La Liga in the US: Players' war with tournament organizers

La liga - Ảnh 1. — Oviedo and Espanyol players stood still to protest La Liga - Photo: BR

Unjust

The player's actions were in response to a recent controversy that has led to the La Liga organizing committee arranging a number of matches to take place in the US. In the current season (2024-2025), they even arranged for the Barcelona - Villarreal match to be played in Miami in December.

It will be the first time in history that a La Liga match will be held outside Spain. To do so, La Liga must receive permission from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). This organization also allowed Serie A (Italian Championship) to organize the AC Milan - Como match in Australia in February 2026.

La Liga's goal is to expand its influence to the US or more broadly North America to make more money. It sounds great, but surely not many teams are willing to nod in agreement to this bold plan.

The simple reason is that traveling too far and immediately entering the field will have a negative impact on the players' physical condition, leading to overload and injury. Frenkie De Jong, captain of Barcelona, was one of the first to speak out against this plan: "I understand that this brings profit to the club, but it harms the players when they have to travel a lot. That is unfair."

Coach Hansi Flick also made statements in support of De Jong. In addition, Real Madrid Club also made an official statement to protest La Liga's decision.

Uncompromising?

All the protests so far have been mainly verbal. But then the Oviedo and Espanyol players turned it into action. This is considered the official action that ignited the war between the players and the La Liga organization. This weekend, many more matches are expected to start in this way.

That's because the players are following a call for protest from the Spanish Professional Footballers' Association (EFA). "The players will demonstrate symbolically to denounce the lack of transparency, dialogue and unity in La Liga's organization of the match in the United States," the EFA said.

But it seems that the tournament organizers have no intention of giving in. The proof is that the TV station broadcasting the match between Oviedo and Espanyol cut the first 25 seconds of the match to avoid the image of the players standing still for 15 seconds.

After the match, La Liga also accused EFA of being unclear, because the plan to bring the matches to the US was announced in 2018. La Liga affirmed that it had invited EFA to negotiate 3 times, but received no response.

These developments show that a legal battle between the two sides is inevitable in the near future.

DUC KHUE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/la-liga-da-o-my-cuoc-chien-cua-cau-thu-voi-ban-to-chuc-giai-20251019105816984.htm