Italian soccer’s Serie A has been forced to follow in the footsteps of Spain’s LaLiga and cancel its planned league fixture overseas due to “unacceptable requests” by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
The game between AC Milan and Como was set to be played in Perth, Australia, on February 8 and would have become the first major European domestic league fixture to be held outside its home country.
But the fixture will now not go ahead because of financial risks and last-minute complications.
Serie A president Ezio Simoncelli said on Monday: “In the face of an escalation of further and unacceptable requests arrived in the last few hours by the AFC towards the Australian federation and consequently the government of Western Australia and Serie A Football League, it has become impossible to play the Milan-Como match in Perth on February 8.”
Just days ago, Simoncelli confidently stated that the match would go ahead despite concerns over several conditions set by the AFC, which included the continental governing body having the authority to appoint the officials for the match, and for it not to be organised, promoted, and marketed by Serie A.
Simoncelli considered the AFC’s conditions to be “impractical” but said that the league’s concerns had been allayed following meetings with FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee.
Serie A had received approval from world soccer’s governing body FIFA, the FIGC national federation, and European body UEFA, but still required the AFC to approve Football Australia’s request to host the top-flight match at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
The Milan-Como fixture needs to be relocated as Milan’s San Siro stadium is hosting the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics on the same weekend.
In October, UEFA “reluctantly” approved plans for LaLiga and Serie A to stage regular-season games abroad this season, despite its own substantial reservations.
The body said that while it stands in “clear opposition to domestic league matches being played outside their home country”, it approved the plans for the pair of games “on an exceptional basis."
The first of the two matches in question, last Sunday’s fixture between Villareal and Barcelona, was due to be staged in Miami, USA, but LaLiga ultimately cancelled plans to do so due to widespread opposition, which included player protests.
In 2024, FIFA set up a working group to examine the impact of overseas domestic fixtures, having previously opposed the concept.
Serie A saw this as an opportunity to get some much-needed exposure in the Asia-Pacific region as it looks to boost its international profile and compete with the English Premier League, LaLiga, and Germany’s Bundesliga for fans in the relatively untapped market.
The league wanted to follow the example of other sports, such as American football’s NFL and basketball’s NBA, in staging league games abroad to grow its brand.
The Supercoppa Italiana, the annual clash between winners of Serie A and the Coppa Italia domestic cup competition, has regularly been staged in Saudi Arabia as part of a lucrative contract in recent seasons.
The capital first hosted AC Milan’s loss to Inter Milan in a one-off match in January 2023 before changing to a four-game format for the 2024 edition onwards.
