MADRID (AP) — The Spanish soccer league said Tuesday that plans for Barcelona to play a regular-season game against Villarreal in Miami in December have been called off.
The league said the decision was made after conversations with the promoter of the planned Dec. 20 match and cited the “uncertainty that has arisen in Spain over the past few weeks.”
Game promoter Relevent said it informed La Liga of the need to call the game off because “there is insufficient time to properly execute an event of this scale.”
It added that “it would also be irresponsible to begin selling tickets without a confirmed match in place.”
The league had finally succeeded in getting approval from soccer bodies such as UEFA and the Spanish federation to stage its first regular-season game abroad. But opposition by players, some clubs and fans had grown recently in Spain.
The Spanish league “deeply regrets that this project, which represented a historic and unparalleled opportunity for the international expansion of Spanish soccer, will not be able to move forward.”
The league said “holding an official match outside our borders would have been a decisive step in the global growth of the competition, strengthening the international presence of clubs, the positioning of players, and the visibility of Spanish soccer in a strategic market such as the United States.”
It said “the project fully complied with all federative regulations and did not affect the integrity of the competition, as confirmed by the competent institutions responsible for ensuring compliance, which opposed it for other reasons.”
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