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Barcelona hopes to play league match in US

Staging Premier League matches abroad was an unfulfilled ambition of outgoing Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore. However, La Liga is seeking permission from the Spanish Football Federation to move the January 26th fixture between Girona and FC Barcelona to Miami's Hard Rock stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins NFL team.

They has thus got ahead of the Premier League in taking a further symbolic step along the road towards the globalisation of football.

The plan to play La Liga games overseas forms part of a joint venture between La Liga and Relevent Sports, a US promoter backed by Stephen Ross, the billionaire owner of the Dolphins. The objective is to increase La Liga's revenue from sponsorship and media rights in North America. The presence of a large population of Hispanic origin in Miami makes it a particularly suitable venue for the first game in the US.

Qatar-based beIN Sports is paying $60m dollars a season for the US broadcast rights to La Liga. However, NBC pays roughly $166m dollars a season to show Premier League matches in the US.

In August La Liga signed a 15-year deal with Relevent, which launched the International Champions Cup, a summer tournament of matches played in countries including the US and China.

Increasingly, what at one time was the apparently unstoppable march of globalisation has been halted by domestic resistance expressed in the new politics of populism. Spanish fan groups argue that overseas match disenfranchise local fans. A compensation package is to be offered to Girona season ticket holders.

It is by no means certain that the Spanish Football Federation will allow the match to go ahead. They have complained about a lack of respect by La Liga in signing the deal with Relevent without holding any talks with the Spanish football authorities.

There has also been concern expressed in the US where the staging of such matches is seen as a threat to the expanding MSL which is going to have a franchise in Miami. US Soccer and Fifa would need to approve the plan. It is by no means a done deal.

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