Plans to take an Italian top-flight league match to Australia have been abandoned after organisers agreed to cancel the proposed relocation of AC Milan’s fixture against Como to Perth.
Italy’s Serie A and the Western Australia government confirmed in a joint statement on Monday that the February match would no longer be held outside Italy, citing unresolved financial and logistical concerns.
According to the statement, both sides reached a mutual decision after concluding that the financial risks involved could not be adequately managed. The organisers also pointed to stringent approval requirements and last-minute complications that made the project unworkable.
The match had been scheduled for February 8 in Perth because Milan’s San Siro stadium will be unavailable on that date, with the venue set to host the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics two days earlier.
Serie A chief executive Ezio Simonelli later attributed the cancellation to demands from the Asian Football Confederation, which he said ultimately derailed the plan. He explained that additional requirements imposed at short notice made it impossible to proceed with staging the match in Australia, which would have marked the first time a Serie A fixture was played outside Italy.
The proposal had already attracted criticism, including from AC Milan’s French internationals Adrien Rabiot and Mike Maignan, who questioned the practicality of a round trip exceeding 13,000 kilometres.
The reversal follows a similar development in Spain, where La Liga recently dropped plans to stage a Barcelona league match in Miami, citing uncertainty surrounding the proposal within Spain.
