Regular season games in US stadiums? Serie A is pursuing this plan – and wants to become a pioneer among European leagues with it.
Regular season games abroad – in recent years, this has been associated primarily with the National Football League in world sports. The NFL regularly organizes regular season games outside its own national borders – in 2025, for example, in Berlin, London, Madrid and Ireland.
In football, such measures have so far only been established for cup competitions. The Spanish and Italian associations, in particular, have played a pioneering role in this regard. The Iberians have recently even organized everything from the Supercopa semi-finals to the final between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid (5-2) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, while the Italians recently organized the Supercoppa final between Inter and Milan (2-3) in Riyadh, also in Saudi Arabia.
“We want to be the first in Europe”
But what neither the southern European leagues nor the Premier League and Bundesliga have seen so far is a regular season game abroad.
The Italian governing body, the Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A, wants to change that in the near future.
Ezio Simonelli, the man appointed as the new league president only at the end of December 2024 and a qualified auditor, told the Gazzetta dello Sport. He said that Serie A matches overseas are “a clearly defined goal”.
Simonelli has already met with local US representatives to discuss options, potential locations and to develop the general plan for this endeavor more and more, according to his own statement. “We attach great importance to this market. We have nine American owners and one Canadian, to whom I owe a great deal because they elected me. So it’s natural that we want to focus on this area.”
In his view, the product of Serie A football is also “beautiful – and not only are we the league with the most American owners, but there are also potential buyers looking around. This means that certain groups believe there is an opportunity to make money in Italy.” However, everything should also be seen in line with national interests, all clubs and players – foreign trips should not make work more difficult for any of them. It may take some time before a final plan is drawn up, “but we firmly believe that we can organize an event like this – and we want to be the first in Europe.”
