Caught between the Hard Rock and Real Madrid anger. LaLiga’s US game has issues

October 18 – The dispute over plans to play a La Liga fixture in the USA in January has taken yet another twist with Real Madrid officially protesting the move by writing to Spain’s football federation.

The game between Real’s arch-rivals Barcelona and their Catalan neighbours Girona, the first in a proposed once-a-season, 15-year deal struck between LaLiga and entertainment company Relevent,  is due to place in Miami on January 26 but is yet to have the go-ahead from the relevant footballing bodies including UEFA, Concacaf and the US Soccer Federation.

“First of all we would like to declare that Real Madrid were neither informed that LaLiga had requested to play the game nor of the intention to make the request, and we were never asked our opinion on it,” Real said in the letter, signed by the club’s director-general Jose Angel Sanchez.

“Nor, obviously, did LaLiga obtain Real Madrid’s agreement, despite the fact that this game affects a competition in which we participate.”

A spokesman for LaLiga reiterated on Wednesday that no club would be forced to play in the US and that it was entirely voluntary.

Spanish Federation president Luis Rubiales has expressed his opposition to the move as has the Spanish footballers’ union.

The proposed ‘home’ match for Girona, situated around 60 miles north of Barcelona, would take place at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium but Real’s letter continued: “We cannot forget that the national league is a competition in which 20 teams participate, not two, and that it is fundamental that every team plays each other twice, home and away and at each stadium, as that guarantees the integrity and the equality of the competition.”

“As a consequence, Real Madrid manifests its opposition to the request made to play the game at the Hard Rock stadium in Miami as it affects the integrity and equality of the competition.”

Despite all the opposition, La Liga president Javier Tebas recently told CNN: “I would bet $10,000 that the game will take place. I know both Spain and the sports world and therefore I knew it would not be easy and that there would be unrest,”

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