The news came like a hammer in the middle of a European evening: the Villarreal-Barcelona match planned for Miami will ultimately not take place. For the yellow club, astonishment quickly turned into anger. According to AS, the LaLiga announcement, which occurred while Villarreal faced Manchester City in the Champions League, was experienced as a profound lack of respect. Club leaders understand neither the haste nor the disorganization surrounding the official communication of this cancellation. The images of Roig Negueroles, general manager of the Yellow Submarine, learning the news in the middle of the match and leaving the stand furious, went viral and symbolize the exasperation of a club which had bet everything on this project. Fernando Roig, president of Villarreal, did not hesitate to fervently defend this initiative, going so far as to promise to reimburse part of the subscriptions and to finance the travel of supporters to the United States. Today seeing the American dream collapse in the middle of European competition has exploded the frustration within a club which feels betrayed and humiliated.
Behind this fiasco, the entire decision-making mechanism of LaLiga is called into question. The organization of the match in Miami, presented as a “historic opportunity for internationalization of Spanish football”was carried out in haste and without real consultation of the main stakeholders such as clubs, players and institutions. The meeting to approve the project, held urgently before the Federation, took place without the presence of Javier Tebas, vice-president of the RFEF, and without real consensus. Several presidents, such as Aperribay (Real Sociedad) or Ángel Torres (Getafe), have publicly denounced an initiative imposed from above, without consultation. The players, too, felt marginalized and reacted vigorously through their union, the AFE. Their message was clear: “Respect and transparency”. But LaLiga preferred to pass in force, thus triggering a chain reaction which would end up engulfing the entire project.
Villarreal furious like Spain
In the face of LaLiga's perceived contempt, the players showed rare unity. After several refusals of dialogue on the part of Javier Tebas, the captains decided to organize a symbolic action: a fifteen-second stoppage in play at the start of the following day of the championship. This act, widely censored by the League, brought the divide between managers and footballers to light. The tension then rose a notch, Tebas even threatening the AFE with legal recourse. Meanwhile, the clubs directly affected by the trip to Miami demanded explanations and the temporary suspension of ticket sales, to no avail. In this explosive climate, LaLiga persisted in defending its plan, even as institutional support crumbled on all sides. Villarreal, in particular, saw the collapse of a project that he had defended tooth and nail, and from which he hoped to gain unprecedented international influence.
But it was ultimately the combined pressure of several forces that got the better of the “Miami Plan”. CONCACAF and the American Federation expressed their dissatisfaction with an official match organized on their territory without their approval, while Real Madrid filed two successive complaints with the Superior Sports Council, denouncing a distortion of the competition. The virulent declarations of Courtois and Carvajal, evoking a “betrayal of sportsmanship”have completed burying the initiative. Caught between the anger of the clubs, the revolt of the players, political pressure from the government and international disapproval, LaLiga had no choice but to back down. Spain today finds itself deeply divided, between those who saw this adventure as an opening to the world and those who saw it as a commercial drift. One thing is certain: the cancellation of the Villarreal-Barcelona match in Miami will remain as a symbol of arrogance, disorder and rupture in Spanish football.
