Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong has expressed his opposition to the announcement that the Catalan side's LaLiga match against Villarreal in December will be played in Miami.
LaLiga confirmed on Wednesday that the league match, which was supposed to be played at Villarreal's Estadio de la Cerámica, will be moved to the Hard Rock Stadium after UEFA announced earlier this week that they had reluctantly approved the request.
De Jong is against including more travel in a busy schedule, although he also understands complaints from rival teams that this will distort the competition.
“I don't like it,” he said at a news conference while on international duty with the Netherlands.
“I can understand the clubs financially, of course they will benefit from it and will be able to spread their brand all over the world. But I wouldn't do it.
“It's not good for the players. You have to travel a lot. It's not fair in terms of competition either. For us now it's an away game on a neutral field. I completely understand that other clubs are not happy with that.”
Real Madrid are among the LaLiga clubs that have criticized the decision to move a match to the United States, stating that it will “give an undue sporting advantage” to the teams involved and “sets an unacceptable precedent.”
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LaLiga has been trying to move a match to the United States since 2017, but plans accelerated in August when they finally received approval from the Royal Spanish Football Federation. [RFEF]who had previously blocked the plans despite organizing the Spanish Super Cup themselves in Saudi Arabia.
Earlier this week, European soccer's governing body UEFA said it had approved two requests for matches to be played on foreign soil, the other from Italian teams Milan and Como to play in Perth, Australia, in February.
UEFA said it was “clearly opposed” to the idea of playing domestic league matches outside its home countries, but cited FIFA's vague framework and regulations in confirming it had accepted the proposals “exceptionally”.
FIFA has formed a working group to review those regulations in the future.
The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, for his part, states that the plan is to take a League match each season abroad, and not just to the United States.
Barça's match against Villarreal will be the first of the five major European leagues to be played on foreign soil, copying a model implemented by American leagues such as the NFL and the NBA in recent years.
