A classic between Real Madrid and Barcelona in Miami, or Manchester City x Liverpool in the Middle East. FIFA plans to authorize national leagues to organize games abroad.
The dream of the Premier League or LaLiga, which, with its vast global audiences, has long proposed the idea of holding games outside its national borders, could soon come true.
FIFA decided on Wednesday (15) to create a working group of ten to 15 members to study the idea and flesh out the proposal in the coming months.
This new group will be responsible for “gathering broader information on potential amendments to FIFA’s international gaming regulations and issuing recommendations to the Council in this regard”, the entity wrote in a statement.
The Council – FIFA’s decision-making body – declared that the group will analyze ten aspects relating to the organization of games abroad.
It is mainly about the repercussions for fans of teams that could play abroad, consequences on the development of the competition and the number of games to be played outside the territory.
The big European clubs usually hold lucrative friendlies around the world, such as the game between Tottenham and Newcastle that will take place next Wednesday in Melbourne (Australia), just three days after the end of the Premier League.
Official but secondary competitions, such as the Spanish Super Cup, organized in recent years in Saudi Arabia, have already made this leap. But the leagues remain under FIFA regulations.
The Spanish LaLiga has expressed its desire to organize games in North America from 2025.
The project for a “39th round” of the Premier League abroad, which generated a lot of repercussion, was abandoned in 2008 in the face of opposition from fan groups, FIFA and UEFA.
Last month, an appeal filed in the United States Court led FIFA to reconsider its position.
This decision was taken on the eve of FIFA’s annual Congress, which will take place on Friday in Bangkok, at which the organizer of the 2027 Women’s World Cup will be revealed. Brazil is competing against a joint candidacy between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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