Spain’s players’ association is asking La Liga not to play a regular-season match in the United States, and won’t rule out a strike if its demands are not met.

Captains of La Liga’s clubs met on Wednesday in Madrid and said they are against the unilateral decision to play outside Spain, something that could happen as early as this season as part of La Liga’s new 15-year deal to promote football in North America and boost its image abroad.



The Spanish Footballers’ Association president, David Aganzo, says the league should have consulted with the players before making the business decision to play in the United States.



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“This agreement that La Liga has reached without consulting anyone shows a lack of respect,” Aganzo said. “It’s not just the game as such, in terms of health and travel, it just makes no sense to have a game played in the United States and have one team have to give up a home game. It cannot be that a person takes a decision of a 15-year agreement, which affects many people and without consulting. We are fed up with not being valued.”

Aganzo did not rule out a strike but said it was a “last option” for the association. “I have information that there are certain clubs that are in favour and others against this, but I represent the players,” he said. “We need to sort this out with the union, and we will tell them all of our problems. If, from then on and after a few days, they don’t answer, then we will have to solve the situation. We are going to try to see that it doesn’t reach [a strike]. But we are willing to go right to the last option if it is necessary.”

La Liga is keen to compete with the Premier League in the lucrative North American television market. The Premier League has more exposure than its Spanish counterpart in the US, in part because of a six-year TV deal with NBC worth about $1bn. Since 2012, the Spanish league has been on beIN Sports, which was received by fewer than a quarter of American English-language television households before it was recently dropped by the Comcast Xfinity cable system.



