THE inevitable happened last week when Uefa announced that league matches from two of its national associations have been given the go-ahead to be played overseas.

A Spanish La Liga match between Villarreal and Barcelona is scheduled to be played in Miami in December, while Italian Serie A sides Milan and Como are looking to play a fixture in Perth, Australia, in February.

It had been coming for some time. Expected but not welcome. Everyone knows this is a bad idea, but it is going ahead anyway.

Like much of what goes on in top-level football, the reason for this is that the game is driven by greed and by extracting as much money as possible from football fans around the world.

Villarreal versus Barcelona will likely sell out in Miami, and this will be used by the organisers as justification that this is what fans want and an excuse to do it again in the future, despite it being opposed by so many.

Uefa emphasised that it was reluctant to give these matches the go-ahead, but nevertheless did so.

The main reason appears to be that European football’s governing body does not believe it is currently in a position to legally prevent these games from being played overseas. As a result, it says these games themselves will not set a legal precedent, but they may do so whether Uefa wants them to or not.

Alongside the approval of these games, Uefa released a statement, relatively strongly worded as far as these things go, saying it opposes domestic league games being played abroad.

“League matches should be played on home soil; anything else would disenfranchise loyal match-going fans and potentially introduce distortive elements in competitions,” said Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin.

“Our consultation confirmed the breadth of these concerns. I would like to thank the 55 national associations for their constructive and responsible engagement on such a sensitive issue.

“While it is regrettable to have to let these two games go ahead, this decision is exceptional and shall not be seen as setting a precedent. Our commitment is clear: to protect the integrity of national leagues and ensure that football remains anchored in its home environment.”

This issue has been covered many times in the Morning Star, raising the concerns of supporters and many others in the game.

All those concerns from previous years have been ignored, and those running the game at league level and international level have gone ahead regardless.

Some of this will be linked to the sports promotion company Relevant and its successful anti-trust lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation with regard to hosting league matches from overseas on US soil. When the lawsuit was settled earlier this year, it opened the door for European league games to be played in the US.

From the US point of view, Relevant claims to want to grow the sport throughout America, but the more accurate interpretation of this is that, like Fifa itself and its approach to 2026 World Cup ticketing, Relevant wants to use the American sports market to make more money for itself as a promoter.

If it wanted to grow soccer in America, why not invest in the game there and help the game grow locally and over the long term, rather than importing games from abroad that will only have a fleeting impact?

As for the European clubs themselves, playing games abroad begins to chip away at their identity, eroding the history and character that make them globally popular in the first place.

It also affects the integrity of domestic competitions. One team will miss out on a home game, while the “away” team might get an easier match than they would have had were it played at the home of their opposition rather than on neutral ground.

In a division where teams play each other once at home and once away, it creates an unfair imbalance and makes a mockery of the idea of the league season.

Barcelona’s Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong highlighted some of these issues when asked about the possibility of his team playing Villarreal in Miami.

“I don’t like it,” he told ESPN last week. “The clubs, financially, will of course profit from it, and they can spread their brand further across the world, but I wouldn’t do it.

“It’s not good for the players. You have to travel a lot. It’s also not fair in terms of competition. For us, it’s now an away match on neutral ground. I totally understand if other clubs aren’t happy about that.”

The players can see it, the fans can see it, even Uefa can see it, but at this point, there still seems to be little they can do about it.

Football Supporters Europe said: “Our position remains unchanged: European football belongs to our stadiums, our cities, our communities – one domestic match abroad is one too many.”

The Football Supporters Association, which represents fans in England and Wales, described it as “an insult to matchgoing supporters of the teams involved and erodes sporting integrity in the division,” adding: “We urge La Liga and Serie A to act for the greater good of football and withdraw their plans rather than push ahead in the face of overwhelming opposition from the rest of the football family and the European institutions.

“We call on Fifa to uphold and reinforce their current regulations and reject the applications to relocate these domestic fixtures abroad. There is still time to do right by clubs, players, officials, supporters, and communities.”

If Uefa is true to its word, it will mount a stronger challenge next time this issue arises, and in the meantime, encourage its member nations not to pursue playing domestic games abroad.

At the moment, this issue seems to be in the hands of Fifa and the respective leagues, and there is no confidence that these respective organisations will do the right thing.