Pressure grows on Serie A to cancel Perth game
Pressure group Football Supporters Europe (FSE) has called on Italy's Serie A to follow the lead of Spain's La Liga and drop plans to stage a regular season match between Milan and Como in the Australian city of Perth early next year.
Amid an outcry from players and fans in Spain, La Liga announced it had ditched a similar proposal for Villarreal to play Barcelona in a regular season fixture in the United States.
"This is a seismic victory for European football and everyone who believes the game belongs at the heart of our communities – now it's time for Serie A to drop its plans too," FSE said in a statement. "Serie A must do the right thing in the face of growing isolation ... The position of players and supporters in Italy is crystal clear: doubling down on this failed idea would be an act of self-inflicted damage to the league's reputation, to Italian football, and to the game as a whole.
"The game has no place 15,000 kilometres away from its home."
There was no immediate response to a request for comment from Serie A made outside normal business hours.
Milan has already received the "reluctant" permission of European governing body UEFA to host the February match at Perth Stadium while its San Siro home is unavailable because of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.
The playing of the fixture in Perth will still need a sign-off from Football Australia, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and world governing body FIFA.
While leading European football clubs regularly play pre-season friendly matches in cities around the world, the Milan-Como fixture would be the first Serie A match to take place outside Italy.
Milan's French midfielder Adrien Rabiot said earlier this month the move was "crazy" and "absurd" but his concerns were dismissed by Serie A Chief Executive Luigi De Siervo, who said players should respect the money they make and their employers.
"The NFL and NBA have been playing away from the U.S. for years, with the concept of being a global product," De Siervo said.
"We believe ... that this can be a model that the world of football, with precise rules, must follow if it is not to lose out to other sports."
Government officials in Western Australia said they were confident Serie A would not back down in the face of criticism.
"We've had some very supportive comments overnight from the Italian league, so we're very confident," State Sports Minister Rita Saffioti told the ABC.
"We're waiting for the Asian Football Confederation to sanction. Basically, every 10 minutes I'm checking my phone, so it should happen in the next week, next few days, but that's what we're waiting on."
