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Plans to take a Serie A fixture to Australia have collapsed, with AC Milan’s scheduled meeting with Como no longer set to be played in Perth next month.
Serie A and local organisers confirmed on Monday that the February 8 match has been called off, ending hopes of staging a landmark game outside Europe. Milan had been exploring alternative venues for the fixture due to the unavailability of the San Siro, which will host the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
The match would have marked the first time a domestic fixture from one of Europe’s top five leagues was played beyond the continent, despite Milan and Como being based less than an hour apart in northern Italy. The game has yet to be reassigned to a new venue.
Although the proposal had received backing from all 20 Serie A clubs, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and UEFA, concerns over financial exposure ultimately proved decisive. The plan, developed by league officials in partnership with the Western Australian Government, was shelved by mutual agreement.
A joint FIGC and Western Australian Government statement confirmed:
“The fixture secured the approval of all 20 Lega Calcio Serie A clubs, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). However, the onerous conditions from the Asian Football Confederation (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.”
Serie A president Ezio Simonelli pointed to the role of the Asian Football Confederation in the decision, saying the league had navigated a lengthy approval process before facing additional hurdles. He said the AFC had introduced an “escalation for further and unacceptable requests” that ultimately made hosting the game unworkable.
Simonelli also stressed that Serie A officials had already spent more than a year addressing regulatory requirements and had even accepted strict conditions before abandoning the project. He said league organisers had complied with a “complex authorisation process” and accepted “the highly questionable sporting conditions imposed by the Asian Football Confederation” before being confronted with “further unacceptable demands”.
Despite the disappointment, Simonelli said the league still believed the concept had significant value, adding: “While expressing disappointment at the outcome of this project, we remain firmly convinced that this conclusion is a missed opportunity in the growth of Italian football at an international level, which also deprives the many Serie A fans abroad of the dream of attending a match of their favourite team in person.”
The cancellation follows a similar fate for a proposed LaLiga match between Villarreal and Barcelona that was due to be played in Miami, underlining the ongoing challenges of taking top-level European domestic fixtures overseas.
Featured Image Credit: Pixabay / jorono, Pexels / Lucas Andrade
