February 13 – LaLiga have not given up on their ambition of playing a ground-breaking domestic game overseas, with Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu (pictured) supporting the initiative in an interview with the BBC.
The much-publicised – and also much criticised – plan to play the first such game in Miami last month was ditched after Barcelona pulled out of the Catalan derby against Girona due to a “lack of consensus”.
The Spanish league signed a 15-year, €200 million agreement with entertainment company Relevent Sports back in August to play one regular season Spanish league game per season in the USA.
La Liga boss Javier Tebas has insisted he idea is not dead in the water and Bartomeu went even further, suggesting as many as three games could be staged outside Spain.
“If we want La Liga to be strong, we are to play in these games,” Bartomeu said.
“At Barca we have sometimes been talking to La Liga and have been telling them that if you want to promote La Liga more and more, then we should have three games of the year outside – one in America, one in the Middle East and one in Asia.
“We have to go and be closer to the fans. We do the summer tours in July and August to go closer to the fans. It’s us showing respect to them, going to Miami would have been respect to our fans in the USA.”
LaLiga chief commercial officer Joris Evers, echoed Bartomeu’s sentiments saying that playing outside of Spain is “a logical next step in the growth of our league”.
“Of course, we strongly support any club’s international ambitions as we certainly share the vision of bringing La Liga action closer to fans everywhere and making La Liga a stronger international brand,” said Evers.
“We continue to work towards playing a La Liga match outside of Spain and want to do that as soon as possible. We are working with all stakeholders to make it happen. We see this as a logical next step in the growth of our league and as a clear benefit to everyone involved.”
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