Serie A must follow La Liga in scrapping plans to play a match overseas, Football Supporters Europe has said.
The Spanish league announced on Tuesday evening it had abandoned plans to stage the Villarreal v Barcelona fixture in Miami in December, a decision which came in the wake of fan and player protests against the move.
A spokesperson for Serie A declined to comment when contacted by the PA news agency on Wednesday, but for now at least it is believed the league remains in the process of seeking approval to play the AC Milan v Como match in Australia in February.
FSE welcomed the fact it was “game over” for the Miami match and said Serie A “must be next”.
“Common sense and the rules of the game have prevailed,” the organization said in a statement.
“This is a seismic victory for European football and everyone who believes the game belongs at the heart of our communities – now it’s time for Serie A to drop its plans too.
“La Liga’s defeat sends a clear message to the world of football: such ill-conceived projects are doomed to fail. These attempts to destabilize the foundation of the game must stop now.
“Serie A must do the right thing in the face of growing isolation and withdraw its proposal to move AC Milan vs Como 1907 to Australia. It’s not too late.
“The position of players and supporters in Italy is crystal clear: doubling down on this failed idea would be an act of self-inflicted damage to the league’s reputation, to Italian football, and to the game as a whole.”
FSE called on FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation to reject the proposal to stage the match in Perth.
La Liga and Serie A have previously spoken about the importance of playing overseas as part of efforts to increase the leagues’ global appeal and challenge the financial dominance of the Premier League.
La Liga president Javier Tebas described it as a “lost opportunity to advance” and appeared to criticise the stance of the presidents of UEFA and FIFA towards the proposal, saying decisions made by those organizations “year after year destroy national leagues”.
UEFA had reluctantly approved the proposals but its president Aleksander Ceferin was adamant it did not set a precedent. He also warned football risked being “broken” if taken away from its roots, while FIFA president Gianni Infantino said football was taking a “big risk” playing matches overseas.
Spanish supporters’ association FASFE described Tebas as “the driver who, going the wrong way on the highway, believes that everyone else is the one doing it wrong”.
Players demonstrated their opposition to the move in Spain over the weekend by standing still for the first few seconds after kick-off in La Liga games, as well as the likes of Dani Carvajal and Thibaut Courtois publicly criticising the plans.
Spanish players’ union AFE said on Wednesday: “Faced with the lack of transparency, dialogue, and coherence within the institution presided over by Javier Tebas, the players spoke out unanimously on the pitch last week to send a powerful message: without players, there is no football.”
