Italian league confirms Australia as venue for Serie A match

The Italian football league on Thursday gave the green light for AC Milan’s controversial ‘home’ Serie A game against Como to go ahead in Australia in February.

The decision comes two months after Spain’s La Liga scrapped plans to hold a Barcelona match in Miami in the United States due to “uncertainty” about the game within Spain.

“The match between Milan and Como will indeed be played on February 8 in Perth,” announced Serie A boss Ezio Simonelli.

Milan’s San Siro stadium is out of commission on that date because it is hosting the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics two days earlier.

“We had a very cordial meeting with (FIFA president Gianni) Infantino. We had doubts about the obligations imposed on us, particularly the requirement to use foreign referees, but (FIFA Referees Committee chairman Pierluigi) Collina gave us guarantees about their quality,” added Simonelli at the Italian Super Cup in Riyadh.

For the match to go ahead the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), to which Australia is affiliated, had demanded that it be officiated by AFC referees rather than Italians.

“We’re going to accept this condition, there are still other things to sort out,” Simonelli commented in reference to marketing issues.

This will be the first time a Serie A game has been played outside Italy.

The relocation involving a round trip of over 13,000 kilometres has come under attack from Milan’s France internationals Adrien Rabiot and Mike Maignan.