La Liga cancels plans for controversial Barcelona-Villarreal match in Miami
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Barcelona and Girona players protesting at kick-off at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Company on Oct 18, 2025, due to La Liga's planned relocation of the Villarreal-Barcelona match to Miami. La Liga scrapped the plan on Oct 21.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MADRID – Citing “the uncertainty that has arisen in Spain over the past few weeks”, La Liga announced on Oct 21 it is scrapping plans to hold a league match between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami
Uefa, the governing body for European football, approved the match’s move to the United States two weeks ago but did so “reluctantly”, saying it found no framework within Fifa statutes to oppose the move.
Then came player protests: La Liga players stood still for the first 15 seconds of their games over the weekend in a coordinated response by the Spanish Footballers’ Association to the league’s “lack of transparency, dialogue and coherence”.
“La Liga deeply regrets that this project, which represented a historic and unparalleled opportunity for the international expansion of Spanish football, will not be able to move forward,” the league’s statement said.
“Holding an official match outside our borders would have been a decisive step in the global growth of the competition, strengthening the international presence of clubs, the positioning of players and the visibility of Spanish football in a strategic market such as the United States.
“The project fully complied with all federative regulations and did not affect the integrity of the competition, as confirmed by the competent institutions responsible for ensuring compliance, which opposed it for other reasons.”
The league’s statement went on to say that “renouncing such opportunities” to find new markets “hinders the generation of new income”.
La Liga president Javier Tebas took to X to express regret at not being able to seize “this historic opportunity”, adding that Spanish football had missed a chance to “develop, to project itself in the world and reinforce its future”.
The league had been working with promotion company Relevent, which sent a statement to The Athletic earlier on Oct 21 noting plans for the game had been “postponed” because there was not sufficient time to execute the event in the way it had wanted.
La Liga and Relevent had teamed with Stephen Ross, owner of the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins, to bring a match to the US and it would have been played on Dec 20 at Hard Rock Stadium, the Dolphins’ home in Miami Gardens.
Adding a football match that weekend would have created some tricky logistics.
The Dolphins are scheduled to host Sunday Night Football against the Cincinnati Bengals on Dec 21, a game that may be shifted to a normal afternoon slot. And college football’s Miami Hurricanes could be in line to host a play-off first-round game at the stadium on Dec 20.
With the Miami plan scrapped, the Barcelona-Villarreal match is set to be played on Dec 21, as originally scheduled.
Barcelona players and coach Hansi Flick did not like the idea of extra travel being added to their itineraries.
The Spanish giants are already being sent to Saudi Arabia for the Spanish Super Cup in early January.
“It’s not good for the players. You have to travel a lot,” Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong said earlier in October. “It’s also not fair in terms of competition. For us, it’s now an away match on neutral ground.” REUTERS
Players pause to protest against La Liga’s plans to hold the Barcelona v Villarreal game in Miami, US during the Sevilla v Mallorca in Seville match on Oct 18.
PHOTO: EPA
