The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) have approved plans to play Barcelona’s La Liga match against Villarreal in Miami.
They will now send the proposal across to Fifa and Uefa to move the game, due to be played on December 21, from Villareal’s Estadio de la Ceramica to the Hard Rock Stadium in Florida.
The NFL side Miami Dolphins play at the stadium and are due to face the Cincinnati Bengals on December 22, meaning the date of the fixture in question may be moved.
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If approved, it would mark the first league match from a major European competition to be played in the United States.
The Hard Rock Stadium hosted matches at the Club World Cup and has a capacity of over 65,000
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In an official statement on social media platform X, the RFEF confirmed the decision: “The RFEF will forward to UEFA and FIFA the request to hold a La Liga match in Miami.
“The RFEF Board of Directors has given its approval to process the request made by FC Barcelona and Villareal CF to hold the match corresponding to matchday 17 of La Liga in the United States.”
The move is the first step in what has been a longstanding dispute for La Liga to play matches in the US after the dismissal of a lawsuit between American-based sports events promoter Relevant Sports and Fifa.
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The match in question is Barcelona against Villareal and currently due to take place on December 21
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Relevant Sports, which was founded by the owner of both the Dolphins and the Hard Rock Stadium, had previously tried to organise a La Liga match between Barcelona and Girona in 2018 at their home ground.
US Soccer had rejected the notion due to Fifa’s laws on league games (home games must be played on home territory), resulting in the sports group suing both US Soccer and Fifa.
However, the lawsuit dispute calmed and Fifa concluded by endeavouring to revisit the statute that had prevented the game in the first place, meaning the door had been opened to future fixtures being played there.
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Relevant Sports made their name by gaining the commercial rights to European leagues for the Americas, and set up pre-season competitions including major European clubs that were held in the States.
For example, the group founded the International Champions Cup, which saw Barcelona face Real Madrid outside of Spain for just the second time in 100 years.
La Liga president Javier Tebas has continued to insist that La Liga matches will take place overseas, and targeted the 2025/26 season as the breakthrough moment.
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La Liga president Javier Tebas has insisted La Liga matches will be played in the United States, pointing out that the American market is the second largest for the league behind Spain
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“I think it could be in the 2025-26 season, but La Liga will play official matches abroad,” La Liga president Tebas told Spanish media earlier this year.
“An official match in the US will strengthen our position in the North American market, which is the second market for La Liga after Spain.”
While failing to mention which ones, Tebas also confirmed that other leagues were planning on similar moves: “Other very competitive leagues are coming, so we cannot always do the same thing, but we cannot allow them to overtake us.”
The Spanish Super Cup, a small tournament involving the top two teams in the league and the winners and runners-up in the domestic cup, was recently held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Barcelona were victorious.
The 2025 edition marked the fourth consecutive year the tournament had been hosted in Saudi Arabia.
Italy have also ventured abroad, with their equivalent cup being hosted in Riyadh. This represented the third year it has been held in the Middle East.