“We are opposed to domestic league matches being played abroad,” wrote UEFA. Its president, Aleksander Čeferin added that league fixtures should be played on home soil. And yet, in the very same statement, they announced that Milan and Como would meet in Australia, while Villarreal will “host” Barcelona in Miami.

Football has taken countless steps down the road of commercialisation. But this might prove to be the most significant one to date.

It brings European football one step closer to the American sports model, where fans are treated as customers and where success is not based on the trophies won, but on the amount of income generated.

“Two requests were approved on an exceptional basis amid regulatory gaps at global level,” UEFA tried to explain, in what can only be described as a tragicomic statement.

They failed to clarify what exactly “exceptional basis” means. Instead, Čeferin insisted the decision was “exceptional and shall not be seen as setting a precedent.”

But how are fans meant to trust an association that, without a proper explanation, relocates their club’s fixtures to the other side of the world – while at the same time claiming to oppose such moves?

Of course, UEFA aren’t the only ones to blame. The clubs, along with their national leagues, proposed these shameful relocations – chasing extra millions while once again forgetting about the supporters.

Yet UEFA, who love to claim that fans are at the heart of everything they stand for, could have shut this idea down before it ever reached the table, just as they did with the Super League when billions in TV rights were at stake.

UEFA’s crusade against the Superleague was built on the claim that a closed system of competition goes against the meritocracy of European sport. Fair enough. But only months later, they introduced the revamped Champions League format that allows the most successful clubs to qualify even after a poor domestic season.

And when the Champions League final kick-off time was brought forward to suit overseas TV markets, we were again told it was “in the best interest of the fans.”

No one’s surprised anymore when UEFA preach one thing and practise another. But this latest move – taking domestic fixtures beyond national borders – cuts deeper than any before. It denies local fans the chance to watch their clubs live.

This so-called “exception” marks another step in the silent normalisation of the American model, where football slowly trades its soul for marketability. Never before have UEFA shown greater contempt for match-going supporters.

Against modern football.