\n<\/p>\n
La Liga has announced it will no longer stage Villarreal v Barcelona in Miami this December, blaming \u201cuncertainty\u201d caused by the critical response to the plans in Spain.<\/p>\n
The Spanish top flight had set great store in staging some of its fixtures abroad and bemoaned its inability to follow through with the plans in a lengthy statement released on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The decision had been taken \u2013 in conjunction with the game\u2019s promoter, Relevent \u2013 to \u201ccancel the organisation of the event due to the uncertainty that has arisen in Spain over the past few weeks\u201d, La Liga said, adding that it \u201cdeeply regretted\u201d such an outcome. \u201cHolding an official match outside our borders would have been a decisive step in the global growth of the competition,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The statement went on to suggest La Liga needed novel ways of generating money because of the continued dominance of the Premier League. \u201cIn an increasingly competitive global landscape, where leagues such as the Premier League or competitions like the Uefa Champions League continue to expand their reach and ability to generate revenue, initiatives like this are essential to ensure the sustainability and growth of Spanish soccer,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRenouncing such opportunities hinders the generation of new income, limits clubs\u2019 capacity to invest and compete, and reduces the international projection of the entire Spanish soccer ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
The enthusiasm of La Liga for overseas fixtures has been found wanting elsewhere. The latest round of fixtures were disrupted by protests this past weekend. Players refused to move for the first 15 seconds of games, with the Spanish footballers\u2019 association saying the decision to \u201csymbolically protest\u201d had been taken because of the league\u2019s \u201clack of transparency, dialogue and coherence\u201d over the Miami match.<\/p>\n
Real Madrid have filed two complaints over the move to the Spanish sports ministry, with their manager, Xabi Alonso, saying his side were against it because it \u201cdistorts the competition\u201d. Alonso\u2019s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said: \u201cLa Liga does whatever it wants because it suits them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The protests followed Uefa\u2019s decision this month to \u201creluctantly\u201d allow the match, along with a Serie A fixture between Milan and Como in Perth, Australia, to go ahead. The European governing body, which also has a working relationship with Relevent, said at the time that it \u201creiterated its clear opposition to domestic league matches being played outside their home country\u201d, adding: \u201cHowever \u2026 the Uefa executive committee has reluctantly taken the decision to approve, on an exceptional basis, the two requests referred to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a separate statement, first published in the Athletic, Relevent said it had informed La Liga of the need \u201cto postpone\u201d the match, arguing that the uncertainty in Spain had left \u201cinsufficient time to properly execute an event of this scale\u201d.<\/p>\n
Following Villarreal\u2019s Champions League defeat by Manchester City on Tuesday night, during which the news was released, the club\u2019s manager Marcelino blasted the timing of the announcement.<\/p>\n
After the club press officer had asked for questions on the match only, Marcelino was asked anyway. \u201cOK, I am going to answer only one question and I am going to be clear,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it is an absolute lack of respect for them to release a statement at half-time about something that they knew would not be done. It is a lack of respect to the directors, the club, the professionals and the fans \u2026 the club will release an official statement tomorrow saying what they think. What I think is this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcelino was asked again a few questions later. \u201cI was clear, wasn\u2019t I?\u201d he said. \u201cOne question, one answer. I repeat myself: I found out at the end of the game, and the rest of what I said is my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
La Liga has announced it will no longer stage Villarreal v Barcelona in Miami this December, blaming \u201cuncertainty\u201d caused by the critical response to the plans in Spain. The Spanish top flight had set great store in staging some of its fixtures abroad and bemoaned its inability to follow through with the plans in a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[1631,5164,9607,17507,548,1294,17506],"class_list":{"0":"post-29678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-announces","9":"tag-cancellation","10":"tag-liga","11":"tag-matchs","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-move","14":"tag-villarrealbarcelona"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29678","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=29678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}