Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on Tuesday hit out at plans to play a regular-season LaLiga game in Miami, saying the move “totally affects the integrity of the competition.”
LaLiga has moved ahead with plans to play Villarreal vs. Barcelona at Hard Rock Stadium on Dec. 20 — with tickets set to go on sale this week — after UEFA said they were reluctantly approving the proposal.
The move would see Madrid’s title rivals Barça play the game in a neutral venue, rather than away at Villarreal’s Estadio La Cerámica.
“Yes, it totally affects the integrity of the competition,” Courtois said in a news conference on Tuesday ahead of Madrid’s Champions League game against Juventus. “It’s easy to talk about the NBA and the NFL [playing overseas]. 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 LaLiga, they do whatever they want. 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.”
LaLiga has long worked towards staging a regular-season game in the United States, first attempting to play a game between Girona and Barcelona in Miami in the 2018-19 season, with president Javier Tebas saying the plan will help long-term growth in revenues.
The league’s players staged a protest last weekend, pausing play for the first 15 seconds of each game, with the union AFE citing a lack of “transparency and dialogue” in the decision-making process.
However, in a number of games the protest was not shown on television, with the live feed cutting to exterior shots of the stadium.
“I don’t know why you’re surprised,” Courtois said. “It’s been like that for a while… I said after the Club World Cup, I’ve never seen a president of any league in any sport speak like [Tebas] does. Hiding [the protests] is censorship and manipulation. That’s serious.”
Real Madrid have sought to block the planned Miami game, asking UEFA, the Spanish football federation and Spain’s Sports Ministry to reject the proposal.
“I’ve already answered questions on this a few times,” coach Xabi Alonso said on Tuesday. “The club is legitimately defending its interests, and we’ll see what happens.”
