\n<\/p>\n
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has launched a scathing attack on La Liga, criticising the league\u2019s decision to stage Barcelona\u2019s away match against Villarreal in Miami on 20 December, saying it \u201cdistorts the competition\u201d.<\/p>\n
The fixture, which is set to take place at the Hard Rock Stadium, would be the first La Liga fixture held outside Spain and the first European league match staged abroad. While Uefa has \u201creluctantly\u201d approved the plan, Real Madrid and other teams in Spain\u2019s top flight have expressed their opposition.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Tuesday before Real\u2019s Champions League fixture against Juventus, Courtois accused La Liga of bypassing clubs in the decision-making process and argued that the move undermines the principles of fairness in the home-and-away league format. \u201cLa Liga does whatever it wants because it suits them,\u201d said the Belgian. \u201cThis decision distorts the competition. Playing at home is not the same as playing away. In La Liga, playing away is very difficult, as we saw against Real Sociedad and Getafe. Villarreal away is tough. It\u2019s not fair to change the rules mid-season without consulting us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Courtois also contrasted La Liga\u2019s plans with the NBA and NFL, who regularly play matches abroad. \u201cThe NBA has 82 games, and the NFL\u2019s owners collectively approve these decisions. Here, La Liga acts unilaterally. It\u2019s not the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
La Liga players staged silent protests at the weekend by standing motionless at kick-offs across all matches, symbolising their discontent with the decision. La Liga\u2019s broadcasts ignored the protests in several games, showing a wide, aerial shot of the stadiums accompanied by a banner that read \u201cCommitment to peace\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHiding the protests and trying to change the narrative is censorship and manipulation,\u201d Courtois said. \u201cI\u2019m not surprised. [La Liga president, Javier Tebas] behaves like no other sports executive I\u2019ve ever seen. His actions on social media and in public speak volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Real Madrid have filed two complaints with Spain\u2019s sports ministry, arguing the moving of a domestic game overseas undermines La Liga\u2019s competitive integrity. The Atl\u00e9tico Madrid manager, Diego Simeone, has also weighed in on the controversy, expressing his scepticism over the Miami fixture. \u201cI won\u2019t believe it until I see it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe home team loses the advantage. Their fans won\u2019t be there, and they have to travel thousands of miles. We need to respect the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Football Daily<\/span><\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n La Liga has repeatedly defended its plan to stage matches abroad, stating that the proposal \u201cdoes not distort competition or violate any rights of players, clubs or fans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has launched a scathing attack on La Liga, criticising the league\u2019s decision to stage Barcelona\u2019s away match against Villarreal in Miami on 20 December, saying it \u201cdistorts the competition\u201d. The fixture, which is set to take place at the Hard Rock Stadium, would be the first La Liga fixture held<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2883,17454,17455,9607,1978,548,1436,17453],"class_list":{"0":"post-29570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-competition","9":"tag-courtois","10":"tag-distorts","11":"tag-liga","12":"tag-match","13":"tag-miami","14":"tag-plan","15":"tag-thibaut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}