La Liga Player Protests About Villarreal Vs Barcelona Party In Miami Sabotaged

The broadcast of the Real Oviedo vs Espanyol match, which opened the tap for protests about La Liga matches in the United States, was sabotaged (Instagram/@realoviedo).

JAKARTA - La Liga players are protesting against operator decisions to hold regular season matches in Miami, United States.

The protests, which began at the opening match after the international break, Friday, October 17, 2025 local time or Saturday, October 18, 2025 in the morning WIB, appeared to be sabotaged.

On the first day of the ninth week of La Liga 2025/2026, two matches were presented, namely the Real Oviedo vs Espanyol and Sevilla vs Mallorca matches.

Protests were launched in the form of stopping the game for 15 seconds after the start.

However, during the live broadcast of the Real Oviedo vs Espanyol match, all television broadcasts in the world switched to the outside of the stadium during the first 25 seconds of the match.

The match lasted just hours after the Spanish Football Association (AFE) announced that protests would be held soon after kickoff in the ninth week of matches from Friday to Monday, October 20, 2025 local time.

The union said in a statement that the players would protest symbolically to denounce the lack of transparency, dialogue, and coherence of La Liga regarding the possibility of holding matches in the United States.

La Liga last week unveiled their plans to host a Villarreal vs Barcelona match in Miami on December 20, 2025.

AFE further said the captains of the top 20 teams agreed with the protests.

However, the union added that they did not ask Barcelona and Villarreal players to participate in the protests even though they had the same basis for the protests.

As is known, on Friday, October 17, 2025, Barcelona Manager Hansi Flick and his players were also unhappy because they had to travel 7,200 kilometers (4,500 miles) to play regular-season matches.

"My players are not happy either. I'm also unhappy, but La Liga has decided that we will play this match," Flick told a news conference in response to a question about his position regarding the game in the United States.

However, Barcelona president, Joan Laporta, defended the move by saying it was an opportunity to penetrate the American sports market more.

For Flick and his players, this means extra travel before a short winter break.

This will certainly be a problem with fitness considering Barcelona will also travel to Saudi Arabia for the Spanish Super Cup which starts on January 7, 2026.

Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong also criticized matches in the United States by saying the players were already overwhelmed with travel and a busy schedule of matches.

Likewise with Villarreal. This season, The Yellow Submarine also plays in the Champions League.

As if he didn't care about the complaint, La Liga president Javier Tebas remains in his stance to defend overseas matches as the key to increasing middle to long-term income and increasing the value of his competition broadcast rights, which lag behind the Premier League.

Tebas said La Liga plans to make international matches an annual event.

Villarreal vs Barcelona match is scheduled to take place at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Miami Dolphins headquarters from the NFL.

La Liga has even chartered a plane to transport some 2,000 to 3,000 supporters from Villarreal, which is the home side, to Florida.