La Liga game would be against Villarreal
Plan also needs approval from Fifa and others
Uefa will decide in September whether to approve a request by the Spanish football federation for Villarreal and Real Madrid to contest a La Liga game in Miami in December.
European football’s governing body is expected to discuss the matter at its next executive committee meeting in Tirana on 11 September and, should no move be made to block the request, a landmark move will edge closer to reality. No major league has held a domestic game on foreign territory, despite prolonged attempts from the Spanish top flight to do so. Uefa’s signoff would clear a huge section of path, although the plan also requires approval from Fifa, US Soccer and Concacaf.
There is a broad acceptance within Uefa that the proposal will be difficult to reject without altering its statutes. Even then the plan appears to have irresistible momentum. Potential legal arguments against moving matches abroad have lost weight since the US-based promoter Relevent Sports agreed a settlement with Fifa in April 2024 to dismiss the global governing body from a lawsuit challenging its policy of barring league games from being staged in other countries.
