The race to play league games in the USA is on - but who wins? And would it even be a win?
La Liga have been trying to play a league game in America for five years now, but amid reports of a breakthrough and the EFL blocking their own version, is it a case of when not if?
Everyone’s coming to America eventually: Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Wrexham, the Champions League, the Premier League. All of them will go west. Just perhaps not in time for Christmas.
That was the assessment of informed sources following the Daily Mail’s splash on Tuesday that Barcelona’s La Liga clash with Atletico Madrid on December 22nd was set to be switched to Miami in a deal brokered by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross’s Relevent Sports, the league’s partner in US operations.
In some respects nothing has changed.
La Liga have long made it clear they’re hungry for US dollars, Relevent are their chosen partners and Barcelona, desperate for cash, already had a go at moving their fixture with Girona to Miami in 2019. Opposition from FIFA and the Spanish FA stymied that. Yet the political landscape is even more complex now.
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