LONDON (AP) — The Spanish soccer league wants to resurrect plans to stage a regular-season game in the United States.
La Liga president Javier Tebas said Thursday that he was not giving up on taking a top Spanish match abroad after controversial plans to play outside Miami last year were scrapped in the face of pushback from clubs, players and fans.
“We are going to try again. I’m not sure when. We have to bring it up at the right time,” Tebas told a news conference in London.
Barcelona and Villarreal were slated to play at the Miami Dolphins' Hard Rock Stadium on Dec. 20, which would have made Spain the first major European league to move a regular-season match abroad. But those plans fell through in October as opposition grew, with some claiming it impacted the fairness of the competition by moving a game overseas.
“I don’t think it will cause damage,” Tebas said Thursday when attending the Financial Times Business of Football Summit. “We are talking about one match out of 380 in a season.”
Tebas is seeking to emulate the model of the NFL, which last season staged games in London, Berlin, Dublin, Madrid and Sao Paulo. The NBA also plays games overseas.
He said European soccer's big leagues had benefited from fans all over the world, with broadcast rights sold for billions of dollars globally. Tebas said taking a game abroad was a sign of respect, as well as an opportunity to promote, much like U.S. sports have done in recent years.
“We celebrate Halloween, which we never celebrated 20 years ago. We have NFL games. We have NBA games," Tebas said. "Let’s see if 50 years from now we’ll have the stadiums empty, and the ones for the NBA and the NFL full. Because they don’t bring just one game, they all bring many games.
“They don’t come to Europe on vacation, they come to get fans to sign television deals, to get children for their competitions. In other words, we opened the doors to Europe. Instead, the United States, which opens the doors for us to go, we close them here in Europe."
The league had succeeded in October in getting approval from soccer bodies UEFA and the Spanish soccer federation to stage the game abroad. But pushback included a player protest and later in October game promoter Relevent informed La Liga of the need to postpone, saying there was insufficient time to “properly execute an event of this scale.”
A Spanish league game was previously planned to be played in the U.S. in 2019 only for FIFA to say its ruling council had adopted a policy emphasizing the "sporting principle that official league matches must be played within the territory of the respective member association.” Barcelona then withdrew its commitment to play.
Tebas also weighed into the ongoing wait for an outcome of Manchester City's charges over allegedly breaching the Premier League's financial rules.
City was accused by the league in February 2023 of more than 100 breaches, but despite an independent commission hearing the case between September and December 2024, no ruling has been announced. City has always denied the charges.
“When you have this type of situation, you’re generating uncertainty and that’s damaging for an institution’s image,” Tebas said.
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal runs with the ball during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona in Girona, Spain, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, left, and Marc Bernal celebrate after a goal during a La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Levante in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
The search is on for one missing U.S. service member while another was rescued after two U.S. warplanes went down in separate incidents including the first shoot-down since the Iran war began nearly five weeks ago.
The incidents occurred just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”
One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a U.S. military search-and-rescue operation was underway.
Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.
The war now entering its sixth week is destabilizing economies around the world as Iran responds to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Here is the latest:
Omar al-Waeli, head of Iraq’s Border Ports Authority, said on Saturday that the strike on the Shalamcheh border crossing killed one person and wounded five others.
Authorities did not offer further details on the strike. But trade and passenger traffic is suspended at the crossing, which is crucial for Iranian imports and Iranian pilgrims headed to Iraq’s Shiite shrines.
The Iraqi government said it was directing traders and travelers to alternative crossings.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that it has been informed by Iran about the strike near the premises of the Bushehr nuclear facility that killed a security guard and impacted a building in the complex.
“No increase in radiation levels was reported” following the strike, the IAEA said in a social media post.
Bahrain’s Defense Ministry reported the tally in a social media post on Saturday.
This brings the total number of projectiles fired at the country since the start of the war to 188 missiles and 453 drones.
Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in a social media post Saturday that an airstrike near its Bushehr nuclear facility killed a security guard and damaged a support building.
It is the fourth time the facility has been targeted during the war.
The Bushehr nuclear power plant uses low-enriched uranium from Russia, along with Russian technicians, to supply about 1,000 megawatts of power for Iran.
Its pressurized-water reactor can power hundreds of thousands of homes and other businesses and industries. But it contributes only 1% to 2% of Iran’s total power needs.
Iran has been trying to expand the facility to multiple reactors. In 2019, it began a project that ultimately plans to add two additional reactors to the site, each adding another 1,000 megawatts apiece.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has discussed with Saudi Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman defensive military assistance that Italy is providing against Iranian reprisals to U.S.-Israeli attacks.
A brief statement from Meloni's office Saturday did not specify what type of assistance Italy is providing.
It also said the two discussed diplomatic efforts to end the war, the importance of opening the Strait of Hormuz and “more broadly how to promote a regional framework that can break free from the current cycle of conflict.”
Meloni will continue her visit in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. and Israeli warplanes continued to pound Iran Saturday, hitting several targets including a petrochemical facility, Iranian media reported.
Iran's official English-language newspaper Tehran Times reported that an airstrike hit a facility belonging to Iran’s Agriculture Ministry in the western city of Mehran.
The newspaper said another air raid struck Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Zone in the southwestern Khuzestan province.
The semiofficial Fars news agency reported several explosions heard late Saturday morning in the facility.
Mehr, another semiofficial news agency, reported that the strikes hit four companies within the zone.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the veiled threat in a social media post late Friday, asking about how busy oil tanker and container ship traffic is through the strait.
The 20-mile (32-kilometer) strait links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and is one of the busiest chokepoints in global trade, with more than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships passing through it.
Iran has already greatly disrupted the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing and jolting the world economy.
Disrupting transit through the Bab el-Madeb would force shipping firms to route their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, further hitting prices.
Israel’s rescue services said Saturday the man sustained glass shrapnel wounds after an Iranian missile hit the central city of Bnei Brak.
It wasn't clear if the glass shrapnel was caused by a direct strike or falling debris from an intercepted missile.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said it was taking the man to the hospital.
The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said Saturday that the two men who were hanged belonged to the Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.
The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”
This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.
Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that its air force struck ballistic and and anti-aircraft missile storage sites in Tehran.
It said the strikes a day earlier included weapons manufacture sites as well as military research and development facilities in the Iranian capital.
It said the strikes are part of an ongoing phase to increase damage to Iran's “core systems and foundations.”
Authorities in Dubai said the facades of two buildings were damaged by debris from intercepted drones, including one belonging to U.S. tech firm Oracle. No injuries were reported.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to attack Oracle and 17 other U.S. companies after accusing them of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations in Iran.
Previous Iranian drone strikes caused damage to three Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, according to Pentagon data available online.
It is unclear if the data includes any of the service members involved in the downing of two combat aircraft reported Friday.
Most of the wounded — 200 — were also mid to senior enlisted troops, 85 were officers and 80 were junior enlisted service members.
The current death toll remains at 13 service members killed in combat.
Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers outside Jerusalem's Old City due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Tamara and her sister Amal color pictures on the floor as their parents, Sara and Ahmed, who fled their village of Khiyam in southern Lebanon due to Israeli bombardment, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon undergoes surgery by Dr. Mohammed Ziara, left, and his team, at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - An F-15E Strike Eagle turns toward the Panamint range over Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
