LaLiga's reasons for insisting on taking Barça to the USA: What is Tebas planning?

LaLiga does not rule out taking FC Barcelona to play one of its matches of the 2025/26 season outside of Spain. In an interview for the 'ESPN' network, Javier Tebas once again expressed his desire to play an official match of the season that kicks off on August 15 in the United States.

"We have a commitment to play in Miami someday. We already talked about involving important teams, or seeing a match between Atlético de Madrid and Barcelona. We'll see what the calendar allows us to do; the idea is to bring a big club," explained the president of the employers' association.

In addition, Tebas assured that, due to the bad relationship with Real Madrid, it would be much more feasible to reach an agreement with the Blaugrana team. The manager, however, has been planning this possibility for a long time.

LaLiga and Relevent, a partnership born in 2018 to bring their matches to the USA

"The official match in the United States will strengthen our position in the North American market, which is the second largest for LaLiga after Spain," Tebas commented in mid-2024 when referring to the possibility of taking a league match to US soil.

Beyond the approval of the employers' association, the negotiation is complex. In principle, Relevent would be the company in charge of organizing the League match or matches to be played in the United States. The company already has a 20-year agreement for the retransmission of matches and the commercial rights of the Spanish First Division in North America.

Relevent, however, has been in a legal battle since 2019 with FIFA and the United States Soccer Federation (US Soccer) over the permits necessary to play league matches from any foreign country in the North American nation. 

• LaLiga North America, a 'joint venture' established in 2018 through the partnership between LaLiga and Relevent, seeks to expand the reach and visibility of LaLiga in North America through various initiatives, such as organizing matches in the United States and marketing commercial rights. According to the employers' association, this partnership generates annual revenues of up to €250M.

Barça could lose a home match at Camp Nou 'thanks' to LaLiga

In addition, LaLiga clubs do not see the possibility of playing one of their home matches outside of Spain as feasible. In the case of Barça and Atlético, any of the teams that gave up their home advantage to travel to the USA would end up harming their members, with one less ticket in their season ticket.

In the case of Barça, this season will have a significant increase in its box office, since the Spotify Camp Nou will be able to host around 65,000 fans, 15,000 more than Montjuïc received in the last two seasons (50,000). 'Aleti', meanwhile, has a capacity of 70,000 spectators at the Metropolitano.

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In that sense, even if the employers' association guaranteed profits higher than those usually generated by the box office of each league match, members and fans could not fail to take this measure in the best way. Furthermore, it poses a significant obstacle to the schedule of Spanish teams due to the long journey and match planning.

Hence, Javier Tebas's position is totally contradictory, considering his harsh criticism of the 2025 Club World Cup. For the leader, playing the summer tournament in the USA has been an absurdity, but taking the competition he chairs to North American soil would be a sporting and financial success, justified by his ongoing business with Relevent. 

• 👉 You can follow the coverage of the entire season of LaLiga EA Sports 2025-26 in detail at FCBN

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