GENEVA (AP) — Soccer fans from more than 400 club-supporter groups in Europe urged FIFA and UEFA on Wednesday to block requests from the Spanish and Italian leagues to play games abroad.
The Spanish football federation has approved plans for Barcelona to play Villarreal in Miami in December, and Serie A wants AC Milan to host Como in February in Perth, Australia.
Ahead of UEFA’s executive committee meeting next week in Albania, its officially recognized fan liaison group Football Supporters Europe aimed to show the scale of opposition to “out-of-territory” games — including from a fan group at Villarreal.
“We call on UEFA, FIFA, and all national associations to stand firm, play their role as regulators of the game,” the FSE group said Wednesday, with support from fan groups in 25 countries, “and ensure that football remains rooted in our communities, where it belongs.”
The German soccer league on Wednesday repeated its long-standing opposition alongside the English Premier League to overseas games, in part to avoid a fierce fan backlash.
“As long as I am in a position of responsibility with the league, there will be no competitive game played abroad. Period,” said Hans-Joachim Watzke, the Borussia Dortmund CEO who is also a vice president of UEFA, in comments reported by German news agency dpa.
US sports culture vs. Europe
While American professional sports leagues like the NFL routinely stage games in Europe and elsewhere to build global brands and fan bases, European soccer has a strong — almost tribal — culture to reject such moves, including the tradition of fans of away teams attending games in big numbers.
Fans who have season tickets to see all their team's home games also do not want to miss out.
“Clubs are neither entertainment companies nor traveling circuses. They exist for the benefit of their communities and provide a sense of belonging, where fans have been attending home games for generations,” said FSE, which is skeptical about the logistics and finances of Villarreal’s offer to pay the flight and hotel costs of about 20,000 fans with season tickets to go to Florida.
Critics of the plans, including the European Commission's top sports official in Brussels, Glenn Micallef, say the sporting integrity of leagues also would be unbalanced and damaged. Micallef last week said planning overseas games “isn’t innovation, it’s betrayal.”
Allowing the Barcelona or AC Milan games to move would “instantly open a Pandora’s box with unpredictable and irreversible consequences,” the fan groups warned.
Key court case in New York
Fresh proposals to move domestic leagues abroad were inevitable once FIFA withdrew from a court case last year in New York brought by promotions agency Relevent. FIFA later set up an expert working panel to review its rules that previously vetoed
Relevent was co-founded by Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins, whose Hard Rock Stadium is set to stage the Villarreal-Barcelona game which the clubs hope will raise revenue for a league that is financially outmuscled by the global popularity of the English Premier League.
Barcelona has been struggling financially for several years and Miami also is where its iconic former star Lionel Messi currently plays, for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer. Barcelona was a driving force behind the divisive club-driven Super League project that collapsed within 48 hours in 2021.
Relevent also is now one of UEFA’s most significant commercial partners, sealing a deal this year to sell broadcast and sponsor rights for six years of the Champions League and other European club competitions starting in 2027.
UEFA’s ruling committee meets Sept. 11 in Tirana, chaired by its president Aleksander Ceferin. He suggested last week UEFA must talk with FIFA and currently has limited legal power to stop overseas games if the national federations involved agree to them.
One UEFA strategy option could be to shape rules that limit future proposals.
Ceferin noted there was a one-off logistical reason for the AC Milan-Como game to be moved — that it was scheduled at San Siro two days after the storied stadium hosts the Feb. 6 opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics. It was unclear why the Italian league scheduled AC Milan or Inter Milan to play at San Siro that weekend.
Other options abroad
While taking competitive league games abroad is a red line for fans and most soccer officials, there is a recent tradition of France, Italy and Spain taking Super Cup games elsewhere, including Saudi Arabia. These are typically ceremonial games between the winners of the previous season's league and domestic cup.
Even that is of no interest in Germany, league official and Bayern Munich CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen said Wednesday.
“My position is crystal clear. I think it’s nonsense,” Dreesen told dpa.
UEFA has its own Super Cup game each August which rotates between European cities which would not be awarded the final of a Champions League or Europa League. UEFA also has the Nations League finals tournament which has been hosted by one of the four countries that qualify.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press
