Fifa has begun redrafting its regulations on staging domestic league games in foreign countries and is seeking legal advice over whether it can ban them. World football’s governing body would like to outlaw the practice but will be guided by legal opinion in its first review of the relevant regulations for 11 years.
A source involved in the process said Fifa was working towards making its rulebook more robust with a view to new regulations being ready early next year. This week Uefa blamed the “relevant Fifa regulatory framework” for its decision to allow Villarreal v Barcelona to take place in Miami in December and Milan v Como to go ahead in Perth in February. That is understood to have caused considerable irritation at Fifa because under existing regulations it is not their decision to make.
