Supporters’ groups warn against ‘dangerous precedent’
Governing body to rule on La Liga call for Miami game
Fifa has been urged by leading supporters’ groups to block domestic league matches from being played abroad and avoid “a Pandora’s box of disarray for football”, as the prospect of major European fixtures taking place on different continents looms large.
World football’s governing body is likely to be tasked with deciding whether Villarreal face Barcelona in Miami in December after La Liga’s request to make the switch was approved and submitted by the Spanish football federation. Milan and Como are also looking to play a Serie A fixture in Perth, Western Australia, in February.
Signing off those moves would, the fan bodies have warned, mean “setting a dangerous precedent” and “stripping clubs of their roots”. Those fears were expressed by Football Supporters Europe, the Independent Supporters Council, Football Supporters Association Australia and Accionistas y Socios del Fútbol Español in a letter sent last week to the Fifa secretary general, Mattias Grafström. They explained moving games abroad would undermine sporting integrity, unbalancing the regular home-and-away rhythm, while “reducing clubs to entertainment products detached from their tradition and communities”.
