Spain’s La Liga’s plans for a match abroad are off the table, as public pressure became too great. Serie A, on the other hand, is sticking to its plan for a match in Australia, as Serie A boss Luigi De Siervo confirmed.
Adrien Rabiot won’t be happy to hear this. The Frenchman, who plays for AC Milan, is one of the critics of Serie A’s plans for his club to play Como Calcio in Perth, Australia, on February 8, 2026. But Serie A is sticking to its plans, regardless of what happened in Spain.
There, league boss Javier Tebas’ hopes of playing the match between Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona in Miami shortly before Christmas were dashed. The resistance was too great – from players, fans, and the other La Liga clubs, who spoke of distortion of competition.
For Serie A chairman Luigi De Siervo, this is no reason to rethink his plans for February 2026. “The case of Spain is different; there were internal conflicts there. Despite the cancellation of the match between Villarreal and FC Barcelona, Serie A is sticking to its intention to hold a league match in Australia in the near future,“ he clarified. ”Both teams—Milan and Como—have given their approval, as have the 20 Serie A clubs, unlike in Spain, where there were internal disputes.”
The egg today or the chicken tomorrow?
De Siervo knows that not everyone is enthusiastic about the plans to play abroad, but he is not overly concerned about this. Rabiot already got a taste of this in a sharp retort from the official. “If you ask an athlete if they want to spend 20 hours on a plane to play a soccer game in their league, they will tell you that’s crazy. If you ask a coach who is fighting for the Scudetto or a place in the Champions League, he will also resist it. When you ask people, no one wants to give up the opportunity to go to the stadium.“ For the 56-year-old, however, it’s more a question of ”whether we want the egg today or the hen tomorrow. Anyone who develops a sports product has to think five to ten years ahead.”
De Siervo once again referred to the sporting situation in the USA – for example, the first NBA game in Tokyo in 1990 or the NFL, which moved for the first time in 2005 and played a game in Mexico City. Since then, American professional football players have been traveling abroad regularly – in 2026, they will also be going to Australia for the first time. “You have to aim for the bigger goal. If we want an international league, we must have the courage to make unpopular decisions that do not assume we are listening to the instincts of fans or players who have a short- or medium-term interest,” says De Siervo. Words that are likely to leave any soccer nostalgic feeling perplexed.
However, at least one argument cannot be dismissed. The Winter Olympics will take place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo from February 6 to 22. It would therefore have been impossible to hold Milan’s home game at their home stadium, the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium.
