October 5 – The opposition to La Liga president Javier Tebas’ plan to play a regular season fixture in the US has not stopped the mercurial Spanish leader insisting that the idea iss still alive and is their “right”.
Speaking to Reuters, he said: “Playing in the United States is vital to our strategy there and we won’t relent on what is our right.
“If you want to make your industry more global, as La Liga wants to, if you want to be among the biggest industries in world sport then you have to be immersed in the U.S. market.”
Whether it is LaLiga’s ‘right’ to stage the Girona vs Barcelona league fixture in Miami in January is questionable.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) have said that the fixture can’t be played in the US until more information is provided while FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino has expressed his disapproval.
The fixture under football law needs to be sanctioned by UEFA, Concacaf and the US Soccer Federation if it is to be played outside Europe. While the USSF has remained quiet to date in the issue indications are that they would not be approve the fixture in the market as they build their own professional leagues via the MLS and USL.
Tebas has said that participating in US fixtures would not be mandatory for LaLiga clubs, some of whom have expressed opposition, including Real Madrid whose president Florentino Perez said his club would not take part.
Celta Vigo president Carlos Mouriño said that clubs have very little information on the proposal that is part of a 15-year marketing deal with US promoter Relevent who organise the preseason International Champions Cup tournament.
“We do not know what the matches consist of, the bonuses of the subscribers, the benefit of the club … It’s surprising that the clubs have not been informed of the parameters, so we can not comment,” said Mouriño.
Tebas was asked whether he had similar plans to take LaLiga regular season matches to Asia but indicated that wasn’t part of the immediate plans, but did not rule it out.
“In the short term we haven’t got plans to play in Asia, right now the US is where we need to work in order to grow our brand,” he said.
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