La Liga president Javier Tebas maintains that league matches will be held overseas, aiming for games to take place in the United States starting from the 2025-26 season.
In an interview with Expansion, Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, talked about the league’s future strategies, such as the potential for official matches to occur overseas and the implementation of goal-line technology.
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Javier Tebas Reveals Plans Regarding La Liga Games To Be Held At US
The potential for hosting domestic league matches abroad has grown following FIFA’s removal from a significant lawsuit filed by U.S. events promoter Relevent. In 2018, Relevent was thwarted in its efforts to stage a match between Girona and Barcelona from La Liga in Miami.
Relevent, established by Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins, accused FIFA’s 2018 directive of enforcing a monopoly by stipulating that domestic games must be played within their home territories, thus impeding fair competition.
Earlier this month, FIFA and Relevent settled their case without prejudice, allowing Relevent to reopen their litigation if FIFA fails to provide a satisfactory reconsideration of its stance.
“I think it could be in the 2025-26 season, but La Liga will play official matches abroad,” La Liga president Tebas told Spanish newspaper Expansion.
“An official match in the U.S. will strengthen our position in the North American market, which is the second market for La Liga after Spain.”
Tebas said other major leagues were also trying to move domestic fixtures abroad: “Other very competitive leagues are coming so we cannot always do the same thing, but we cannot allow them to overtake us.”
Tebas further stated that La Liga currently has no intentions of implementing goal-line technology, citing a recent controversial incident where Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal’s shot was not recognized as a goal during Real Madrid’s victory in Sunday night’s El Clasico. Despite the use of VAR, officials were unable to definitively ascertain whether the ball had crossed the goal line based on the available replays.
“Goal-line technology is not a perfect technology and that is the first reason we don’t have it,” Tebas explained. “But it is not only that: throughout a season, ghost goals happen three or four times and If you add to that that it is not perfect, the cost is very high for the use given to it: it means investing between five and six million for the two divisions to use it once and with no doubts. What I do advocate is to implement more cameras that help the referees.”
Why The La Liga, Spain’s Top Tier League Doesn’t Have Goal-Line Technology
Sunday night’s highly anticipated match in La Liga ended in controversy due to a contentious decision regarding whether Lamine Yamal’s flick crossed the goal line or not at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. This incident reignited discussions about the absence of goal-line technology in the competition.
While goal-line technology is a standard feature in other top European leagues, La Liga has yet to adopt it, primarily citing the considerable cost involved, estimated at €4 million ($4.3 million) annually.
Opponents of implementing the technology, including La Liga president Javier Tebas, argue that it’s an unnecessary expense given the presence of VAR cameras and technology. Despite Sunday’s incident, sources from the league highlighted to Spanish newspaper MARCA that since the introduction of VAR in Spain, nearly 3,000 matches in LaLiga Santander and LaLiga Smartbank have been handled satisfactorily using goal-line cameras and VAR for such situations.
In audio recordings of VAR conversations released by the Royal Spanish Soccer Federation (RFEF) on Monday, referee César Soto Grado is heard saying, “There’s no rush; this is a very important decision,” to which VAR official José María Sánchez Martínez responds, “We confirm there are no more camera angles. Restart play with a corner kick because we don’t have any evidence that the ball has crossed the line; there is no evidence.”
