FootBiz newsletter #116: What La Liga's Miami farce tells us about football in 2025

Only really one place to kick things off this week, and that’s in Miami. Well, more pertinently, it isn’t in Miami. Not yet, anyway.

La Liga’s nearly decade-long campaign to play league games in the United States (with a particular focus on Hard Rock Stadium, as it is owned by the same person as La Liga’s business partner, Relevent) suffered another setback after Relevent killed this year’s fixture.

Where this story begins really depends on how far back you want to go but Sid Lowe provides as good a contextual piece as you’ll find for those who want deeper reading. As we covered on Tuesday, there were protests from La Liga players last weekend over the whole plan but no indication of any weakening in Javier Tebas’ resolve.

Then on Tuesday night — as Villarreal were about to kick off their Champions League clash with Manchester City — they were informed they wouldn’t be going to Miami. Minutes later the rest of the world was informed too.

"Villarreal CF wishes to express its deep displeasure with LaLiga over the poor handling of the match scheduled to be played in Miami against FC Barcelona," the club said in an extensive and rather pointed statement on Wednesday.

"Villarreal CF, understanding the logistical complexity of a match of such magnitude and the implications of a large-scale displacement of fans to another continent, put itself at the disposition of LaLiga, insisting on the importance of working in advance and planning to be able to meet all of the resulting needs.”

Those included a lack of firm details, even those as basic as kick-off time but also foundational steps like hiring a travel agency (fairly critical given Villarreal had promised to fly over and accommodate all season ticket holders).

“In fact, a meeting was scheduled for this Thursday, in which if these issues were not resolved immediately, the club was going to withdraw from the project due to not having the minimum conditions guaranteed for the organisation.”

What annoyed them as much as the lack of progress or detail was how the decision was taken (unilaterally) and communicated (insensitively).

"Last night, minutes before kickoff in the Champions League match between Villarreal CF and Manchester City at the Estadio de la Cerámica, the club was notified by phone by LaLiga that the match was cancelled due to the decision of the promoters [Relevent] ... Minutes later, and to the club's surprise, LaLiga decided to issue a unilateral statement announcing the cancellation of a match involving Villarreal, during such an important game for the club, demonstrating a complete and utter lack of respect.

"Villarreal CF regrets that LaLiga, as the organizer, was not able to better lead the management and that the LaLiga match in Miami cannot finally go ahead."

So yeah. Villarreal also clarifies for us that it was technically Relevent who pulled out (though they claim they weren’t far from making the same decision themselves) and swung some fairly hefty punches in the direction of the league.

Relevent partly blamed “uncertainty in Spain” for the decision, without specifying whether that was from fans, clubs or within the offices of the league itself. The Athletic report “the final decision was made by La Liga.”

How did the league respond?

Not one to stay quiet in the face of criticism — or, indeed, in any situation — president Javier Tebas took swipes at unnamed supranational bodes (that may rhyme with Queefer and Poo-Wafer?) and the effects their decisions are having on domestic competitions.

Any expanded global competitions he could be talking about?

"Today, Spanish football has lost an opportunity to advance, project itself globally, and strengthen its future.

"The defence of 'tradition' is invoked from a narrow-minded and provincial perspective, while the true traditions of European football are threatened by decisions by the governing institutions, which year after year destroy national leagues, the true driving force of the European football industry, amid the naivety and passivity of European leaders who fail to distinguish the inconsequential from the essential.

"The 'integrity of the competition' is invoked by those who have been questioning that same integrity for years, pressuring referees and leaders, constructing distorted narratives, or using political and media pressure as a sporting tool.

"I want to thank Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona for their commitment and generosity in being part of a project that only sought the growth of our competition. They weren't thinking about themselves, they were thinking about everyone.

"LaLiga will continue working, with rigour and conviction, to keep Spanish football competitive, standing up to those who seek to destroy it, but always respecting its roots and ensuring its sustainability.

"Spanish football deserves to look to the future with ambition, not fear. We will keep trying. This time, we came very close."

In small businesses as you do in huge multi-billion dollar businesses navigating the hyperglobalisation of sport, it appears everyone passes the blame ‘upward’.

The clubs blame the league, the league blames the governing bodies, the governing bodies… sort of do what they want because they answer to no-one.

But at the same time they are also kind of helpless to prevent these events because, increasingly, they have discovered their rules might not stand up to rigorous legal challenge.

The players? They are so unconvinced of their own power that the biggest gesture they believe they can get away with is to stand still for 15 seconds. (Though you would wager this won’t be the last player protest of its kind now it’s notionally succeeded in its aim)

With so much money at stake in football now, the odds are that these sort of battles will only become more common. This one is rare in its ability to highlight the various conflicting interests that pass like a thread through every level of professional football (a bit like The Wire, if you’ve seen that).

The next battle? Well, The Guardian reports that Serie A’s own version of the Spanish farce, Como vs AC Milan in Australia next February, is at risk of running into the same fate.

While the most positive framing of La Liga cancelling their Miami fixture in December is simply that the timeline got a bit tight and it’s not that big a deal given it will just happen next year instead, a more negative view would be that the fraying of relationships seen in Spain has exposed the unpopularity of these moves.

You think simply rescheduling for 2026 will go off without any opposition after what we’ve seen this week? Whether it was as a result of protests and discontent or simply sloppy logistics, those protesting got what they wanted.

Those in the gilded corridors of the Premier League and the Bundesliga must be smiling to themselves that they have avoided such a mess. For now, anyway.

Table of Contents

• Chelsea seal £15m per year sponsor

• First-ever Caribbean World Cup bid confirmed

• FIFA’s pact with builders union

• New SPL deal

• Pott luck

• Hammers lose again

• I’ll Stabia for money

Oh, and if you don’t subscribe yet then please consider doing so for the small price of a Dairy Milk bar every month. It would only rot your teeth anyway.

Subscribe to Community level to read the rest.