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While Football Daily likes the idea of partying in any city where the heat is on, all night on the beach to the break of dawn as much as the next periodical, we have never been lucky enough to visit Miami. However, we are familiar enough with the musical stylings of Will Smith to know that every day in Florida’s second most populous city is “like a mardi gras” and that all visitors “party all day, no work all play”. Sadly for the powers that be in La Liga, it has been decided that their money-making, profile-rising wheeze to send Barcelona and Villarreal to “the city that keeps the roof blazin’” to play a Spanish top-flight game has been cancelled. Any notions Lamine Yamal, Nicolas Pépé or their teammates might have had to spend their Christmas break “bouncin’ in the club where the heat is on” are on hold and replaced by the crushing reality of having to remain in – Football Daily checks notes – Spain.
La Liga’s plan to export the match to the USA USA USA was presented as a fait accompli by La Liga chief suit Javier Tebas two weeks ago, and confirmed by the Barcelona chief suit Joan Laporta on Tuesday afternoon. Both men were left with several tortillas’ worth of egg on their fizzogs after news broke that the game’s American promoters had sacked off the idea a few hours later while both teams were taking care of Bigger Cup business. When the bombshell dropped, Villarreal were getting beaten by Manchester City, prompting their coach Marcelino García Toral to describe its timing as “a complete lack of respect”. Barcelona’s players had just finished a highly controversial slaughter of Olympiakos that will have done little to improve the already foul mood of the Greek side’s beleaguered owner Evangelos Marinakis.
