European league football is about to hit the road.
For the first time, UEFA, the European game’s governing body, has given the green light for domestic league fixtures to be played outside of that country’s borders and two landmark fixtures are now close to being added to the calendar: Villarreal vs Barcelona in Miami this December and Milan vs Como in Perth, Australia, in February.
All that remains is for FIFA, the world governing body, and the host associations to grant their approval but there is now little left to stop a controversial step that has been years in the making.
The Athletic analyses how we got here, and what comes next.
What exactly did UEFA decide yesterday?
Moving a domestic league game overseas is a landmark step that requires the blessing of UEFA and FIFA. Both governing bodies have previously blocked such proposals, saying they threaten the integrity of domestic competitions, but UEFA now feels that stance is untenable and has approved the Spanish and Italian requests “on an exceptional basis”.
UEFA’s ‘approval’ was, however, pointedly framed as “reluctant” and “regrettable”, with its president Aleksander Ceferin saying it would not set a precedent.
“League matches should be played on home soil,” he said in a statement. “Anything else would disenfranchise loyal matchgoing fans and potentially introduce distortive elements in competitions.”
Why did UEFA feel it could not block the move?
UEFA says it had no legislative powers to deny the Spanish and Italian requests.
For all its opposition as European football’s gatekeepers, it maintains the ongoing review of “FIFA’s regulatory framework” effectively denied it the opportunity to block the proposals. The rules, UEFA said, were “not clear and detailed enough” to keep the door closed.
It is all the consequence of a legal case first launched against FIFA six years ago, challenging the right to play domestic league games outside of that country’s borders. That has subsequently forced a lengthy review of legislation but, in the meantime, also seen defences fall. UEFA’s stated hope is that its vulnerability on the issue is temporary.
“UEFA will actively contribute to the ongoing work led by FIFA to ensure that future rules uphold the integrity of domestic competitions and the close bond between clubs, their supporters and local communities,” its statement read.
Final approval for these games must come from FIFA but UEFA would not have accepted this defeat without knowing the irrevocable direction of travel.
How long has the idea of playing European league games abroad been floated?
A long time. Go back to the 1990s and Italy’s Super Cup was being played in the U.S. before following the geopolitical winds to China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which has been the competition’s home since 2022. Spain’s own version of that cup format has also been on the road in recent years, finding its own new home in Saudi each season.
It may be commonplace for regular-season games to be staged overseas in many U.S. sports — the NFL staged the latest of its London matches last weekend at Tottenham Hotspur’s ground — but in Europe, domestic league fixtures have largely been considered sacrosanct.
The pageantry before the Minnesota Vikings played the Cleveland Browns at Tottenham Hotspur (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
In league seasons where each club played every other twice, home and away, taking one-off games overseas was considered a threat to competitive balance. Fans, too, have always strongly railed against the notion. “A direct attack on the essence of football,” Football Supporters Europe (FSE) said last month.
Not that the opposition has stopped the attempts. Barcelona, then with Lionel Messi in their ranks, drew up plans to play a La Liga fixture against Girona in Miami in 2018, with conditional support from La Liga. That proposal was eventually scrapped due to a “lack of consensus” between the Spanish FA, players’ union and La Liga.
That brought a directive (not that it would last) from the FIFA Council to state that domestic games must be staged in that league’s home country, a stance that also stopped an Ecuadorian fixture being played in Miami.
What is Relevent Sports and how is it involved?
Relevent Sports is the New York-based event promoter and sports and media rights company, founded by Miami Dolphins’ billionaire owner Stephen Ross, that effectively helped burst this dam.
It has long sought to stage domestic league games on U.S. soil and, after meeting prohibitive obstacles, began a legal case with FIFA as far back as 2019 that would enable it to do so.
A lawsuit, with both FIFA and the U.S. Soccer Federation cited as defendants, argued it was a violation of antitrust laws to block regular-season games from overseas competitions being played in the U.S. and the apparent dead-end of legislation opened up in April 2024.
FIFA was dropped as a defendant as an undisclosed settlement was reached with Relevent, whose chief executive Danny Sillman said FIFA will “consider changes to its existing rules about whether games can be played outside of a league’s home territory”. That gave encouragement for the discussions that have led to UEFA reluctantly ceding ground.
Relevent, it is worth noting, entered its own arrangement with UEFA earlier this year to sell global commercial rights for the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League from 2027-28 to 2032-33, ending the governing body’s long-running partnership with Team Marketing. Relevent’s growing power, with its roots planted in the U.S., has been clear for all to see.
UEFA says its decision does not set a “precedent”. Is that really the case?
Time will tell but this might end up as a battle to return toothpaste into the tube.
