La Liga cancels Miami fixture: Villarreal vs Barcelona to stay in Spain after backlash | OneFootball

How clubs and players forced La Liga to abandon Miami plans?

La Liga cancels Miami fixture: Villarreal vs Barcelona to stay in Spain after backlash

LaLiga has officially called off plans to stage Villarreal vs Barcelona in Miami on 20 December abandoning what would have been first top flight Spanish league match played outside Spain.

The league confirmed that promoter Relevent Sports requested to postpone or cancel the event citing uncertainty in Spain and growing resistance from within the domestic game.

The highly anticipated fixture will now take place as normal at Villarreal’s Estadio de la Ceramica on matchday 17.

Backlash in Spain: clubs, players and fans push back

What began as global expansion project quickly turned into domestic flashpoint. La Liga’s plan faced strong opposition from clubs, fan groups and players unions including 15 second protest at kick off across league fixtures last weekend.

Thibaut Courtois & Real Madrid officials publicly criticized the idea calling it threat to the integrity of competition. Fans echoed the sentiment arguing that moving matches abroad undermines the traditional home and away balance.

The event promoter, "Relevent" the same group behind the la liga North America deal admitted the game had to be cancelled due to mountain of logistical and operational hurdles.

With less than 2 months on the , clock the company stated there wasn't enough preparation time to pull off the Miami fixture responsibly or deliver the top tier standard everyone expected.