Serie A, the top division of Italian football, is in talks to play a game between Milan and Como in Australia.
In what would be the first European league fixture to be played abroad, plans are being discussed for the fixture to be staged in the Western Australian city of Perth on the weekend of February 7-8, 2026.
Milan and Como are currently scheduled to meet at Milan’s San Siro stadium that weekend but the ground is unavailable to the club as it is being used to stage the opening ceremony of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics on February 6.
San Siro is home to both Milan and their city rivals Inter, who traditionally play home league games on alternative matchdays. In 2025-26, both teams will play at home on the opening weekend of the season, to Cremonese and Torino respectively, in an attempt to ease fixture congestion around the city during the Winter Olympics and Paralympic ceremonies in February.
Regular-season league matches were previously forbidden from being held abroad, but in April Relevent Sports settled a six-year long lawsuit with the U.S Soccer Federation to try, paving the way for European domestic games to be held abroad.
In May 2024, FIFA approved a working group to look into potential changes to its rules after world football’s governing body was dropped as a defendant by Relevent.
That created an opening for a Serie A match to be hosted in Australia. Talks are now underway to host Milan’s home game against Como at Perth’s Optus Stadium in a landmark occasion, but no final decision has yet been reached.
The Athletic reported in April that the general consensus across the football industry is that FIFA’s policies will soon approve domestic league games to be played abroad, even though the working group has only had one formal meeting.
At this time promoters were interested in taking Serie A games to Abu Dhabi and Australia, the league did not respond to a request for comment.
The Italian league is not the first to show interest in bringing their domestic fixtures abroad, the idea has long been floated from Spain’s La Liga and England’s Premier League.
La Liga had been the most vocal in trying to secure a match of this kind; earlier this season — notably before the settlement — they tried to take Barcelona’s home game against Atletico Madrid to Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) was without a permanent president at this time – during the scandal around former president Luis Rubiales – and was unable to make it materialise.
Indeed, La Liga has been attempting to play a league match in the U.S. since 2018, when the idea was first floated to stage Barcelona’s league game against Girona in Miami.
Jorge de la Vega, CEO of La Liga, told The Athletic in early March: “We are definitely committed to do it, so we’re gonna keep pushing for sure, we’re really close.”
The Premier League considered playing a round of games known as the ‘39th game’ outside of the United Kingdom 17 years ago but faced huge backlash from supporters and opposition from FIFA.
The Football Supporters Association (FSA), a representative body for fans in England and Wales, said if the idea was to be revived, it would be met “with a full-blown, two feet off the ground, studs to the knee tackle”.
Richard Masters, Premier League chief executive, said last summer that the league had “no plans” to take games abroad and it had not been discussed formally.
(Photo: Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
