Barcelona and Villarreal will play the first La Liga match on U.S. soil at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Dec. 20, the league confirmed Wednesday.
For the first time ever, a La Liga game will take place outside of Spain. The plan to host a competitive match in the U.S. has long been in motion. Instead of playing the match at Villarreal’s Estadio de la Cerámica, the Miami Dolphins’ home stadium will host this momentous clash.
La Liga released a statement on Wednesday confirming the decision, as both team presidents celebrated the historic moment for Spanish soccer.
“We’re wishing to meet again with all our fans in the United States and we thank La Liga for the opportunity to get close to one of club’s main strategic markets,” Barcelona president Joan Laporta said. “We’ve been visiting the country for many years and we’ve always felt the passion that Barcelona awakes.
“For Villarreal, this is a historic opportunity to continue growing and have visibility in a country as important as the U.S.,” Villarreal president Fernando Roig Alfonso said. “With this initiative we’ll reach fans from other parts of the world and we can keep expanding the club’s and La Liga’s brand. We’re confident that this will be a great experience.”
Tebas: A Historic Step
Two days after UEFA reluctantly approved La Liga’s desire to host a match overseas, Javier Tebas’s dream became a reality.
Tebas, president of La Liga, spoke at the Sports Summit 2025 conference on Wednesday, in the U.S., where he confirmed the date of the maiden La Liga clash in America. The league’s statement was released minutes later.
“With this match, we take a historic step that projects La Liga and Spanish soccer to a new dimension,” Tebas said in the statement.
Hosting a La Liga game in the U.S. has been met with considerable controversy and backlash in Spain ever since it was first proposed in 2018. Tebas made sure to address that in the statement.
“We understand and respect the concerns this decision might generate, but it’s important to put it in context: it’s just one game among the 380 that make-up the season. This match precisely looks to approach our soccer to a global fanbase without undermining the commitment of those that every gameweek enjoy games across stadiums in Spain.”
But it’s not only fans that have criticized the Miami game, the players have as well. Spanish Association of Soccer Players [AFE] released a letter signed by all 20 team captains denouncing the match back in August.
Upon La Liga officially announcing the game, AFE scheduled a meeting with the league and all 20 captains to discuss the situation, per SPORT.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as La Liga Confirms Historic Barcelona Match After Controversial UEFA Decision.
