Daily Times

MADRID: La Liga’s organising body announced on Thursday that it plans to hold regular season Spanish top flight games in the United States in the future. “LaLiga, Spain’s top-flight soccer competition, and Relevent, a multinational media, sports and entertainment group, today announced a first-of-a-kind 15-year, equal joint venture to promote soccer in the USA and Canada,” said a statement. “As part of the agreement, LaLiga plans to bring a regular season club match to the United States, the first to be played outside of Europe.” La Liga did not give any details on when the first game across the Atlantic was set to take place and did not immediately respond to a request for information. Spain’s biggest clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona recently returned from pre-season tours in the United States. They played against top European sides such as AC Milan, AS Roma, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United in the International Champions Cup, a tournament organised by Relevent. In July 2017, the two sides played each other in a friendly ‘Clasico’, selling out Miami’s Hard Rock stadium.

Published in Daily Times, August 17^th 2018.