For all that major supporter groups, most notably FSE, have adopted an unyielding position in their opposition to domestic games being played overseas, there are key stakeholders eager to make this a regular event.
Javier Tebas, the head of Spain’s La Liga, is a firm advocate as he attempts to drive up revenues for a competition that has fallen far behind the Premier League in commercial terms. Serie A president Ezio Simonelli is also an advocate.
“The decision by the UEFA EXCO brings us closer to the possibility of playing the match between Milan and Como in Australia next February,” he said. “I hope that approval by FIFA and the Australian Football Federation will complete the authorisation process.”
La Liga president Javier Tebas is an advocate for matches being played abroad (Oscar Del Pozo/AFP via Getty Images)
And so long as there are key personnel pushing for long-term change from within, effectively an attempt to redress the imbalances that stem from English football’s financial domination, Ceferin and UEFA will be hard pushed to resist it. If it looks and feels like a precedent, there will be plenty who expect it to become just that.
How quickly any further advances come will now depend on FIFA and the time it takes to draft new legislation that would not breach antitrust laws.
Which territories are most likely to be interested in hosting games?
All football’s boom markets will have an interest.
The U.S. would be the obvious choice as interest builds ahead of the 2026 World Cup, that will also be staged in Canada and Mexico. Marquee friendlies have become the norm each summer and the fact it was Relevent that exploited the loophole suggests their interest will persist.
Australia might be a curious choice as the proposed hosts for Milan against Como but former Serie A president Lorenzo Casini previously floated the idea of taking Serie A games to India should rules be relaxed.
And then there will be Saudi Arabia, a nation intent on bringing sport’s biggest events to the Gulf. Having made a home for both the Spanish and Italian Super Cups in Jeddah and Riyadh in recent times, they have the ability to dangle financial incentives like few others.
The world game’s view
England
The Premier League has made it very clear it does not like talking about this topic. Whenever he has been asked about it, chief executive Richard Masters cannot shut it down fast enough.
“It’s not anywhere near my in-tray and it’s not a debate around our table,” was his answer when asked by the BBC about the matter in August.
There are two main reasons for this reticence. The first is that the Premier League still has the scars from the reaction to its 2008 idea of playing an extra round of fixtures in 10 global cities. Fans — and therefore politicians, too — hated the so-called “39th game” and opinions do not seem to have shifted much.
The second is that the Premier League have already done it anyway, but in a much subtler fashion, by forging close links with its international broadcast partners, most notably NBC, opening overseas offices and running its own summer pre-season tournaments.
Manchester United played West Ham in the Premier League Summer Series in New Jersey this summer (Vincent Carchietta/Getty Images)
All of the above have helped the Premier League become the European league that needs to worry least about increasing its overseas revenues. It is No 1 in that space by miles.
But you do not stay ahead by standing still. So, Masters knows he can never say never, and that is a bonus reason for why he hates talking about it.
Matt Slater
Spain
There will have been (metaphorical) champagne corks popping at La Liga’s HQ at the UEFA decision.
Playing a regular-season game overseas is a long-held objective of La Liga president Tebas, as a way to find new fans and sponsors in the super lucrative U.S. market, and challenge the Premier League’s financial power.
Failed attempts were previously made to organise Barcelona vs Girona in 2018, Villarreal vs Atletico in 2019, and Barcelona vs Atletico in 2024.
All these clubs were in favour of the idea, as are Barca and Villarreal now. Some local supporters — particularly at Villarreal — have protested in recent weeks, but both club hierarchies see the commercial opportunities for their brands and the league as a whole.
Barca’s financial issues are well known and club president Joan Laporta has used many different creative ‘levers’ to raise funds through his current term, and supporters generally accept anything that helps strengthen the squad.
Villarreal president Fernando Roig, who has bankrolled the team’s rise from Segunda Division to the Champions League, has also firmly backed Tebas’ proposal — to the point of offering to cover the costs of any Spanish fans who want to make the trip to Miami to attend the game there.
A significant dissenting voice is Real Madrid, who have strongly opposed the match both privately and publicly, even issuing a statement on their website on August 12.
It forms part of a long-running narrative of hostility between Madrid and Tebas. Madrid complain that the process has been conducted in secret, as they were not consulted when this possibility was raised and have had no say while it was being developed. They also argue that the match, under the planned conditions, would disrupt the principle of equality across the league.
For all these reasons, senior sources at Madrid had expressed confidence that the project would not go ahead once it had been escalated to higher national, European and world bodies. Those same voices have also highlighted Tebas’ previous opposition to the Spanish Super Cup being played in Saudi Arabia (a stance which has shifted over the years) and especially the Club World Cup, which Madrid has strongly supported.
