Powerless UEFA open the door to Premier League matches being played abroad after approving requests for Spain and Italy to hold games in the United States and Australia

UEFA have regrettably opened the door to future Premier League matches being played abroad after allowing two other leagues to host domestic matches in other countries.

Last May, FIFA cleared the way for competitive matches to be staged away from home countries after coming to a settlement with New York City-based event promoter Relevent Sports.

Movement towards playing competitive matches abroad has already long started within top leagues around the world. Both Spanish and Italian FAs hold their Super Cups in Saudi Arabia.

The Premier League, and chief executive Richard Masters, meanwhile, have already capatilised on interest from across the pond with a Summer Series, where some of the divisions top teams go head-to-head in a pre-season competition in the USA. 

This week, meanwhile, UEFA have approved LaLiga's request to stage Villarreal vs Barcelona in Miami and the desire to play AC Milan vs Como in Perth. 

But the governing body have expressed their regret at the call and essentially rendered themselves powerless compared to FIFA in a bid to stop what seems to be an upward trend of the desire to move domestic games abroad.

'UEFA has today reiterated its clear opposition to domestic league matches being played outside their home country,' a statement today read. 'After the meeting of its Executive Committee in Tirana last month, UEFA undertook further consultations with stakeholders to assess the extent of the implications of the issue, following the applications it received from the Spanish and Italian national football associations. 

'That consultation confirmed the widespread lack of support that had already been raised by fans, other leagues, clubs, players and European institutions around the concept of domestic league matches being relocated abroad.

'However, given that the relevant FIFA regulatory framework – currently under review – is not clear and detailed enough, the UEFA Executive Committee has reluctantly taken the decision to approve, on an exceptional basis, the two requests referred to it. 

'UEFA will actively contribute to the ongoing work led by FIFA to ensure that future rules uphold the integrity of domestic competitions and the close bond between clubs, their supporters and local communities.'

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin added: 'League matches should be played on home soil - anything else would disenfranchise loyal match-going fans and potentially introduce distortive elements in competitions. Our consultation confirmed the breadth of these concerns.

'While it is regrettable to have to let these two games go ahead, this decision is exceptional and shall not be seen as setting a precedent. Our commitment is clear: to protect the integrity of national leagues and ensure that football remains anchored in its home environment'.

Last year, American station NBC tried to secure hosting rights for Premier League matches, and it did, for a while, seem like the idea was a possibility.

'We've had conversations with the Premier League and they've been very open and receptive to listening to me,' NBC president of acquisitions Jon Miller told The Athletic.

'We did the Premier League Summer Series (in pre-season) last year where we had six teams come over; Fulham, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Chelsea, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Brentford.

'We had nine games in seven days in five cities around America (and 265,000 fans were in attendance). It was great.

'All the teams that came over did really well, had a great experience, and really were able to interact with the fan base. And the Premier League saw that it was very successful. At some point in the future, I would love to see a couple of Premier League games open the season here in big stadiums on our opening weekend.

'And I know that’s something that we’ll continue to push for because I think that there’s an American audience here that would like to see regular season games but in the meantime, we’ll continue to work with the Premier League to do everything we can to make the games available to as many people as possible.