Fifa has been urged by leading supporters’ groups to block domestic league matches from being played abroad and avoid “a Pandora’s box of disarray for football”, as the prospect of major European fixtures taking place on different continents looms large.
World football’s governing body is likely to be tasked with deciding whether Villarreal face Barcelona in Miami in December after La Liga’s request to make the switch was approved and submitted by the Spanish football federation. Milan and Como are also looking to play a Serie A fixture in Perth, Western Australia, in February.
Signing off those moves would, the fan bodies have warned, mean “setting a dangerous precedent” and “stripping clubs of their roots”. Those fears were expressed by Football Supporters Europe, the Independent Supporters Council, Football Supporters Association Australia and Accionistas y Socios del Fútbol Español in a letter sent last week to the Fifa secretary general, Mattias Grafström. They explained moving games abroad would undermine sporting integrity, unbalancing the regular home-and-away rhythm, while “reducing clubs to entertainment products detached from their tradition and communities”.
The letter pointed out that local supporters would be alienated and the clubs’ cultural identities would be reduced; it also stressed the environmental cost and logistical burden of the associated long-haul travel.
“Relocating domestic league matches abroad would set a dangerous precedent, stripping clubs of their roots and undermining the trust of supporters,” said Ronan Evain, the executive director of Football Supporters Europe. “Fifa must take a clear stand to protect the integrity and identity of domestic football.
“Those behind the proposals claim they are only interested in a one-off event, a claim we reject. If permitted, this would open a Pandora’s box of disarray for football. Shortsighted commercial interests cannot take precedent over protecting domestic football and the communities our clubs grew out of.”
The signatories noted that Fifa would be directly contravening its own regulations governing international matches, specifically those requiring domestic games to be played in the territory of their national association, if it gave the green light. In October last year Fifa set up a working group to review those rules but any outcomes are yet to be communicated.
As the Guardian reported last week, Uefa’s executive committee will discuss next Thursday whether to give its own approval and in what form. Uefa, US Soccer and Concacaf must all accept the proposals before Fifa has the final say. Despite misgivings among Uefa leadership – voiced publicly by its president, Aleksander Ceferin – the push to move big-ticket matches to new markets has significant momentum.
Potential legal arguments against it have lost weight since the US-based promoter Relevent Sports, which became Uefa’s worldwide marketing and sales partner this year, agreed a settlement in April 2024 that dismissed Fifa from a lawsuit challenging its policy of barring league games from being staged in other countries.
The Premier League, which proposed an extra foreign-based “39th game” round in 2008 but shelved the idea amid widespread opposition, has no plans to join La Liga and Serie A in seeking to relocate matches.
