The first leg of El Clasico ended on August 4, 2024 at the Bernabeu with a 2-1 result in favor of the visitors. The return leg will take place on May 11, 2025, scheduled to be played at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium. However, La Liga President Javier Tebas still maintains his desire to hold this match at another stadium in Europe.
The Camp Nou is currently undergoing renovations and will not be able to return this season. If El Clasico were held at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium, the scale would not be commensurate. As a result, the commercial value and image of this classic match would be greatly reduced. La Liga, the organizers of the tournament, do not want that, despite Barcelona still affirming that they are qualified to hold El Clasico at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium.
Not only the match with Real Madrid, Barcelona's match against Atletico Madrid is also expected to be held abroad, specifically in the US. In the Regulations on International Matches issued by FIFA, the organization of national championship matches beyond the territory is stated in Clause 2, Article 11. Meanwhile, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said that after reaching an agreement between the two teams, the federation will submit the plan to UEFA and wait for the final nod.
If Barcelona want the match to be held outside of Spain but Real Madrid do not agree, everything must remain as is, this is one of the barriers. Only when President Florentino Perez agrees, then the RFEF will present the plan to UEFA.
In La Liga, Real Madrid and Barcelona have the greatest influence, but in this matter, they are not sure that they can decide everything. A few years ago, this idea was born. When both Real Madrid and Barcelona agreed, the RFEF disagreed internally, leading to the plan not being implemented. Now, if Real and Barca agree, the possibility of RFEF approval will be much higher. Javier Tebas is currently Vice President of the Board of Directors of RFEF, he has a very good relationship with the head Rafael Louzan.
The deadline for the RFEF to finalize the venue for the El Clasico is April 21. The federation will forward the plan to UEFA to await a final decision. The reason UEFA requested the early deadline from the RFEF is because they will have to contact other federations if the match is held outside of Europe. In this case, if the match is held within Europe, UEFA will not have to contact other federations around the world.
These procedures may not need to be submitted to FIFA if they are in accordance with the regulations of UEFA or the member associations. This is a step to streamline the process to avoid unnecessary multi-party liability just to serve a match between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
