Javier Tebas comments on the postponement of the match scheduled to be held in Miami! | OneFootball

It's clear the game wasn't a priority from the start.

Javier Tebas - getty images

The plan to take a piece of La Liga to Miami has officially been shelved. The controversial fixture between Barcelona and Villarreal, destined for American soil, has been called off, a decision that has prompted La Liga president Javier Tebas to reframe the narrative entirely.

In the wake of the cancellation, Tebas has stepped forward to downplay the significance of the project. He portrays the entire venture not as a central ambition, but as a peripheral experiment. With a tone of pragmatic detachment, he clarified that hosting the match in Miami was never a primary goal for the league's leadership—it didn't even rank within their top ten priorities. Consequently, he refuses to frame the cancellation as a setback.

When questioned if he views this as a loss, Tebas offered a characteristically blunt rebuttal, as quoted by Marca: "A loss is so subjective… Would I have liked to play on December 20? Yes. If that counts as a loss, then okay." However, he was quick to reiterate his long-standing position, asserting, "I’ve been saying for some time that the Miami match wasn't among my main objectives... I still stand by that it's not in the top ten priorities."

Separately, the league is preparing for a different kind of confrontation, announcing its intention to pursue legal action against the players who participated in recent protests by refusing to play during the opening moments of their matches.