Here you can find the pros and cons of this decision with which the Association of Footballers of Spain has expressed its dissatisfaction

A few days ago, the soccer world shuddered with the news that the United States will host official games of the League of Spain, possibly the most watched soccer championship in Latin America and in other parts of the world. How was it achieved? Well, through an agreement between the League chaired by Javier Tebas and the multinational Relevent, in order to further boost this discipline both in the United States and Canada.

Leer en español: ¡El mundo se estremece! La Liga de España llegará a Estados Unidos

It was on Thursday, August 16, when this alliance was made public, so let us remember the most important details of it. To begin, it was established under the name North America League, with equal participation of 50% and for a period of 15 years, perhaps the most criticized point by experts. In the same way, the official announcement of the dispute of an official match of the Spanish season, from 18-19, on American soil, was announced.

With the subsidiary it is intended to have exclusive representation of the League in the United States and Canada to establish a business through initiatives such as children's schools, coaches' development, marketing alliances, brand promotion and exhibition matches. The latter has already happened in the recent preseason with the International Champions Cup.

Everything looks very nice on paper, but here I will put on the table the pros and cons of this decision with which the Association of Spain Footballers (AFE, by its acronym in Spanish) has expressed its discontent, threatening to go on strike if the game that would have to be disputed every year in the United States  is not ruled out.

The pros

Let's see. Any league, championship or sporting event is in its right to wanted to expand and do so. The NBA and the MLB have implemented this format of their team matches in other countries such as Mexico and Japan, mainly. A single game a year does not seem far-fetched, on the contrary, I think it is a cautious and intelligent way to start the project.

On the other hand, if the League of Spain begins to have relative success with this proposal, it will certainly be adopted by other major leagues such as the Premier League, Italy's Calcio, France's Ligue 1 and Germany's Bundesliga, expanding so soccer in the giant of North America.

In addition, many South American fans of European soccer live in the United States, which is why attendance to see the best players in the world would be guaranteed. In that sense, the choice of cities and the teams that will participate must be well evaluated. I think it is an interesting proposal, but what I still do is "mortgaging" an agreement for 15 years, when nobody can guarantee a success for such a long time.

It may interest you: Is the Spanish soccer league the best one today?

The cons

Here comes the interesting part. Is success guaranteed with all the teams of the League of Spain? Absolutely not. It is a very respected and prestigious championship, but based on two teams: Real Madrid and Barcelona. For this reason, everyone guesses that the game that would be played in the official season in the United States would be with one of the two as a participant.

A Betis of Sevilla vs. Athletic Bilbao would not generate, for example, the same interest. Then, the League will have to specify the mechanism that allows it to have a greater participation of other clubs. Because if it is to promote the meringues and the culés, that task is already done by the same teams over the years and their achievements and the agreement would not make any sense.

In addition, Spanish soccer players disagreed with the trip to the United States, once a year, when in the regular season they must travel constantly for other competitions both outside and inside Spain, and sometimes to the Club World Cup which is much more distant. It seems an exaggeration to create such a conflict just by arguing that point of the agreement.

We will see, but of course if the deal will be reduced only to Barcelona and Real Madrid I do not predict much life.

Other examples

It is been 26 years since Mexico temporarily receives NBA games. In 2017, Brooklyn Nets, Oklahoma Thunder and Miami Heat were presented between December 7 and 9 in Mexico City. To date, 26 games of the best basketball in the world have been held in that country, being the second nation, after the U.S., obviously, that has received more events from this sports event.

Mexico is also a pioneer in what baseball in the United States regards as an alternate venue. But the initiative expands, since Japan and the United Kingdom will join in 2019 as venues outside the United States for the Major Leagues. Can you imagine a Yankees-Red Sox in London? It already sounds amazing that the Major League Baseball visit England, but it is a proposal that has been studying and applied gradually for years.

So far, they have been successful.

LatinAmerican Post | Onofre Zambrano

Translated from "¡El mundo se estremece! La Liga de España llegará a Estados Unidos"