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Club América president Santiago Baños has opened up the possibility of playing Liga MX home games in the United States while his team’s Estadio Azteca venue is undergoing renovations for the 2026 World Cup.
Club América are set to share Mexico City’s Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes with crosstown rivals and fellow 2024 Clausura finalists Cruz Azul for the 2024-25 season, but are also looking into the potential of home games across Mexico and north of the border.
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“We’re not closed off to viewing the possibility of playing home games in the United States,” Baños told reporters Thursday.
Baños cited an antitrust lawsuit filed against U.S. Soccer and FIFA over the world governing body’s policy of not permitting a country to host league matches involving teams from other countries.
The lawsuit, which was filed by by New York’s Relevent Sports after it was prevented from hosting a LaLiga match and an Ecuadorian league match in the U.S., was allowed to go forward by the Supreme Court in April.
FIFA recently withdrew from the case and announced last week that it was working on a panel that would advise alterations to rules for “out-of-territory” matches.
“With the case [involving Relevent Sports] that has ended, it seems that the possibility has been opened that other teams can play in the United States and it would be impressive to see America playing at home there, in any of the states where we have many followers,” Baños added.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas said in April that LaLiga was hopeful of playing games in the U.S.
“I don’t know when, but this time LaLiga will play official games abroad. I think it could be from the 2025-26 season,” Tebas told Expansión.
“An official game in the United States would strengthen our position in the North American market, which is the second [biggest] for LaLiga after Spain.
“Other really competitive leagues are coming, so we can’t always do the same thing. They would jump ahead of us.”
After facing Cruz Azul in the Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes on Thursday for the first leg of the Liga MX final, Club América will close out the championship series at home in the Estadio Azteca on Sunday