TheLa Liga fixture between Villarreal and FC Barcelona at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami due to take place on December 20 has been cancelled.
La Liga confirmed the Miami game had been cancelled during Villarreal’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester City last night (October 21).
After the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) approved for Villarreal’s December 20 home fixture against FC Barcelona to be held in Miami in August, the location was confirmed after UEFA also, albeit ‘regrettably’, approved on October 6.
Once the decision was made, fans of both Villarreal, FC Barcelona and the rest of Spain lamented La Liga for hosting the first league fixture outside of Spain.
Players also took issue with the decision. During matchweek nine of the season, players refused to play for the first 15 seconds of games in protest. This also included FC Barcelona’s 2-1 victory over Girona on October 18.
The Miami game organisers, Relevent, stated it cancelled the fixture in Miami due to “insufficient time” to organise the match. La Liga also cited the “uncertainty in Spain” due to the mass protests and criticism.
The fixture will now be held at the Estadio de la Ceramica, Villarreal’s home stadium, as originally scheduled.
La Liga stated it “deeply regrets” the decision to cancel the Miami game, viewing it as a step back in building its “international profile of the entire football ecosystem”.
“La Liga deeply regrets that this project, which represented a historic and unparalleled opportunity for the international expansion of Spanish soccer, will not be able to move forward,” a La Liga statement said.
“Holding an official match outside our borders would have been a decisive step in the global growth of the competition, strengthening the international presence of clubs, the positioning of players, and the visibility of Spanish soccer in a strategic market such as the United States.
The controversial decision was met with widespread backlash from both football fans and players across Spain.
Players take matters into their own hands
Among the many players who spoke out against the Miami game, Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois and Dani Carvajal were some of the most vocal critics.
Courtois took issue with La Liga seemingly being able to make decisions beyond the player’s consent, criticising the idea of taking away a team’s (Villarreal) home field advantage which could “distort the competition”.
Before Madrid’s Champions League tie with Juventus, he said: “La Liga does whatever it wants because it suits them. This decision distorts the competition. Playing at home is not the same as playing away.
“In La Liga, playing away is very difficult, as we saw against Real Sociedad and Getafe. Villarreal away is tough. It’s not fair to change the rules mid-season without consulting us.”
Madrid Captain Carvajal took aim at La Liga President Javier Tebas, believing there would have been a “stain on your competition” if the Miami game had gone ahead.
“Hello, Mr Javier Tebas, breaking the rules is tantamount to rigging the competition,” said Carvajal via an Instagram post. “There will be a stain on your competition if the match goes ahead. Good afternoon.”
With Madrid and FC Barcelona the two favourites to win the 2025/26 La Liga title, there was concern amongst Madrid players that stripping home field advantage away from Villarreal in their Miami fixture against Barcelona could have ramifications on who wins the title at the end of the season.
After FC Barcelona’s win over Girona last weekend, Pedri spoke on the 15 second protest to start the game. The Barcelona midfielder said: “We were not part of the protest, but we felt that we needed to follow along out of respect for our fellow professionals.”
The Spanish footballers player’s union organised the protest. It stated this was due to the “lack of transparency, dialogue and coherence from La Liga regarding the possibility of playing a game in the US”.
Will La Liga attempt this again?
Hosting a La Liga fixture in the US, Miami in particular, has been a long-term goal of President Tebas.
His first attempt came in 2018 with a proposal to stage a Barcelona-Girona match in Miami. A renewed effort followed last season, when plans were drawn up for Barcelona to face Atletico Madrid in Miami on December 21, 2024.
Tebas has repeatedly argued that hosting a single La Liga fixture in the US could generate up to $200m in revenue, driven by the American appetite for football. This surge was amplified by Lionel Messi’s 2023 move to Inter Miami.
At the same time, Tebas remains acutely aware of the Premier League’s expanding financial dominance, which he has often criticised. For him, the US represents both a commercial opportunity and a strategic response to Europe’s shifting power balance.
Before the Miami match was ultimately cancelled, Tebas told delegates at the SPORTEL conference in Monaco, attended by Insider Sport, that UEFA’s opposition to staging domestic league games abroad was short-sighted.
He urged European leagues to embrace the commercial and cultural potential of the US market rather than resist it. “It is very frustrating. This is a very old-fashioned vision of professional football,” he said.
“This is just one game, not 20,” he pointed out. “We accepted Halloween from the US, why don’t they accept something from us?”
The La Liga chief hinted there’s more to the story than meets the eye, teasing future revelations. “I am going to write about it when I retire and talk about a lot of secrets.”
