Overseas games: Uefa and Fifa between rock and hard place as decision looms
Where US sport leads, Europe usually follows. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but the success of North America’s top leagues in growing – and monetising – the popularity of the NFL and NBA means executives on this side of the pond are only too keen to borrow their playbooks.
Which brings us to something of a watershed moment in football: tomorrow’s meeting of Uefa’s executive committee in Tirana, Albania, where controversial proposals to take Spanish and Italian league games to far-flung lands will be discussed and possibly approved.
To recap, LaLiga wants to stage a fixture between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami as soon as 20 December. The RFEF, Spain’s football association, gave its blessing last month, despite vociferous opposition from some other clubs and supporters’ groups.
Not to be outdone, Serie A is hoping to move a scheduled match between AC Milan and Como in early February more than 8,000 miles away to Perth, Australia. The Italian FA, the FIGC, endorsed the plan in July. The ball is now in Uefa’s court.
The rationale for overseas games is simple: if successfully executed, they promise to increase visibility – and therefore media value and ultimately revenue – for both the league and teams involved. US sports have shown the way; now Europe’s biggest is following suit.
Barcelona and Villarreal have been promised £4m-£5m each if their fixture is transported to Florida, more than they could hope to earn from a regular league game. So keen are Villarreal to move what is technically a home match that they have offered to fly fans out to the US.
Serie A chiefs have argued that Milan need to move their contest with the ambitious Como because their stadium, the San Siro, is due to stage the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on that weekend. Any financial upside is, presumably, most welcome.
Premier League role in overseas games push
The important context to this expansionism is that, for a decade or more, Europe’s historic big leagues have cast increasingly envious glances at the Premier League and the vast sums that it commands in media rights, particularly in international markets.
England’s broadcast contracts are worth more than twice as much per year as its nearest rival, a fact increasingly reflected in the transfer market. During the summer, Premier League clubs spent £1.2bn net while LaLiga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 collectively made a profit.
Critics fear that taking isolated games overseas is just the thin end of the wedge, that a precedent will be set that can’t be undone. Fans’ groups insist they should have a bigger say. In Spain, Real Madrid have argued that all clubs should have to approve such a move.
Even if Uefa’s ExCo gives the green light, the final decision lies with Fifa, although there is a feeling of inevitability about the outcome. Multiple insiders talk of it being difficult legally for either to block overseas games. Fifa this year settled a related antitrust case in the US.
Perhaps fittingly, the venue lined up for the Villarreal-Barcelona fixture is Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. Football’s governing bodies find themselves between a rock and a hard place on this emotive issue which strikes at the heart of sport’s commercialisation and refuses to go quietly.