ROME -- A decision by UEFA this week to allow a Serie A game between AC Milan and Como to be played in Australia in February is drawing heated responses from one prominent Rossoneri player and the Italian league's CEO.
Milan midfielder Adrien Rabiot described flying 20 hours each way for the game in Perth, which is in a time zone six hours ahead of Italy's, during a key month of the season as "completely crazy."
On Wednesday, Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo suggested that Rabiot, "like all soccer players who earn millions, forgets that he's paid to carry out a function, which is playing soccer," adding that the NFL, NBA, Tour de France and Giro d'Italia go abroad regularly: "This is done to strengthen the product, not weaken it."
On Monday, UEFA also decided reluctantly to allow Barcelona to play a LaLiga league game in Miami in December.
"It's all about financial deals and providing visibility for the league, which are placed ahead of us [the players]," Rabiot told French newspaper Le Figaro. "There's all this talk about schedules and players' well-being, but this all seems really absurd. It's crazy to travel so far for a game between two Italian squads in Australia. We'll have to adapt, like always."
Milan and Como are located less than an hour apart, but Milan needed to find somewhere else to play their home game on Feb. 8 because the San Siro stadium will be unavailable after being used for the Milan-Cortina Olympics opening ceremony two days earlier.
"[Rabiot] should have more respect for the money that he earns and better support what his employer, Milan, has accepted and pushed for, to have this game played abroad," De Siervo added on the sidelines of a European Football Clubs (EFC) assembly Wednesday. "Top players, who are paid correspondingly for the workload that they carry out, should understand better than others that this is a sacrifice that can be made."
Rabiot joined Milan at the beginning of September because he was frozen out at Marseille following a fight with teammate Jonathan Rowe that happened in the locker room after losing to Rennes 1-0 in their Ligue 1 season opener. Rowe was also frozen out by Marseille joined Bologna around the same time.
In announcing the decision to play the Serie A game in Australia as "regrettable" on Monday, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin called it "exceptional and shall not be seen as setting a precedent."
Roma's Texas-based president Dan Friedkin, who is also on the EFC board that represents more than 700 teams across the continent, wouldn't budge when asked if the Australia and Miami games could lead to Roma playing at the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium one day.
"I'm fully supportive of everything UEFA is working on," Friedkin said. "Obviously, they're close partners."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.