Plans to stage a Serie A game between Milan and Como in Perth, Australia have been abandoned, the league’s president and the government of Western Australia said in a joint statement on Monday.
The fixture would have been the first European league match to take place abroad. The Athletic reported on December 11 that the game was in doubt due to conditions set by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Any match would have needed to be approved by all relevant governing bodies, including FIFA, the FIGC, Football Australia, and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the confederation Australia is part of.
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Serie A president Ezio Maria Simoncelli asserted last week that the game would go ahead in Perth as planned, but said he had expressed “doubts” about the AFC’s conditions.
In Monday’s statement, the government and Simoncelli said that the game was now off “due to financial risks that could not be mitigated, onerous approval conditions, and last-minute complications beyond their control”.
“The fixture secured the approval of all 20 Lega Calcio Serie A clubs, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC), and UEFA,” the statement added.
“However, the onerous conditions from the AFC to sanction the fixture could not be implemented without financial risks to the Western Australian Government and Serie A that could not be mitigated.
“The Government and Lega Calcio Serie A exhausted every viable option to bring the historic fixture to Western Australia.”
Western Australia’s sport and recreation minister, Rita Saffioti, called the decision “disappointing” but said “we were not willing to expose Western Australia to an unacceptable level of risk.”
Simoncelli added that the plans had been cancelled “due to an escalation of further unacceptable demands” by the AFC.
The AFC’s conditions included reserving the authority to appoint officials for the match and that it would not be organised, promoted and marketed by Serie A.
Milan played the semi-final of the Italian Super Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, losing 2-0 to Napoli (Abdullah Ahmed/Getty Images)
The Athletic reported in June that Serie A was in talks over staging the match — scheduled for February 8, 2026 — at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
Milan were due to host that fixture, but their San Siro stadium is unavailable because it is the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. It is not yet clear where the game will take place.
In October, UEFA “regrettably” approved a landmark move to allow domestic league matches to be staged abroad while reiterating its “clear opposition” to any plans to do, saying it granted the move “on an exceptional basis amid regulatory gaps at global level”.
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Spain’s La Liga had also been hopeful of staging December’s match between Villarreal and Barcelona in Miami, Florida. In October however, promoter Relevent Sports described the planned match as “postponed” over insufficient timing and a La Liga statement said a decision had been made to cancel the event.
Relevent, the events promoter and media rights company co-founded and owned by billionaire Miami Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross, has a joint venture with La Liga to grow the league’s business in North America and the game was due to be played at the Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
La Liga’s plans were cancelled in the aftermath of player protests across the league, when matches did not start for the opening 15 seconds across matchday nine. The Spanish Footballers’ Association (AFE) said the protests had the backing of captains across Spain’s top flight and were a “symbolic protest against La Liga’s lack of transparency, dialogue and consistency” over its decision to play a match abroad.
The German Football League (DFL) has ruled out moving any Bundesliga matches abroad, while England’s Premier League considered playing a round of fixtures known as the ‘39th game’ outside of the United Kingdom in 2008 but abandoned the idea after fan backlash.
In August, the Premier League’s chief executive Richard Masters said of games abroad: “It’s not anywhere near my in-tray and it’s not a debate around our table.”
Glen Micallef, European Commissioner for Sport, previously described proposals to stage games abroad as a “betrayal” of community-based football clubs.
In April, Relevent settled a six-month lawsuit with the U.S Soccer Federation, paving the way for European domestic matches to be held abroad, which had previously been forbidden. In May 2024, FIFA approved a working group to look into potential changes to its rules after world football’s governing body was dropped as a defendant by Relevent.
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Serie A responded to Micallef’s comments, saying they “underestimate the complexity and strategic value of initiatives aimed at promoting Italian football on a global scale”. The Italian top flight said “introducing new audiences to the excellence of Italian football” would lead to “increased visibility and popularity worldwide” for the division.
Como said in a statement in October that the hosting of February’s fixture in Perth was vital for the Italian top flight’s “survival”. The club argued the proposal was “not a matter of greed” but to “build a future” for Serie A.
This news was originally published on this post .
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