Spanish football is on the verge of a historic milestone as the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has approved a request for FC Barcelona and Villarreal CF to play their December 2025–26 La Liga fixture in Miami. If final approvals are secured, it would be the first official La Liga match ever held outside Spain.

The RFEF board gave its consent on Monday for the matchday 17 clash to take place at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on 20 December 2025. In a statement, the federation confirmed it would now submit the proposal to UEFA, followed by FIFA, for the necessary authorisations.

“At its meeting on 11 August 2025, the RFEF Board of Directors received a request from Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona to play its match on matchday 17 of the first division in the United States,” the statement read, noting the next steps in the approval process.

The decision marks a breakthrough in La Liga President Javier Tebas’s long-running effort to take league games abroad, mirroring the NFL and NBA’s strategy of globalising through overseas fixtures. Tebas first tried in the 2018–19 season with a proposed Girona-Barcelona game in the U.S., but the plan fell through.

Subsequent attempts also failed — including a Villarreal-Atletico Madrid fixture in 2019–20 that was blocked by the RFEF under Luis Rubiales, leading to a court case in which the federation prevailed. More recently, a Barcelona-Atletico match nearly went ahead in the U.S. last season before La Liga postponed it to refine its approach.

If UEFA and FIFA grant the final approvals, fans in Miami could witness an unprecedented La Liga spectacle, potentially opening the door for more matches abroad in the future.