MADRID — When representatives of Spain’s top soccer league announced last week that they planned to stage a series of regular-season games in the United States, part of an effort to increase television and international sponsorship revenue, they apparently failed to consult a group essential to making the match happen: the players.
David Aganzo, the president of the Spanish players’ association, said on Wednesday that the plans for La Liga to become the first European league to play a competitive match in the United States had outraged the players. The surprise announcement of the overseas matches as a fait accompli, after earlier changes to the match calendar that have created later kickoff times and far more matches on weekdays, forced the players to go public with their concerns, said Aganzo, who suggested that a strike to protest the latest move was a serious possibility.