After Barcelona and Villarreal’s Miami match was cancelled, AC Milan vs Como in Australia has also been called off.

The news comes as a shock as league president Ezio Simonelli had seemingly definitively announced the game in Perth after the weekend’s Supercoppa final.

“Milan-Como will be played in Perth on February 8th,” he said. “The meeting with Infantino was very cordial.

“We had a number of doubts about the conditions imposed for playing the match in Perth. Above all, we were required to have foreign referees (including VAR) , while we have great faith in our own match officials.

“We spoke with Collina (president of the FIFA Referees Commission), who gave us ample guarantees regarding the quality of these referees. He has in mind one or more top-level match officials. We will accept this condition, then there are other things to sort out.”

However, both Serie A and the Western Australian government have now announced the game won’t be held in Australia, with those ‘other things to sort out’ at fault.

The Asian Football Confederation reportedly drew to attention a number of other organisational conflicts between their rules and those of Serie A which wouldn’t be sorted out in time for the match.

A joint statement from the organisers read: “Plans to host the first official European Championship match outside of Australia in Perth have been cancelled, following a mutual agreement between Lega Calcio Serie A and the Western Australian government.

“Both parties made this decision due to unavoidable financial risks, onerous approval conditions, and last-minute complications beyond their control.

“The proposed match would have been the first time a top-level, points-scoring European Championship match would have been played outside of Australia, representing a unique opportunity for Western Australia to make international football history.”