Many Spanish soccer fans are rejoicing after the cancellation of the planned La Liga match in Miami, Florida, which faced opposition from players and fans.
The match between Villarreal vs. Barcelona is now set to take place in Spain.
“Personally, I feel glad that they cancelled it,” said Andres Lopez, a FC Barcelona fan and a university student. “If you want to see a game in Miami, go watch f***ing MLS, bruh.”
On Oct. 21, the Spanish football league, known as La Liga, announced that the game scheduled for Dec. 20 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami had been called off. The game is now expected to be played at Villarreal’s home stadium, Estadio de la Cerámica.
The day after the Miami game was announced, Real Madrid denounced the project, saying it “violates the essential principle of territorial reciprocity” that governs La Liga, Sports Illustrated reported.
“The home advantage is taken away from the team that would have played in their home stadium,” said Lorenzo Steinacher, a Spanish university student. “This has a negative effect on the fans, and the atmosphere is one of the main contributors to that home advantage.”
The removal of Villarreal’s home advantage was a sore spot for clubs and fans. Teams usually perform better because of the fans. When the Miami match cancellation was announced, Real Madrid players criticized Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, for trying to take a La Liga game to the United States and hiding protests by La Liga players to overturn this decision.
“I think that it’s an absolute disgrace to football,” said Jakob Loncnar, a soccer fan and university student. “It’s like you’re getting rid of the basic thing of just having good fans at games because you don’t have actual Spanish fans of the clubs at the game and if there are, they’re gonna be less because they’re gonna have to travel to the U.S. and just, like, pay more money, and I think it’s just a greedy thing from La Liga. Yeah, it’s just greedy.”
According to El País, this game was part of a joint venture between American promoter Relevant and Javier Tebas, which guaranteed La Liga a minimum of €2 billion over 15 years. The game itself was set up to earn between €5 and €6 million for both FC Barcelona and Villarreal, according to La Liga.
“Now, football is all about money,” said Raúl Hinestroza, a cook at a football sports bar. “All the motivation that people had before is gone. Now, it’s not the same.”
The October protests, organized by La Asociasión Española de Futbolistas after consulting club captains, took place on the ninth fixture. Players from both teams did not play the first 15 seconds of the game, according to Sports Illustrated. AFE said the purpose was “to symbolically protest the lack of transparency, dialogue and coherence of La Liga, regarding the possibility of playing a competitive match in the United States.” The decision was not previously consulted with member clubs.
According to El País, television stations hid parts of the protests at the start of the matches, and when they did show them, they accompanied the broadcasts with a message reading, “Commitment to Peace.”
“To hide it, and also to change the reason why we are protesting, is censorship and manipulation,” said Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid’s goalkeeper, in a press conference on the morning of the cancellation announcement. “And that is very serious.”
According to the official statement published in El País from La Liga in October, the match cancellation was “due to the uncertainty generated in Spain during the last few weeks.”
La Liga officials “profoundly lament that this project, which represented a historic and unparalleled opportunity for the internationalization of Spanish football, cannot go ahead. Holding an official match outside our borders would have been a decisive step in the global expansion of our competition.”
Some fans said they understood Tebas’ intention in trying to expand to the U.S., but they are still happy the match is being played on national terrain.
“I think it’s great that they cancelled it so it would come here [Spain],” said Alfonso Ampudia Perez, a Madrileño Real Madrid fan and business owner. “If they were to cancel it so it wouldn’t be played, I wouldn’t like that.”
“Let them play it in Milan, or Sudan, or Australia, in any country in the world,” he continued. “But let it be played.”
