Villarreal hits out at LaLiga in a scathing statement

Villarreal has responded to the decision taken late yesterday regarding the cancellation of the league match at the end of December against Barcelona in Miami. The Yellow Submarine is extremely upset about what happened and explained it in an official statement.

After images of Fernando Roig Negueroles looking extremely angry in the La Cerámica directors’ box and Marcelino’s remarks denouncing LaLiga’s lack of respect toward the club, a statement arrived in which Villarreal sets out a timeline of events and reveals two key points: the club made it a condition that all the money raised would be used to pay for Villarreal supporters’ travel and that Barça would not be paid, and that on several occasions it requested information and received no response from LaLiga, to the extent that a meeting was scheduled for Thursday at which, if nothing changed, Villarreal would withdraw from the project.

Official statement

Villarreal CF wishes to express its deep displeasure with LaLiga over the poor management of the organization of the match that was to be played in Miami against FC Barcelona on December 20, corresponding to matchday 17, which will ultimately not take place in the United States.

As has already been stated this season in repeated press appearances by the club president, Fernando Roig, and the CEO, Fernando Roig Negueroles, the club would like to recall in detail the full timeline of events on this matter:

The project to play a LaLiga match outside Spain is an initiative born from LaLiga itself for the global expansion of the competition. This summer LaLiga proposed to Villarreal CF that it participate and act as the host of said match, which would be played against FC Barcelona before the Christmas break. Villarreal CF, as it has publicly expressed on several occasions, accepted because it considers this project very good for the growth of the club and, above all, for contributing to the development of the competition, but it demanded two fundamental and mandatory conditions for it to go ahead:

That the money allocated to this initiative by LaLiga be used to compensate Villarreal CF season ticket holders, who are the true parties affected by this situation because they would miss one of the matches already included in their season pass, offering them the possibility of traveling to Miami free of charge to watch the match or refunding part of the season ticket price.

That neither of the two participating clubs would receive any direct financial benefit from LaLiga for playing the match, since the money should be directed to compensating Villarreal season ticket holders as clarified in point 1, and because it would also be unfair to the rest of the clubs in LaLiga.

LaLiga understood and accepted these requests, and Villarreal CF proceeded to follow its instructions to formalize the application among all parties, since it must be LaLiga itself, as the responsible body and the one leading this initiative at all levels, that requests all the corresponding permits and communicates all information to the rest of the clubs and to the various competent bodies such as the RFEF, UEFA, FIFA, and AFE.

From the moment this possibility was considered in the summer, understanding the logistical complexity of a match of such scale and what a mass trip of fans to another continent entails, Villarreal CF made itself fully available to LaLiga and stressed the importance of working in advance with proper planning to meet all the necessary requirements.

Given the lack of progress in development and organization on LaLiga’s part, Villarreal CF conveyed its utmost concern to the body on repeated occasions and urged it to define such basic and fundamental aspects as confirming the match time and contracting the travel agency for a trip of this magnitude, both vital to be able to begin organizing. In fact, a meeting had been scheduled for this Thursday at which, if these issues were not resolved immediately, the club would withdraw from the project for not having the minimum conditions guaranteed for organization.

Last night, minutes before the start of the match between Villarreal CF and Manchester City in the Champions League at the Estadio de la Cerámica, the club was notified by telephone by LaLiga that the match was being canceled by decision of the promoting company, but that the information was confidential and that the best time would be sought to announce it jointly, just as had been done to communicate the confirmation of the match on October 8.