AC Milan’s game against Como will almost certainly not be played in Australia as was planned, according to a report.
La Gazzetta dello Sport report that unless there’s another twist in the coming hours or days, in the form of intervention by FIFA – the only institution currently capable of breaking the deadlock – the game will not be in Perth.
Australia game off the cards
The fact is that there’s currently little chance of playing the Serie A match in Western Australia, which can’t be played at San Siro due to its occupancy for the opening ceremony of the 2026 Milan and Cortina Winter Olympics.
Milan will now have to find an alternative in Italy among the stadiums that aren’t occupied that weekend and are close to Milan. Inter did just that, choosing Monza for the Coppa Italia quarter-finals.
The Asian Football Confederation and Football Australia have agreed to play the match in Perth, but have imposed very stringent conditions, such as the prohibition of advertising the match as a Serie A match and the requirement that the referee team be from the AFC and not from the Italian FA.
These two conditions have halted the process that would have led to the first Serie A match being played outside of Italy. Will anything change in the coming days? It is difficult, but one door remains open, even if the road is now much more difficult than before.
Good. That was a ridiculous idea anyway.
Finally some good news
Surely we go bergamo as we let them have San siro for CL
This makes sense. Especially when you think of the proximity to Milan and Como.
Very happy with this news. We’re fighting for the title, the last thing we need is to put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage by flying half-way around the world for a match.
It was a preposterous idea anyways. Horrible for the fans. Made no sense for the team.
grear, forzamilan
Swap the order of Como away (January) and home games (February). Problem solved.
Playing a Serie A game overseas would be a great coup for the league promotion. However they need to admit they are doing this purely for marketing reasons and not because a stadium is unavailable.
Then you can plan everything else for the scheduling to minimise the impact on the league and clubs. Do it early in the season. Not on the eve of the decisive scudetto months. Use Round 1 or a round that leads into an early season International break.