Serie A, the top division of Italian football, is in talks to play a game between Milan and Como in Australia.In what would be the first European league fixture to be played abroad, plans are being discussed for the fixture to be staged in the Western Australian city of Perth on the weekend of February 7-8, 2026.
Milan and Como are currently scheduled to meet at Milan’s San Siro stadium that weekend but the ground is unavailable to the club as it is being used to stage the opening ceremony of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics on February 6.San Siro is home to both Milan and their city rivals Inter, who traditionally play home league games on alternative matchdays. In 2025-26, both teams will play at home on the opening weekend of the season, to Cremonese and Torino respectively, in an attempt to ease fixture congestion around the city during the Winter Olympics and Paralympic ceremonies in February.
Regular-season league matches were previously forbidden from being held abroad, but in April Relevent Sports settled a six-year long lawsuit with the U.S Soccer Federation to try, paving the way for European domestic games to be held abroad.
In May 2024, FIFA approved a working group to look into potential changes to its rules after world football’s governing body was dropped as a defendant by Relevent.
That created an opening for a Serie A match to be hosted in Australia. Talks are now underway to host Milan’s home game against Como at Perth’s Optus Stadium in a landmark occasion, but no final decision has yet been reached.
