Villarreal have voiced out their displeasure over La Liga’s decision to cancel a controversial match against Barcelona that was set to be held in Miami in December.
On Tuesday, La Liga canceled the Dec. 20 match between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami, pointing to concerns from organizer Relevent on insufficient time and “uncertainty in Spain.”
While Barcelona issued a statement, saying the club accepts the decision, Villarreal were more critical, pointing to several logistical and organizational failures that ultimately led to the abrupt termination of the match.
“Villarreal CF wishes to express its deep displeasure with La Liga for the poor management of the organization of the match scheduled to be played in Miami against FC Barcelona on Dec. 20, corresponding to Matchday 17, which ultimately will not be played in the United States,” the club said in a statement.
“Given the lack of progress in the development and organization by La Liga, Villarreal CF has repeatedly expressed its deep concern to the organization and urged it to define such basic and fundamental aspects as confirming the match time and hiring a travel agency for such a large-scale trip, which are vital to begin organizing the event.
“In fact, a meeting was scheduled for this Thursday, in which if these issues were not resolved immediately, the club would withdraw from the project due to not having the minimum conditions guaranteed for the organization. Villarreal CF regrets that La Liga, as the organizer, did not better manage the management of the match and that the La Liga match in Miami could not be held, as it believes it is a good opportunity for the growth of the clubs and La Liga internationally.”
The proposed Miami match will now be held in Villarreal’s Estadio de la Ceramica (Pics: Getty)
According to Villarreal, the largest failure, outside of organizational issues, came from La Liga’s inability to agree to key requests.
“This summer, La Liga proposed to Villarreal CF to participate and host the match, which would be played against FC Barcelona before the Christmas break,” the club said. “Villarreal CF, as it has publicly stated on numerous occasions, accepted because it believes this project is very beneficial for the club’s growth and, above all, for contributing to the development of the competition. However, it requires two fundamental and mandatory conditions for its implementation:
“The money allocated to this initiative by La Liga will be used to compensate Villarreal CF season ticket holders, who are the ones truly affected by this situation, for missing one of the matches already included in their season ticket. This will include free travel to Miami to watch the match or a partial refund of their season ticket.
“Neither of the participating clubs will receive any direct financial benefit from La Liga for playing the match, as the money should have been used to compensate Villarreal season ticket holders – as clarified in point one – and because it would also be unfair to the other La Liga clubs.”
The announcement came midway through Villarreal’s Champions League match against Manchester City.
“For me, it shows an absolute lack of respect to put out a statement at half-time of our game about something that was planned but will not happen,” coach Marcelino García Toral told reporters. “It’s a lack of respect to the directors of this club, the club itself, the professionals and the fans.”
