Why was LaLiga’s Barcelona-Villarreal game in Miami canceled?

Less than two weeks after LaLiga announced it would stage its first-ever regular-season match outside of Spain, with champions Barcelona taking on Villarreal at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on Dec. 20, it confirmed on Tuesday that the game was off.

It was the latest in a long line of setbacks for the league in its attempts to host a competitive fixture on foreign soil, but certainly the most chastening and high profile.

While top European clubs playing matches against each other abroad is nothing new — with heavyweight clashes on preseason tours and even Super Cup matches now annual events across the globe — so far they have yet to follow the lead of U.S. sports leagues like the NFL and NBA in staging regular-season league fixtures beyond their own borders.

LaLiga’s aborted scheduling of Barcelona vs. Villarreal in Miami was as close as any of Europe’s top leagues have so far got to taking their show on the road. So why did it fall through? Will they and other leagues keep trying? And why are Real Madrid among the big winners? ESPN’s Alex Kirkland, Sam Marsden and Lizzy Becherano explain what happened, and what comes next.

– Real Madrid vs. Barcelona: Stream El Clásico LIVE 10/26 on ESPN+ (U.S.)
– How Man United’s Rashford has revitalized his career at Barcelona
– Ballon d’Or favorite to Madrid bench: What’s going on with Vini Jr.?

LaLiga only announced on Oct. 8 that the Miami game was going ahead. How much time and effort did it take to get them to that point?

LaLiga first announced formal plans to hold a regular-season game in the U.S back in 2018, when it signed a 15-year partnership with Relevent to promote and grow the league in North America. The first, failed, bid involved Girona vs. Barcelona in January 2019; since then, there have been multiple attempts, including with Villarreal vs. Atlético Madrid in February 2020, and Barça vs. Atlético in December 2024. But it had never got as close as this.

Previously, opposition from world…