Dermot Corrigan and Mario Cortegana Santos
Italy
Serie A has been taking games abroad for decades. The Super Cup was held in the U.S. in 1993, Milan were involved in that game too, and it has subsequently been exported to Libya (where Inter are playing a friendly against Atletico this week), China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Second, the league has long been clear in its intention to take a regular-season game abroad, lining up Perth in Western Australia as a host. Australia does not have some of the baggage of the aforementioned nations. The prime minister Anthony Albanese is one of more than a million Australians with Italian ancestry.
In addition to these considerations, the use of San Siro by the International Olympic Committee as the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February presented an opportunity and Serie A has seized it.
Milan are homeless for a month. Como, their prospective opponent for the Australian game, won’t lose a home fixture. There has been next to no backlash. Milan’s ultras have, until recently, been silent at home games after an investigation into their affairs by local prosecutors. Culturally, Milan fans are used to outside-the-box thinking. Former owner Silvio Berlusconi blazed several new trails in the spirit of the club’s innovative DNA.
Up the road in Como, fans are still immensely grateful to the owners for the rise they have overseen, not to mention the community work the club has done.
The money on the table for the game, a €12m base fee, excluding the uplift from ticketing, sponsorship and other opportunities, is believed to be superior to an NFL game abroad.
English fans will see things differently. But the financial dominance of the Premier League and the way it has squeezed broadcasters around the world has left little budget left for the rights to other leagues. This means Italy and Spain have to look at ways to at least mitigate the shortfall.
James Horncastle
USA and Mexico
UEFA’s decision will be well received in Mexico. The national team already plays the majority of its friendly matches to sold-out stadiums in the U.S., earning millions of dollars for the Mexican Football Federation in the process. And while Liga MX clubs have done so, as well, whether in friendlies or cup tournaments, the notion of a high-stakes league fixture on American soil could be just as lucrative.
“If the game between Barcelona and Villarreal is allowed to be played, we will do anything possible to play an official Liga MX match in the United States,” Club America president Santiago Banos said in September. League matches in the U.S. feels like a latent idea in Europe, but in North America, and certainly in Mexico, it’s viewed as the future.
Could Liga MX games be coming to the U.S.? (Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images)
The question is whether Liga MX will partner with MLS to gain even more market share from their neighbours to the north. Most recently, MLS has sought to work closely with Liga MX in order to share best practices, create new multi-league tournaments and gain Spanish-speaking fans in the process. Will new frontiers strengthen that relationship or see Liga MX feast in MLS territory?
“The opportunity is so big that there are many ways to actually go for it,” Alejandro Irarragorri, the chairman of Grupo Orlegi, which owns Atlas FC and Santos Laguna in Liga MX, told The Athletic in September. “So we can go together (with MLS) or we can go our separate ways.”
Felipe Cardenas
Germany
This is the third rail of German football; a topic which must never be spoken about, engaged with, or even really considered — certainly not publicly.
Will the Bundesliga ever play games abroad? It’s a non-starter. In a football culture within which supporters are truly stakeholders, even the slightest indication that the export of a domestic fixture was being considered would trigger a nationwide protest.
Like its member clubs, the Deutsche Fussball Liga’s position on this is immovable: it can never happen, regardless of what decisions other leagues choose to take.
Lone voices will occasionally dissent. Fernando Carro, Bayer Leverkusen’s CEO, has publicly expressed his desire to see the German Super Cup played overseas, but even that is controversial. In any case, Carro is CEO of a club that enjoys an exemption from the country’s 50+1 ownership rule and is not answerable to club members in the same way.
There are many other people within the German football environment who recognise the need for international growth — the Bundesliga’s overseas broadcasting contract is worth peanuts relative to the Premier League or even La Liga and Serie A — but whatever conversations may occur in smoke-filled rooms, they know that this is not a realistic avenue by which to improve that situation.
Seb Stafford-Bloor
France
A senior club executive at a Ligue 1 club, speaking anonymously to protect their position, told The Athletic that they were not aware of any conversations around hosting domestic matches outside France. However, they added that such a proposal coming up in the future would not be a surprise.
A big reason for that in France is because the domestic game is in financial crisis, following the collapse of various TV contracts, with DAZN ending their Ligue 1 deal last season after just one year. Following that, the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) subsequently launched its own subscription channel for this season.
With many French clubs facing an uncertain future, after the loss of traditional revenue streams, the chance to make any extra cash is a welcome proposition, particularly given the commercial gap to the Premier League. However, clubs are conscious the fan reaction to any domestic matches played abroad could be fierce.
France has already hosted its Trophee des Champions — the match between the winner of Ligue 1 and the winner of the Coupe de France — overseas since 2009. That game has gone to Tunisia, Morocco, USA, Gabon, Austria, China and Qatar, and will be staged in Kuwait this January.
Tom Burrows