Last week La Liga announced the cancellation of their proposed game in Miami, Florida, causing a significant media storm in Spain. The Spanish league was set to be the first to host a game outside of their country, despite UEFA opposition, but Serie A will instead set that precedent.
The game that will now be held at La Ceramica was scheduled to be Villarreal against Barcelona, with the Yellow Submarine furious at La Liga’s handling of the event. Barcelona also expressed disappointment. Real Madrid had opposed the game quite publicly, and the Ministry for Sport had expressed concerns that it would perhaps impact the Spanish game, but had not taken any real action. Despite that, promoters Relevent announced they had cancelled the game due to uncertainty in Spain.
Serie A will host AC Milan-Como in Australia
Despite that potentially significant shift, Serie A intends to go ahead and host AC Milan against Como in Perth, Australia on the fourth of January. That much has been confirmed by General Director of Serie A Luigi di Servio, as recounted by Cadena SER. Di Servio highlighted that in contrast to La Liga, all of the clubs in Serie A were on board with the plan.
“Both teams – Milan and Como – gave their consent, as did all 20 Serie A clubs, unlike what happened in Spain, where there was internal conflict. Here, everyone agreed: the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) Federal Council voted, and we also obtained UEFA approval.”
La Liga will attempt USA game again
While it was undoubtedly a setback, and the same opposition that occurred this year will likely remain down the line, La Liga President Javier Tebas has vowed to try again in the future. The reason it got so far this time was due to the support of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), and this week President Rafael Louzan commented that ‘it was a shame’ that the game did not go ahead, suggesting their support remains firm.
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