Rules could be updated for the first time since 2014
La Liga and Serie A set to play in Miami and Perth
Fifa has begun redrafting its regulations on staging domestic league games in foreign countries and is seeking legal advice over whether it can ban them. World football’s governing body would like to outlaw the practice but will be guided by legal opinion in its first review of the relevant regulations for 11 years.
A source involved in the process said Fifa was working towards making its rulebook more robust with a view to new regulations being ready early next year. This week Uefa blamed the “relevant Fifa regulatory framework” for its decision to allow Villarreal v Barcelona to take place in Miami in December and Milan v Como to go ahead in Perth in February. That is understood to have caused considerable irritation at Fifa because under existing regulations it is not their decision to make.
The regulations were written in 2014, when domestic leagues moving matches to overseas territories was not regarded as a live issue after the collapse of Premier League plans for a 39th game in 2008. The then Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore’s proposal for an “international round” was ahead of its time, but fans were outraged and it was not pursued elsewhere.
