Villarreal 's LaLiga game against Barcelona on Dec. 20 in Miami, and AC Milan 's Serie A clash with Como in Perth, Australia , in February will make history. For the first time, regular season games will be played on foreign soil and it marks the culmination of a long political and legal struggle.

It's a path that major U.S. sports have trod in the opposite direction for years now -- the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball have all played regular season games overseas -- and some see it as a shortcut to globalizing their league and marketing their product around the world. It's also a contentious issue, one that was vehemently opposed by governing bodies from national associations to confederations right up to FIFA.

That began to change a after a long-running anti-trust lawsu

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