LaLiga have confirmed that the plan to hold a league game between Villarreal and Barcelona in Miami in December have been scrapped.
As the BBC recall, the Spanish football federation (RFEF) gave the green light to move the LaLiga game to the Hard Rock Stadium on 20 December back in August, and this has led to a wave of protests for a multitude of reasons.
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For example, the players stood still for the first 15 seconds of Spanish league games over the weekend, while there were a variety of banners and statements from various groups all against the unprecedented move.
The promoters of the match – Relevent – claim that the reason for the U-turn is because there is ‘insufficient time’ to organise things, also citing ‘uncertainty in Spain’. Now, the match will take place at Villarreal’s Estadio de la Ceramica, as originally scheduled.
The decision was actually made official during last night’s game between Villarreal and Manchester City in the Champions League, a 2-0 defeat for the Yellow Submarine. This caused further uproar, with Villarreal boss Marcelino questioning the timing.
“It is absolutely disrespectful to the club, professionals and board of directors and fans. From here onwards, the club will send an official communication but this is just what I think,” he said.
La Liga have announced that the Villarreal vs. Barcelona match in Miami has been canceled 🚫 pic.twitter.com/Peq3BezhXg
— B/R Football (@brfootball) October 21, 2025
Milan-Como under the microscope
At the same time as the Villarreal-Barca game, UEFA also decided to sanction the proposal for AC Milan to move a home game against Como to Optus Stadium, in Perth, Western Australia.
There was at least a reason for the relocation in this case: San Siro is unusable from 6 February to 22 February 2026, because of the Winter Olympic Games that are being held in Milano-Cortina. This clash forced the Rossoneri to look into other venues.
This decision also drew a largely negative reaction from the masses, and we did a deep-dive into the topic in a recent article. Now that the LaLiga game in Miami has been kiboshed, eyeballs are on UEFA, Lega Serie A, Milan and Como to see if they follow suit.
Otherwise, that game would set a rather big precedent: it would become the first game in a European league to be played outside of the continent. Is that worth the €12m kitty reportedly on offer to play in Australia? The clubs and governing bodies will decide.
Maybe we can start renting players for the weekend mornings? Kids birthdays, bar-mitzvas and similar stuff? I have many more ridiculous ideas they should consider.
😀 Not jewish here so had to look up what the jewish circumcision ceremony is called and apparently its Brit Milah, lets have some of those in the middle of the field 😛 Maybe also some evangelical church gatherings and so on…
😀 Hope ours will be as well. Damn tossers who got the idea to move a Serie A match abroad.
I hope common sense prevails and this idiotic idea gets canned… Absolutely ludicrous to play a league home game in Australia…
A Serie A match to be played in Perth, Australia bwahahahahahaha. I understand there is a significant number of Italian Australians who reside there but a high Italian population alone will never be enough to justify the decision. Milan could even tour the world for every home match if the reason is just “oh but there are many Italians there.” Come on people, let’s get real here.
I can understand the league’s desire to do this and the clubs. It will be massive for promoting Serie A in Asia.
But by doing this under the excuse of the San Siro not being available they are making it even harder on the players.
February in Perth is very hot and dry.
And the players are doing all that travel as you move into the critical closing months of the season.
The time to do it would be Round 1 of the next season.
That way the teams involved can schedule a lot of the travel as part of their final preseason prep. Open Round 1 and then get home as fast as you can.
Alternatively pick a match day that you know leads into an international match day early in the next season. The players can then disperse in various directions to national camps or back to base if not selected. And the national teams can deal with the travel fallout.
I didn’t know about the players protest in La Liga. Standing still for 15 seconfs.
That was a seems to have been the killer blow for the initiative.
Well done by the players.
Yes, this seems to be the key. Old fashioned strike by the employees. 15 seconds standing still. Done.
I hope the Milan players do that during this game at Pisa.
Without the players, there is no Serie A, no UEFA, and no FIFA.