The highly anticipated clash between Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona, corresponding to Matchday 17 of LaLiga, will no longer take place in Miami as planned. The Spanish football league announced on Tuesday the cancellation of the project, citing “the uncertainty generated in Spain over the past few weeks” as the main reason behind the decision.

A project aimed at internationalizing Spanish football

In an official statement, LaLiga explained that the promoter of the “Official LaLiga Match in Miami” informed them of the decision to suspend the event’s organization. The match, scheduled for December, was part of an ambitious plan to expand the presence of Spanish football in the U.S. market.

“LaLiga deeply regrets that this project, which represented a historic and unparalleled opportunity for the internationalization of Spanish football, cannot move forward,” the league said.

The organization also emphasized that staging an official league match outside of Spain would have been “a decisive step in the global expansion of the competition,” with the goal of strengthening the international visibility of clubs and consolidating the Spanish football brand in a strategic market like the United States.

However, the project once again faced a series of legal and institutional barriers that prevented its execution, despite LaLiga’s insistence that it “fully complied with federation regulations and did not compromise the integrity of the competition.”

Second cancellation in six years

This is not the first time LaLiga has seen its attempt to stage an official match outside Spanish territory fall through. In 2018, the agreement with Relevent Sports to host the Girona vs Barcelona match in Miami was also blocked by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), which argued that it lacked official authorization.

The dispute ended up in court and was ruled against LaLiga — first by a commercial court in Madrid and later upheld by the Provincial Court and the Supreme Court, which confirmed the impossibility of holding domestic league matches outside their home country.

FIFA, for its part, has maintained a firm stance on the issue, reinforced in its 2024 regulations, which state that official competition matches must be played within the territory of the corresponding federation to preserve sporting integrity, safety, and competitive balance.

Despite this latest setback, LaLiga stated it will continue working “to bring Spanish football to every corner of the world” while maintaining an “open, modern, and competitive vision” that benefits clubs, players, and fans alike.

Although the dream of seeing a Villarreal vs Barcelona in Miami has faded, the ambition to globalize Spanish football remains very much alive in the league’s long-term plans.