Lionel Messi, no San Siro: the dream is officially broken

The Final, jointly organized by Uefa and Conmebol between the continental champions of Europe and South America, has been canceled due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement with Argentina on an alternative date to the originally planned March 27 in Doha, Qatar. The possibility of playing in Milan had also been discussed during negotiations, but no solution led to a final agreement.

None of the options proposed by Uefa proved acceptable to the Argentine federation, which actually did not seem particularly interested in playing the match. Coach Scaloni would have gladly avoided the engagement regardless of events, also remembering the heavy 6-1 loss to Spain prior to the Russia 2018 World Cup. In addition, Afa, the Buenos Aires-based federation, asked to keep the entire takings as if the match had been played in Qatar, where some 80,000 tickets had already been sold. Spain, on the other hand, tried to the last to play, accepting all the assumptions on the table, but failed to convince its opponents.

The first proposal was to play the match at the Bernabeu on the original date, with an equal division of the fans present, but Argentina refused. The second hypothesis was a double round-trip match: on March 27 in Madrid and a return match in Buenos Aires during an international window before the European Championship and Copa America 2028. This solution was also rejected.

Finally, Uefa asked Argentina for a commitment to play on March 27 or 30 at a neutral European venue: among the possibilities explored was San Siro in Milan, but the Argentine federation rejected this proposal as well, declaring itself unavailable for March 31 as well. The Afa suggested holding the match after the World Cup, but the absence of available dates in Spain dropped this hypothesis as well.

Uefa then thanked Real Madrid for its availability and Qatar, which was initially chosen as the venue, and announced the cancellation of the Finalissima, which would be in its second edition after Argentina won at Wembley against Italy (3-0).