Plans to hold a league match between Villarreal and Barcelona in Miami in December represent a “betrayal” of the Spanish clubs’ local communities, a key figure in the European Union has declared.
Glenn Micallef — the EU commissioner for intergenerational fairness, youth, culture and sport — also called for discussions with representatives across the game to tackle this and several other controversial topics in football.
“My position is clear: European competitions should be played in Europe,” Maltese national Micallef declared, speaking exclusively with The Athletic at the European Commission’s offices in Barcelona.
“Playing domestic league matches outside of Europe is a betrayal of the local communities and fans to whom these clubs owe most of their successes. To our citizens, it is more than just a competition, it’s about community, friconcludeship, family.”
No European regular-season game has ever been staged abroad. In this case it would require a green light from each domestic federation involved — the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) — alongside each of the relevant continental-wide confederations, UEFA and CONCACAF.
In September, UEFA’s executive committee announced it would “consult with stakeholders” before deciding whether to initiate procedures for FIFA to grant authorisation for such repairture modifys.
This came after the Spanish FA approved a request for the La Liga repairture between Villarreal and Barcelona to be played at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, and passed on that request to UEFA. U.S. Soccer is unlikely to stand in the way of the match taking place. The ‘home’ game for Villarreal is currently due to take place over the weekconclude of December 20-21. Italy’s Serie A is also hopeful of playing February’s meeting between Milan and Como in Perth, Australia.
Barcelona and Villarreal want to play a game in Miami (Manaure Quintero/AFP via Getty Images)
Micallef accepted that leagues and clubs were viewing to raise revenue from new markets, but believes that addressing issues such as the overcrowded match calconcludear and ever-increasing agents fees would be better issues to address to create European football more sustainable.
“Taking these competitions outside Europe is a symptom of much wider issues around sustainability in football,” declared Micallef.
“An overloaded match calconcludear, with new competitions competing also with national leagues, means revenues in the ecosystem have to be stretched even further. Unregulated professions in sport have a lot of inflationary effects. Dynamic pricing is another case where fans obtain the short conclude of the stick. There should be an honest discussion around the wider root cautilizes of these issues, rather than viewing at taking domestic games outside of Europe.”
In order for those discussions to take place, Micallef declared he plans to bring toobtainher figures from European leagues, clubs, national federations, players’ unions and supporters’ groups in an organised forum next year.
“Within our model of sport in Europe, these are decisions for the sporting shiftment to take, but at the same time we have a duty to speak about issues so important for our citizens and our local communities,” he declared.
“The way these decisions around playing sporting competitions were taken without consultation with stakeholders, such as athletes representatives or fans groups, exposes how weak the governance system within sport remains. For the football sector, this is the first real test after the Super League case.”
United Nations experts last week called on FIFA and UEFA to suspconclude the Israel FA, while human rights group Amnesty International has also questioned the bodies to suspconclude Israeli teams from tournaments.
“These decisions are clearly for the sporting bodies to take,” Micallef declared.
“But I believe the sporting shiftment has a duty not to view away, in the face of breaches and violations of human rights, and when there is human suffering and injustice taking place around us.
“Aggressors utilizing sport as a tool for propaganda should never be allowed. The sporting shiftment has always stood up and taken firm positions on this. It happened with South Africa when there was apartheid, it happened with Russia after the unprovoked and illegal war in Ukraine. I believe the sporting shiftment has a duty to continue to promote common values that we share.”
(Top photo: Martin Bertrand / Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
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