Barcelona, Villarreal set to make history with first-ever La Liga match in U.S; Pending FIFA approval

Madrid, Aug 11 (IANS) Spanish football could finally be heading across the Atlantic after the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) approved a request for FC Barcelona and Villarreal CF to play their December 2025–26 La Liga fixture in Miami — a move nearly a decade in the making.

The RFEF board gave the green light on Monday for the matchday 17 clash to be staged at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on 20 December 2025. It would mark the first time in La Liga’s history that an official league match was played abroad.

“At its meeting on 11 August 2025, the RFEF Board of Directors received a request from Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona to play its match on matchday 17 of the first division in the United States,” the federation 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 ...”

While the RFEF’s approval is a breakthrough, the proposal must now clear two final hurdles — securing UEFA’s consent before obtaining FIFA’s authorisation — in order to become reality.

La Liga President Javier Tebas has been pursuing his “American dream” for years, inspired by the NFL and NBA’s strategy of taking official games abroad to expand their global footprint. His first attempt came in the 2018–19 season with a proposed Girona-Barcelona match in the U.S., which never materialised.

A Villarreal-Atletico fixture planned for 2019–20 also fell through, ending up in court after the RFEF, then led by Luis Rubiales, refused authorisation. The courts sided with the federation. Another near-miss came last season when a Barcelona-Atletico game was almost staged in the U.S. before La Liga pulled back to better structure the project.

--IANS

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