NEW YORK – Serie A is laying the groundwork to bring a competitive fixture to the U.S. in the next two years, though there are still roadblocks that the league and other top European counterparts would need to overcome in order to make the idea a reality.
“We would love to do it,” Serie A’s commercial and marketing director Michele Ciccarese told reporters at an event at the league’s Manhattan office on Monday, while standing next to Ezio Simonelli, the newly-elected president of Serie A. “I would say that it’s up to us to put together the piece of the puzzle and present the proper strategy to the authorities, who have to approve it, and this is what we are doing and who knows, maybe in a window of one to two years.”
Ciccarese laid out the process that they would need to go through in order to put a game in the U.S., though admitted getting a green light is easier said than done.
“One to two years, potentially, we will see the league playing – if the approvals come from different confederations,” he said, “meaning for us, we need the approval of the Italian federation, we need the approval of UEFA, then it goes up to FIFA and then it goes back to the local community. This is an easy step on paper but it needs to keep a lot of people aligned.”
The idea of playing regular season games is not inherently uncommon in sports, with the NFL and NBA regularly taking their fixtures overseas. Soccer clubs have a long tradition of doing their preseason tours abroad, primarily in the U.S. or eastern Asia, but getting competitive matches to these regions has been a challenge.
Ecuador’s top men’s soccer league attempted to host a regular season game in Miami in 2019, with sports and entertainment company Relevent Sports organizing the event. The U.S. Soccer Federation did not sanction the event, though, citing FIFA rules that led Relevent to sue the USSF and FIFA. FIFA and Relevent reached a settlement last year that removed FIFA as a defendant in the case, with world soccer’s governing body agreeing to a rule change. The terms of the settlement have not been made public, though, and neither has that rule change.
The case against U.S. Soccer remains ongoing and could be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Despite the lack of clarity around FIFA’s agreement with Relevent, several top European soccer leagues have admitted to exploring the idea of bringing a competitive match to other countries, almost suggesting that it is no longer forbidden to do so. Ciccarese is among a long list of high-ranking soccer executives who want to follow in the footsteps of the NFL and the NBA, who have been doing just that for several years.
“All [of] us, all the different leagues are discussing about the possibility to play a regular season game,” he said. “If you look all over the world, if you look at the NFL, what they are doing — they are playing in Germany, they are playing in London, they are going to play in Australia, I think, so there are a lot of things happening that makes the possibility. How can you get the close audience? Only bringing the product to them. Not only to the broadcaster today because everyone would like to live a game. … The only way is to bring the club to the fans.”
Ciccarese does not necessarily mind the idea of Serie A being the first of its competitiors to bring a competitive match overseas, though striking the balance of keeping local fans happy – which is considered one of the main challenges to the idea – is something the league is considering.
“It’s always a race to try to be the trendsetter because then the followers come and the trendsetter is who benefits more, potentially, in terms of revenues, of making this thing happen,” Ciccarese said. “It should be done in a way that makes sense for the club without forgetting the fans because you cannot play a Milano derby in America because the fans in Italy will get very upset of that game that there is a big meaning in Italy, so we have to play in a way that is respectful of our audience.”
Bringing competitve matches to the U.S. specifically, Ciccarese argued, would be key in growing the league’s footprint in the country. The success of U.S. men’s national team stars like AC Milan’s Christian Pulisic and Juventus’ Weston McKennie has helped, but Ciccarese believes bringing games to the U.S. would expand their American audience even further and help them catch up to competitors like the Premier League and La Liga.
“We came a little bit late,” he said. “We took a good sleep, let’s say it like that, but now, we want to go fast. We want to close the gap and the gap is a big gap in different aspects but if we roll up our sleeves and work, we can make the things happen.”
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