THE footballing world was thrown into turmoil this week after La Liga announced a 15-year deal to host fixtures in the United States, a move which has drawn outrage from fans and players alike.

The agreement, struck with multinational media company Relevent Sports, has been so contentious that the players are even threatening to strike.

The primary goal of the deal is to augment La Liga’s presence in North America by bringing a regular season club match to the United States, home to millions of ‘proper football’ fans and those with Spanish as their first language.

The announcement doesn’t specify how many regular season La Liga games will be played in the US or when the marketing experiment will begin. Relevent Sport’s executive chairman, Charlie Stillitano stated that he wants to see one of the ‘big three’ (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid) clubs play in the US around January 1, with Miami the likely destination.

While spectators are no doubt happy to hear that their heroes are coming to the US to play a meaningful football match, their idols don’t share the same enthusiasm. Players representing each of Spain’s top league clubs gathered for an emergency players’ union meeting in Madrid to discuss the controversial deal.

The Spanish Association of Footballers (AFE) expressed a willingness to strike if it came to it. AFE president David Aganzo said: “The players are outraged, very surprised, and are all against it. It’s unanimous.

“The players don’t want to play overseas. Things have to be done in a more coherent way and with common sense. A decision of this magnitude, that affects players, referees and fans, was taken unilaterally and shows a lack of respect.”

But then, that’s the least surprising part of this whole affair. We’ve learned nothing new. After all, Premier League executive Richard Scudamore touted the idea of a 39th game a decade ago.

The only difference is that the broadcasters and Europe’s elite clubs have been emboldened in the intervening years by the gradual erosion of the game’s core principles and are now far more transparent in their commitment to brand-building and money-making.

What’s worrying to me is that the players’ chief concern seems to be that they weren’t consulted over the matter, rather than the consequences of the matter itself.

It was repeatedly vocalised during the AFE meeting, and no doubt will be again when the AFE meets with La Liga itself in the near future to discuss the deal, that the players were unhappy at not being consulted. Once again, they claim, La Liga executives are making paramount decisions without heeding the advice and concerns of its players and club presidents.

Hang on a minute here, are they failing to see the real issue at hand?

How about the fact that certain teams, selected for this mystical trip abroad, will lose a home game and thus money from ticket sales?

Home teams will play one fewer home match, perhaps giving them a disadvantage in a tight championship or relegation struggle.

Perhaps most importantly, what about the fans that pay for a season ticket at the start of the season? Modern football is expensive; if they’ve shelled out their hard earned cash for a 19-game season ticket, will they get a refund for the game snatched away from them?

More pertinently, it might not even be about the money for many. Rather, the opportunity to support your team in the flesh, the routine of the journey to the stadium in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia or Seville that you have done since you were a child, like your father and grandfather had before you.

What if you were a young fan of La Liga minnows Eibar, whose Ipurua Municipal Stadium holds just 7,000, and you were denied the chance of seeing Lionel Messi or Gareth Bale coming to town because the game had been moved to Chicago, no doubt to be filled with 100,000 Barcelona ‘fans’?

It’s a disgusting idea, and hopefully the outrage shocks these decision makers who aren’t even trying to disguise the fact that they’re in it for the money and brand-building anymore. ‘For the fans’ or ‘for the good of the game’ are clichés thrown out to appease the masses, but they’re hollow and real fans can see right through them.

The statement provided no official details about how the whole process would even work; it was hastily thrown out there to get the hype train rolling and get US officials chomping at the bit for hosting rights.

Granted American Football is taken out of the States and occasionally played in England’s capital but that’s a franchise and just as likely to be moved from one state to another if the money talks. It’s not about the fans.

Football is more of a grassroots game and must remain so. This deal cannot be allowed to come to fruition.

If it does, and it’s a success financially, then it’s only a matter of time before the Premier League revisits the plans and follows suit, then Ligue 1, Serie A and who knows what else.

Sadly, this is modern football and it will be coming to a ground near you very soon. Or taken away from one …