Real Madrid request to postpone opening 2025-26 La Liga match denied
The Athletic reported on Tuesday that Madrid had submitted a request to have their league opener against Osasuna, scheduled for August 19, delayed due to their involvement in the latter stages of the Club World Cup.
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Madrid exited the tournament in Wednesday's semi-final with a 4-0 defeat to European champions Paris Saint-Germain, 40 days ahead of their proposed opening league match against Osasuna. An agreement with the AFE (Spanish professional footballers' association) states players are entitled to three weeks of continuous holiday per year, thus leaving a window of 18 days for a pre-season.
As reported by Associated Press, Tebas said the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) made the decision not to move Madrid's first game of the season and La Liga agree with that outcome.
'I believe that they will have 20 days to rest instead of 21 and no other leagues like the Premier League for Chelsea or the French Ligue 1 for PSG are changing the games,' Tebas said.
'So I don't believe that we should change the calendar for that reason, especially thinking that it's a matter of one day.'
Sources told The Athletic that in May the two Spanish sides competing at the Club World Cup, Madrid and Atletico Madrid, along with their respective captains, Dani Carvajal and Koke, reached an agreement with La Liga, the RFEF and the AFE to postpone those clubs' first league fixtures if they reached the quarter-finals of the competition.
This, according to AFE sources, was for health reasons, and to ensure that the teams would have at least three weeks of pre-season before the first La Liga fixtures of 2025-26.
Madrid, who contested 68 matches during the 2024-25 season, have yet to schedule any pre-season fixtures.
Thibaut Courtois, Madrid's goalkeeper, said on Wednesday he wanted the Osasuna match postponed in the interest of his and his team-mates' health. The Belgium international also took issue with Tebas' critical view of the Club World Cup, in which the 62-year-old said he wants the competition 'eliminated'.
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Courtois said: 'To listen those comments from a president it's something that I haven't seen it in Italy, or in England, nor the NBA and NFL. It's fine if Tebas doesn't like the Club World Cup, but it exists. It's part of the FIFA calendar.
'We're here competing, and it seems this gentleman just wants to be the focus. I've never seen a president of another competition speak like that. The players' health is on the line.'
In October, Pep Guardiola said the Premier League 'did not allow' its Club World Cup participants Manchester City and Chelsea to postpone their opening games of 2025-26 in order to allow more time for players to recover. City were knocked out of the tournament by Al Hilal on July 1, while Chelsea have reached the final, where they will face PSG on Sunday. Chelsea and Manchester City have been given opening Premier League fixtures on August 17 and 16 respectively.
When approached for comment in October, the Premier League said this was an example of the challenges that domestic leagues would face as a result of the alterations to the football calendar made by FIFA.
In May 2024, FIFPro and the World Leagues Association, which represents global professional football leagues, threatened FIFA with legal action over the scheduling of the Club World Cup. World football's governing body responded by saying it had ensured player welfare is safeguarded and the tournament's schedule had been aligned with the international match calendar to allow sufficient time before the start of the new season.
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