Plans to welcome seven-time European champions AC Milan to Perth for an Italian league match are in trouble, with fears growing that football’s world governing body will not approve the event.
The historic Serie A match between AC Milan and Como, scheduled for February, has been touted as a major tourist draw for Perth.
If approved, it would be the first time a major European league has staged a match for points outside its home region.
But this requires approval from five different governing bodies, including the international governing body, FIFA, as well as the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
While UEFA “reluctantly” gave his blessing to the match in OctoberWA Sports Minister and Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti said yesterday the plans were hitting a roadblock with FIFA.
Pervis Estupinan is one of AC Milan’s star players. (Getty Images: Paul Kane)
“A number of conditions were placed on the approval of the match, very late in the process, which we believe are extremely difficult to meet,” she said.
“However, we are working on it with FIFA.”
Ms Saffioti confirmed these challenges related to conditions imposed by the Asian Football Confederation, including that the match not be labeled “Serie A” and that it use referees and staff accredited by the AFC, rather than Italians.
“We don’t understand why they would do this, so it’s really disappointing,” she told ABC Radio Perth.
The deputy prime minister said the government was carrying out “some final checks to see if we can achieve this” and a final decision was expected to be made within next week.
“We had a lot of verbal commitments about people’s support, but what they put on paper was very different. That’s what we worked on,” she said.
“Complex” agreement
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Prime Minister Roger Cook responded to expectations that the match might not go ahead.
“It’s very complex but we want to make sure we get value for money for the WA taxpayer,” he said.
“There needs to be a return to make sure we can justify that on a visitation basis, on a destination marketing basis and on a promotion basis for WA.”
WA Premier Roger Cook says he is keen any deal to bring AC Milan to Perth represents value for the state. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)
He rejected a suggestion that delays in confirming the match would affect the number of people traveling to WA, if it took place.
“People will come and move very, very quickly to have the opportunity to see their teams in that location,” Mr. Cook said.
AC Milan president ‘worried’
AC Milan president Paolo Scaroni is also said to have expressed concern about the match.
“I have not yet abandoned this file, but there are so many authorizations to obtain that I am starting to worry,” he said, according to a translation of his remarks in Italian media.
“If this fails, it would be a missed opportunity for Serie A, because our goal is to make Serie A attractive worldwide.”
AC Milan were considering playing the match in Perth as their stadium will be out of action for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
But even one of AC Milan’s star players had expressed his opposition to the idea, with midfielder Adrien Rabiot calls him “totally crazy”.
“It’s crazy to travel so many kilometers for a match between two Italian teams in Australia,” he said in October.
Plans for a league clash between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami this month were also scrapped weeks before it was to be played after refusals from fans and players.
A protest against the planned match in Miami took place during a recent match in Spain, with fans intentionally leaving seats empty. (Provided)
Ms Saffioti defended the time and money the government had spent trying to get the event off the ground – including meeting AC Milan while in Europe in August – describing it as an “incredible opportunity to market Perth and Western Australia to a global audience”.
“Our efforts to secure this world premiere match have already generated hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coverage in global media, highlighting the magnitude of this event for our state,” she said.
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