{"id":495883,"date":"2025-10-09T12:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T16:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=495883"},"modified":"2025-10-10T03:38:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:38:45","slug":"infantino-warns-football-is-taking-a-big-risk-with-league-matches-played-abroad","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/infantino-warns-football-is-taking-a-big-risk-with-league-matches-played-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Infantino warns football is \u201ctaking a big risk\u201d with league matches played abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FIFA President Gianni Infantino has voiced concern over plans to stage domestic league matches outside their home countries, saying football is \u201ctaking a big risk\u201d by disrupting the traditional competition structure.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Fifa president Gianni Infantino wants football to keep an &#8220;open mind&#8221; about when World Cups are played. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/f4dimbSH2e\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/f4dimbSH2e<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCMOTD\/status\/1976270489887912043?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">October 9, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Both La Liga and Serie A have received provisional approval from UEFA to host one match abroad this season \u2014 with Villarreal vs. Barcelona scheduled to be played in Miami in December and Milan vs. Como set for Perth in February. However, FIFA has yet to give its final approval for either fixture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a structure where we have matches at a national level, at a continental level and then at a global level. And this is a structure that has made football the number one sport in the world,\u201d Infantino told reporters at the European Football Clubs (EFC) General Assembly in Rome. \u201cIf we want to break this structure, we are taking a big risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that while UEFA has already approved the plans, several other governing bodies \u2014 including CONCACAF and AFC \u2014 must also sign off before FIFA makes its final decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis La Liga match in Miami needs to be approved by CONCACAF. I do not know if the AFC has approved the match in Australia,\u201d Infantino explained. \u201cBut this is one match \u2014 I think we need a more global reflection on what we want to do. Do we want everyone to play everywhere and do whatever they want? Or do we want a regulated system that takes into account the interests of everyone at national, continental, and club level, while also respecting the legitimacy of each to organize and regulate football in their own regions?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FIFA President Gianni Infantino has voiced concern over plans to stage domestic league matches outside their home countries, saying football is \u201ctaking a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":495884,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17367,17810,17969,17860],"news_category":[138,14235,137,16715],"gn_keywords":[20983,25863,17861,432],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"FIFA president wants the clubs to keep an 'open mind' when moving league games elsewhere ","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495883"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495883"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495897,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495883\/revisions\/495897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495883"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=495883"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=495883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}