Real Madrid goalkeeper says move will take away a difficult away game for Barcelona
Thibaut Courtois has become the next player to publicly condemn La Liga’s decision to move Villarreal’s home fixture against Barcelona to Miami.
The Real Madrid goalkeeper accused the league and its president Javier Tebas of “affecting the integrity” of Spanish football.
The highly controversial fixture will mark the first European competitive league game played abroad. It has been criticised by fans and stakeholders across the continent as setting an unpleasant precedent that could ruin the sport.
Uefa has approved the move, but only “reluctantly” because it had no legal standing to reject it. Opposition is also mounting among clubs, fan groups and players, with all Spanish footballers holding a protest last weekend by standing still for the first 15 minutes of games.
Courtois said: “It affects the integrity of the competition, and it breaches the players’ agreement. It isn’t right. You have to play home and away.
“Playing away is very difficult in this league, and Villarreal away is a difficult game. Everyone should play at home and away, barring force majeure.”
Opponents of the move have various reasons but one of them is that it will distort the competition. Barcelona were supposed to travel to Villareal’s Estadio de la Ceramica, where they would play in front of an opposing crowd.
Battling for a win in such an atmosphere is one of the important challenges of league football. At the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Barcelona would have a large crowd behind them, potentially even more than Villareal since they have a far larger fanbase in the United States compared to the Yellow Submarine.
Supporters of the move have pointed to other sports in the US such as the NBA and NFL, which have held regular-season games overseas for years.
“It’s easy to talk about the NBA and the NFL [playing overseas],” said Courtois. “But in the NBA they have 82 games, playing for a playoff game, and it barely changes anything.
“In the NFL it’s voted on by all the team owners, by everyone. Here in La Liga, they do whatever they want.”
