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Barcelona President in Favor of Playing La Liga Games Abroad

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has claimed La Liga should look to play three games outside of Spain each season.
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Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has claimed La Liga should look to play three games outside of Spain each season.

The Catalan giants were due to play Girona in Miami last month, but those plans were scrapped after strong objections from both the Spanish Football Association, as well as the players union.

But Bartomeu is a strong advocate of taking La Liga outside of Spain, believing that the league will benefit from the endorsements and promotion that playing abroad will bring.

"If we want La Liga to be strong, we are to play in these games," Bartomeu told BBC Sport.

"At Barca we have sometimes been talking to La Liga and have been telling them that if you want to promote La Liga more and more, then we should have three games of the year outside - one in America, one in the Middle East and one in Asia.

"We have to go and be closer to the fans. We do the summer tours in July and August to go closer to the fans. It's us showing respect to them, going to Miami would have been respect to our fans in the USA."

Bartomeu's sentiments have been echoed by a spokesperson for La Liga, with plans to stage a league game out of the country still very much on the agenda.

"Of course, we strongly support any club's international ambitions as we certainly share the vision of bringing La Liga action closer to fans everywhere and making La Liga a stronger international brand," Joris Evers, chief communications officer, added.

"We continue to work towards playing a La Liga match outside of Spain and want to do that as soon as possible. We are working with all stakeholders to make it happen.

"We see this as a logical next step in the growth of our league and as a clear benefit to everyone involved."