FLORIDIAN FOLLY
While Football Daily likes the idea of partying in any city where the heat is on, all night on the beach to the break of dawn as much as the next periodical, we have never been lucky enough to visit Miami. However, we are familiar enough with the musical stylings of Will Smith to know that every day in Florida’s second most populous city is “like a mardi gras” and that all visitors “party all day, no work all play”. Sadly for the powers that be in La Liga, it has been decided that their money-making, profile-rising wheeze to send Barcelona and Villarreal to “the city that keeps the roof blazin’” to play a Spanish top-flight game has been cancelled. Any notions Lamine Yamal, Nicolas Pépé or their teammates might have had to spend their Christmas break “bouncin’ in the club where the heat is on” are on hold and replaced by the crushing reality of having to remain in – Football Daily checks notes – Spain.
La Liga’s plan to export the match to the USA USA USA was presented as a fait accompli by La Liga chief suit Javier Tebas two weeks ago, and confirmed by the Barcelona chief suit Joan Laporta on Tuesday afternoon. Both men were left with several tortillas’ worth of egg on their fizzogs after news broke that the game’s American promoters had sacked off the idea a few hours later while both teams were taking care of Bigger Cup business. When the bombshell dropped, Villarreal were getting beaten by Manchester City, prompting their coach Marcelino García Toral to describe its timing as “a complete lack of respect”. Barcelona’s players had just finished a highly controversial slaughter of Olympiakos that will have done little to improve the already foul mood of the Greek side’s beleaguered owner Evangelos Marinakis.
The decision to “cancel the organisation of the event due to the uncertainty that has arisen in Spain over the past few weeks” is reported to have been made by La Liga in conjunction with promoters Relevent, but appears to have been far more mutual on the part of the latter than the former. Protests in Spain over the Floridian folly are believed to have prompted the abandonment. “Renouncing such opportunities hinders the generation of new income, limits clubs’ capacity to invest and compete, and reduces the international projection of the entire Spanish soccer ecosystem,” wailed a La Liga howl of self-pity that weighed in at 278 words. Tebas had more to add in a similarly downbeat Social Media Disgrace post that railed against pesky naysayers who observed that moving a Villarreal home game against Barcelona out of the El Madrigal would give the reigning champions a clear and unfair advantage, adversely affecting what passes for the integrity of La Liga in the process. “Spanish football deserves to look to the future with ambition, not fear,” he blathered. “We will keep trying. This time, we came very close.”
Real Madrid had been against the Miami madness from the get-go, their indignation fuelled only by a deep moral commitment to sporting integrity of course, and not concerns over any advantage it might hand to their main title rivals, Barcelona. To be fair, the Spanish league leaders were far from alone in voicing their disquiet over Tebas’s foreign cash-grab and over the weekend, players from many top-flight sides, including those of Barcelona, stood motionless for the first 15 seconds of games. Although their symbolic protests were not shown on TV by broadcasters reported to have been acting under instructions from La Liga, they appear to have worked. For now, there will be no glitzy welcome to Miami for La Liga sides, who will now be forced to play their matches on the famously unpleasant, sun-starved soil of Spain.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We are feeling a lot of pain right now. It is big numbers and professionally we are hurt. It is not a good feeling” – dazed Leverkusen coach Kasper Hjulmand digests his side’s 7-2 Bigger Cup evisceration at home by PSG in which both teams had players sent off and, according to the scoreboard, every shot on target went in.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
I’m pleased that Graham Potter has already found a new job so soon after leaving his last one. It would have been easy to get despondent after such a setback, hide from the world and risk getting lost in the shuffle in a crowded field of candidates for any position. Instead, it’s really important to get your face out there, be seen by prospective employers. On that front, he was fortunate to have a group of fans so willing to get his face absolutely everywhere. That they did it before he’d actually left West Ham is beside the point” – Ed Taylor.
Great to see a serious threat to the Old Firm monopoly in the Scottish Premiership. A young side playing with considerable enthusiasm. Will we see the headline: ‘Young Hearts run free?’” – Eddie Jones.
If John Scent were to drive a Honda Civic like a Ferrari (yesterday’s Football Daily letters), he would be rather slower than someone who drove the Civic like a Civic. Given their weight balance and front vs rear wheel drive, think of understeer and oversteer like a low block v gegenpress” – David Vaughan (and no other mechanics).
Spare a thought for Chris Wood with the appointment of Sean Dyche as the Nottingham Forest manager. The Kiwi striker enjoyed an elite season last time around with 20 Premier League goals. Move forward a season and Forest go and appoint an [flamin’] arch-rival Aussie manager who didn’t rate him and have now gone and appointed a man who often preferred Ashley Barnes or Matej Vydra up front during their shared time at Burnley” – Geoff Major.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Geoff Major. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Join Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and the Football Weekly pod squad as they chew over the latest Bigger Cup action and Sean Dyche’s appointment at Nottingham Forest.
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