Faced with significant opposition from football institutions over its plan to play a regular season game between Barcelona and Girona in Miami, La Liga has launched a petition to garner mass support for the troubled project. The Catalan derby would be the first match to take place in the United States as part of a 15-year deal struck between La Liga and the entertainment company Relevent. A statement from La Liga on Thursday said: “This national grassroots campaign will highlight the growing popularity of soccer in America and the desire from American fans to bring the greatest soccer league in the world to the US to play the first ever European club regular season match held outside of Europe.” The Spanish football federation (RFEF) put the brakes on the league’s plans in September by demanding more information on January’s game, which must also be approved by Uefa, Concacaf and the United States soccer federation. The proposals were dealt another blow last week when the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, declared at a council meeting in Rwanda that “official league matches must be played within the territory of the respective member association”. La Liga has stated it will take its case to the court of arbitration for sport if Fifa formally opposes its plans. The launch of the petition is an attempt by the league and Relevent to counter the institutional opposition by showing the project has grassroots support. The #BringUStheGame campaign said false claims have been made about the match. “La Liga is planning on bringing a regular season match to America for the first time ever – but we need your help to make this event happen,” said a statement on the petition’s website. “Some of the key decision makers are falsely claiming it won’t be good for the game in the US. So we, the fans, need to fight for this match by telling them: ‘It’s good for the fans. It’s good for the game.’ Are you in? The more support we have, the harder we’ll be to ignore.” Stephen Ross, the chairman and owner of Relevent, added that playing a Spanish top-flight game in the US would further accelerate the growth of football in the country. “All of America’s top sports leagues – the NBA, the NFL and MLB – have played regular season games all over the world to reach international fans and have great success popularising these sports globally,” he said. “We firmly believe this will have the same impact in increasing the popularity of soccer here in the US, with more kids playing and more fans watching.”
La Liga has attempted to counteract widespread objections to its plan to host a match in the US next year by launching a petition that highlights support for the project. The scheme proposes FC Barcelona's January fixture with Girona FC be played in Miami. Following a backlash from fans and football's ruling bodies, La Liga aims to create a grassroots campaign in the US to draw attention to demand for the match. If it goes ahead, it would be the first in a 15-year agreement between the league and entertainment company Relevant to host fixtures in North America.