Faced with "massive opposition from sporting institutions" over its plan to play a regular season game between Barcelona and Girona in Miami, La Liga launched a petition "to garner mass support for its troubled project," according to Richard Martin of REUTERS. La Liga said in a statement, "This national grassroots campaign will highlight the growing popularity of soccer in America and the desire from American fans to bring the greatest soccer league in the world to the U.S. to play the first ever European club regular season match held outside of Europe." The launch of the petition is an attempt by the league and Relevent Sports to "counter the institutional opposition by showing that the project counts on grassroots support." A statement on the petition's website said, "Some of the key decision makers are falsely claiming it won't be good for the game in the U.S. So we, the fans, need to fight for this match by telling them: It's good for the fans. It's good for the game. Are you in? The more support we have, the harder we'll be to ignore." Relevent Owner & Chair Stephen Ross said that playing a Spanish top-flight game in the U.S. "would further accelerate the growth of football in the country." Ross: "All of America's top sports leagues -- the NBA, the NFL and MLB -- have played regular season games all over the world to reach international fans and have great success popularizing these sports globally. We firmly believe this will have the same impact in increasing the popularity of soccer here in the U.S., with more kids playing and more fans watching" (REUTERS, 11/1). The AP's Tales Azzoni reported FIFA's permission for the match is "not mandatory" but its opposition was a "setback for the league." La Liga said that it is prepared to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport "if FIFA somehow prohibits the match," and it is also ready to go to court in Spain if the local federation denies its request to play abroad. Staging the game in the U.S. is "seen as an important step for the Spanish league to continue expanding internationally and to close the gap" on the Premier League. The league said that it will use social media to spread the new "grassroots campaign," asking fans to upload videos expressing their support and engaging their friends. La Liga North America CEO Boris Gartner said, "We just want to give an opportunity for fans to talk about this game because we feel that so far the conversation has been very one-sided. We want to give a voice to the fans" (AP, 11/1).
