoter Relevent, which belongs to Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.
Player protests clip LaLiga’s wings
The proposal appeared to be complicated by Relevent’s separate deal with Uefa to sell the media rights to the Champions League, although pushback from Spain-based players and coaches has perhaps been the decisive factor.
Players stood still for 15 seconds at the start of each LaLiga match held last weekend in protest at the overseas game plan, which Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick said his squad was “not happy” about.
The move has also been criticised for depriving home fans of a regular fixture and the impact on the integrity of the competition.
In a post on social media titled “a missed opportunity for Spanish football”, LaLiga president Tebas said the proposal would have helped the league “to move forward, project itself to the world, and strengthen its future”.
He added: “The defence of ‘tradition’ is invoked from a narrow and provincial perspective, while the true traditions of European football are threatened by decisions from the institutions that govern it, which year after year destroy national leagues, the true engine of the football industry in Europe, amid the naivety and passivity of European leaders who fail to distinguish the inconsequential from the essential.
“The ‘integrity of the competition’ is appealed to by those who have spent years questioning that very integrity, pressuring referees, leaders, constructing distorted narratives, or using political and media pressure as a sporting tool.
“And others, perhaps unknowingly and in good faith, have been drawn into debates about information that was already addressed in 2018, where that supposed ‘information’ – which they had then and have now – was merely an excuse to kill the project.
“I want to thank Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona for their commitment and generosity in being part of a project that only sought the growth of our competition. They weren’t thinking of themselves; they were thinking of everyone.”