October 31 – France’s Ligue 1 has reportedly shelved plans to play a regular season league game in Shanghai, China, next February.
The proposal to take the game to Shanghai was made public 10 days ago with Lyon and Monaco having agreed to the change of venue.
Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas, told L’Equipe at the time: “Monaco and we agree to relocate the February match. This is an ambitious operation for the image of the L1 and its dissemination.”
However, it now appears that the project was too ambitious with the league saying that both clubs had expressed concern over the logistics and travel considerations regarding covid. Hence the decision not to play in February in China.
Ligue 1 has been keen to expand its geographical footprint as it battles to increase its overseas revenues that have lagged behind Europe’s other big five leagues. The LFP is said to still be keen to take a regular season match to China.
China has hosted a number of pre-season tours by French clubs, while France’s season-opening Trophee des Champions was first played in the country in 2014, again in 2018 in Shenzhen, when PSG beat Monaco 4-0 and in 2019, when Rennes lost to Paris St-Germain 2-1.
Taking a regular season match outside of a league’s national boundaries is a different proposition though and one which has not yet found approval from football’s governing bodies.
LaLiga has twice tried to play regular season games in Miami in the US but has met with opposition from its own national federation, as well as FIFA and Concacaf. The US federation argued that its focus was on building the game and professional leagues in the US, not on providing financial opportunity for foreign leagues to play in their markets.
The LFP plan would similarly need national governing body approval in France and China, as well as at regional and global level from UEFA, the AFC and FIFA.
It seems unlikely that approval would be easily given in light of the Chinese FA’s statements on building commercial sustainability for its own clubs, rather than providing a marketplace for overseas players and leagues. Similarly, the precedent it would set would open the door for LaLiga to return with its ambitions to play domestic league matches in the US.
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