Domestic leagues that want to take games abroad will be limited to one “out of territory” fixture per season, with a five-game cap for host nations, according to a draft proposal circulated by FIFA.
The 15-page document, which The Athletic has seen and was circulated by world football’s governing body in March, is titled “FIFA Regulations on Match and Competition Approval” and could replace the current set of rules governing international matches that have been in place since 2014.
FIFA’s draft proposal is that any league that wants to take a game outside of its territory will need to get the approval of its football federation and confederation, as well as the host nation’s federation and confederation, with FIFA retaining final approval.
Plans must be made to protect the players from the impact of travel, and consideration must also be given to the participating teams’ supporters, including potential financial compensation for missing a home game or assistance so they can make the trip, too.
Furthermore, any application to play abroad must be made six months before the game’s proposed date and include detailed plans of how the money made from the game will be shared between the participants, their domestic rivals and the host nation.
There is also one further commitment that might make leagues think twice about staging games abroad and that is an obligation to at least return the favour to the host nation.
This season’s Serie A game between Milan and Como had been scheduled to be held in Australia (Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
So, for example, if La Liga wants to take a game to Miami, it must give MLS the opportunity to take one to Madrid.
The draft proposal, which would need to be approved by the FIFA Council, also makes it clear that the one-game-per-league cap does not apply to “Super Cups”, the traditional season-openers between the previous season’s league and cup winners that several European leagues have been staging abroad for decades.
There is still much to be decided, though, and there is no suggestion that FIFA, which declined to comment, is ready to put these proposals to a vote.
A spokesperson for LaLiga, however, told The Athletic that it “remains attentive” to any developments in the debate and is still “convinced of the significant opportunity this represents for its clubs, always in compliance with the applicable regulations”.
The draft proposal sets out similar requirements for the creation of any new international club tournament or any proposals from a confederation that wishes to play a club or international game outside of its jurisdiction.
The latter would appear to make it harder for UEFA to stage the Champions League final outside Europe, although that no longer seems to be a priority for the European governing body.
FIFA set up a working group to look at the issue of domestic games overseas two years ago, which is when the governing body made an undisclosed settlement with Relevent, the event promotor and media rights business that tried to bring La Liga games to the United States in 2018. Under pressure from MLS and U.S. Soccer, FIFA blocked that attempt, sparking an antitrust complaint by Relevent in 2019.
While that dispute was never formally resolved, it became obvious last year that Relevent had won the key arguments when La Liga announced its intention to stage December’s Villarreal-Barcelona match in Miami.
That announcement came within days of Serie A’s decision to take Milan v Como to the Australian city of Perth in January, claiming it was a chance to grow the Italian league’s profile in a key market while Milan’s San Siro stadium was being used for the Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony.
FIFA’s position on both of these games was that they could proceed but only if all of the national federations and confederations involved supported the plans. The Italian and Spanish federations were quick to back their leagues, with UEFA eventually adding its “reluctant” blessing.
But both games were called off — much to the annoyance of the clubs, leagues and event organisers involved — thanks to a combination of opposition from supporters’ groups and politicians in Europe, concerns about player welfare and a general feeling that global football should consider the implications of letting domestic leagues play abroad.
None of those concerns have diminished in the intervening months but it is clear that FIFA believes it cannot stop leagues from doing this, so it would be better to at least establish some guardrails to avoid what FIFA president Gianni Infantino described in October as a “free-for-all where only the fittest survive”.
