FC Barcelona and AC Milan will play one league match in the USA and one in Australia in December and February respectively. Milan professional Adrien Rabiot and Barça player Frenkie de Jong sharply criticize their employers' trips abroad.
09.10.2025, 17:47
09.10.2025, 17:59
dpa
UEFA approved the requests of the Spanish and Italian leagues on Monday. If it has its way, they will remain exceptions. The European continental association emphasized that the approval was given "reluctantly" and "exceptionally". The relevant FIFA regulations, which are currently being revised, are "not clear and detailed enough" to allow for a different decision, UEFA explained.
UEFA announced that the match between Villarreal and FC Barcelona on December 21 will take place in Miami on a date yet to be determined. Serie A intends to play the AC Milan - Como match in Perth on February 6, the day of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan. As the San Siro Stadium will not be available two days later due to the demolition work, alternatives had to be sought, according to the reasoning. The alternative is a whopping 14,000 kilometers away.
Rabiot: "Really absurd"
The planned staging of the match in Australia has led to a dispute between Milan professional Adrien Rabiot and the league boss. In an interview with "Le Figaro", the French midfielder described the plans as "completely crazy".
"It's all about financial deals and making the league visible," said the 30-year-old. That is more important than the players. "There's talk of fixtures and player welfare, but that seems really absurd," added Rabiot, referring to the long flight to Australia's west coast and the time change. "We'll have to adapt, as always," he said.
A trip to a foreign country is nothing new for Serie A professionals: the Supercoppa (originally the duel between the champions and cup winners - now extended to a mini-tournament with four participants) has already been held in China, the USA, Libya and most recently in Saudi Arabia five years in a row.
Serie A league boss points to NFL and NBA games overseas
Serie A managing director Luigi De Siervo rejected the criticism. Rabiot apparently forgets, "like all professional footballers who earn millions, that he is paid to do a job, namely to play football". He should show more respect and better support his employer, who had campaigned for the game to be played abroad.
"Top players who are paid appropriately for the work they do should understand better than others that this is a sacrifice that can be made," De Siervo reiterated. He pointed out that the American football league NFL and the North American basketball league have long since organized games overseas and that the major cycling events Tour de France and Giro d'Italia also go abroad.
De Jong: "Unfair to the competition"
Barça star Frenkie de Jong also thinks little of the trip abroad: "The clubs get paid for it, but I don't agree with playing a league game in Miami. I understand other clubs who are against it. It's unfair to the competition. Now we're playing an away game on a neutral ground. I don't like that and I don't think it's right for the players."
The legal loophole in the regulations is also a distortion of competition. For example, the home game of third-placed Villarreal - who have only ever won at home in their home stadium La Cerámica - is practically an away game. Barcelona also have many supporters in Florida - and the rest of the USA - who will be cheering on their team at Hard Rock Stadium, while Villarreal's fan base is at home.
Fans with a free flight
To mitigate this effect, Villarreal's season ticket holders will be allowed to travel to the game for free. Fans who do not want to make the journey (around 7500 kilometers as the crow flies) will receive a 30 percent discount on the price of their season ticket, as "gmx.ch" writes. Even before the decision, 18 fan groups in Spain had already expressed their "complete rejection" of matches abroad.
Spain's league boss Javier Tebas defends the decision. "We understand and respect the concerns raised by this decision, but it's important to put it in context - it's just one game out of a total of 380 this season," said Tebas: "With this game, we are taking a historic step that will catapult La Liga and Spanish football into a new dimension." Barcelona's arch-rivals Real Madrid spoke of an "unacceptable precedent", as Kicker wrote.
According to Hans-Joachim Watzke, such a step is out of the question for the German Bundesliga. "As long as I am responsible for the league, there will be no competitive matches abroad," said the DFL Executive Committee spokesman: "That is not open to interpretation."
