Real Madrid Fights Back Against La Liga's Shocking Schedule Decision
An official from Spain's Football Federation (RFEF) has turned down Real Madrid's appeal to postpone their opening match of the 2025–26 La Liga campaign.
The club contended they were deprived of adequate "rest and preparation time" since their new season is set to begin merely 41 days following the conclusion of their Club World Cup participation. Madrid representatives maintained they deserved at minimum an additional 24 hours of preparation before facing Osasuna in their season opener, presently set for August 19.
RFEF official José Alberto Peláez dismissed Madrid's appeals and turned down their petition to postpone the Osasuna match.
Peláez determined that the Madrid team has been granted the required minimum of 21 consecutive rest days and contended that claims for an additional 21-day period for physical conditioning ahead of the new campaign fall outside regulatory requirements.
Madrid has 48 hours to file an appeal and, per Mundo Deportivo, they plan to proceed with that course of action.
The decision emphasized that Madrid's roster is sufficiently large to handle demanding fixture schedules and, considering the Club World Cup dates were established well beforehand, Los Blancos could have implemented additional preparatory measures for the upcoming season if deemed essential.
"I think they will get 20 days of rest rather than 21 and no other competitions like England's Premier League for Chelsea or France's Ligue 1 for PSG are modifying their schedules," La Liga chief Javier Tebas commented on the dispute during the summer.
"Therefore I don't think we should alter the fixture list for this reason, particularly considering it's just a one-day difference."
Osasuna has demonstrated considerably more understanding. The team's veteran goalkeeper Sergio Herrera shared with El Larguero: "The organization and players were prepared to assist Real Madrid, and it wouldn't have been an issue to support our fellow professionals since there may be insufficient time for rest and match preparation."
"In my opinion, I believe it's harmful to Real Madrid and equally to us since we won't have the same recovery period as Valencia for our subsequent fixture at El Sadar," Herrera added. "Anyone with basic reasoning would recognize that the timeframe isn't adequate for Real Madrid to achieve peak condition."