Villarreal’s La Liga clash with Barcelona in December could make history as the first European league fixture to be staged outside the continent, after Spain’s football federation approved plans to host the game in the United States.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) confirmed that its board of directors had given the green light to a joint request from Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona to move the match from Spain to the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida — a venue set to host seven matches during the 2026 World Cup.
“At its meeting on 11 August 2025, the RFEF board of directors received a request from Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona to play their match on matchday 17 of the first division in the United States,” the RFEF said in a statement. “The Royal Spanish Football Federation will submit the request to Uefa to begin the process for subsequent authorisation by Fifa for the match to be played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on 20 December 2025.”
The fixture is currently scheduled for Villarreal’s Estadio de la Cerámica on 21 December. If approved, it would mark the first time a regular-season game from one of Europe’s top leagues has been contested abroad.
However, the proposal has triggered a backlash from fans. The Spanish football supporters’ association FASFE has joined with Barcelona and Villarreal fan groups to voice their “absolute, total and firm opposition” to the plans.
In a joint statement, they called on the RFEF and the national sports council to “stop this madness,” warning they would “take appropriate legal action” if the move went ahead.
The idea of exporting domestic fixtures is not new. Other one-off matches — such as the Italian Super Cup and Spanish Super Cup — have been staged abroad in recent years. AC Milan are also exploring the possibility of playing their Serie A match against Como in Perth, Australia, in February, as the fixture clashes with the San Siro hosting the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. That proposal still requires approval from Fifa, Uefa, Football Australia, and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Fifa’s current rules prohibit domestic league matches from being played abroad, though last year it formed a working group to review the policy. La Liga itself previously tried to take a Barcelona v Atletico Madrid match to Miami in 2024 but abandoned the plan due to time constraints. In 2019, a proposal to stage a Barcelona v Girona game in Miami was also scrapped following opposition from the RFEF and the players’ union.
In England, the Premier League has consistently ruled out playing fixtures overseas. In 2008, then-chief executive Richard Scudamore floated the idea of an extra round of matches abroad, but fierce criticism from fans and the media led to the plan being shelved.
Boluwatife Enome
