Milan – Como in Australia. Has Serie A lost its mind?

In 2026 the Winter edition of the Olympic Games will be held in Milano-Cortina, Lombardy. Great news for the area. Or so you’d think. When the opening ceremony of the tournament is held in February, there was only one venue that was deemed sufficient. The Stadio San Siro was the perfect choice for the opening ceremony. With one exception. Milan are due to play host to Como on February 8th.

In any other ordinary “non-batshit crazy” league, they might move the game to a different stadium in the same area. Or they could swap the home and away matches around and avoid the clash altogether. What did the FIGC decide? Go to fucking Australia and play football.

I’m all for Serie A increasing its commercialisation. I’m a huge fan of Italian football and have long held belief that everyone else should love it as much as me. It’s why I have a blog. But what the hell are they thinking here?

It is the middle of the season, not a pre-season tour. Milan and Como will be travelling some 20 hours to Perth (if reports are to be believed) and then, suffering with immense jetlag, will proceed to “put on a show” for the Australian fans.

Then, when that’s all done – in the Aussie summer by the way – they’ll fly another 20 hours back to Italy to continue their season. So a half arsed show for a few extra quid. Is this worth the pressure on the players and the squads?

If Serie A really want to push their product into a new region, they firstly need to choose a country where they can actually tune into the games at a reasonable hour, like when they’re awake. East Coast of America is an option, Saudi Arabia too. Why Australia?

It is completely baffling to me why they’ve made this particular choice. The Supercoppa is already in Saudi Arabia, so why not send Milan and Como over there to increase the presence of Italian football, cement relationships and show some faith to the country. Sure, Saudi Arabia comes with other legitimate criticisms and questions, but if the FIGC has already decided to do it, then why not go all in?

The travel to Australia, the cost of the teams heading there, the affect it has on the playing squad out there and the disruption to the calendar just doesn’t seem worth it.

If Australia really is a target audience for Serie A and the FIGC, then why are they going out for one match in the middle of February? Why don’t they go out there for 2/3 games with a few teams over a longer period? Why don’t they take the Supercoppa there? Why don’t they go for a pre-season competition?

The whole idea feels half baked. A quick decision that’s been taken hastily. Have Milan or Como agreed to this willingly? What’s the compensation they’re getting for agreeing to this?

And where does it stop? Is this a green light from UEFA for more matches to be hosted in foreign commercial paradises? The Premier League will be following this debacle closely and you can bet your bottom dollar that within two years we’ll be watching Fulham v Wolves in Charlotte, NC.

It smacks of a big comedic bag with a dollar sign on it has been handed around somewhere (allegedly of course), and everyone’s nodding along without really thinking of the consequences. Not just the consequences for the teams involved, but for the integrity of top level European football. It’s going to have far reaching consequences and Milan v Como in Perth is going to be ground zero for it.