4 matches of the first round of La Liga will be postponed this weekend due to an agreement between La Liga and the Spanish Footballers' Association (AFE). This agreement includes mandatory rest regulations for all players whose national teams have reached the semi-finals of the 2026 World Cup.
Spain's entry and victory in the final against Argentina (July 19) means that stars like Lamine Yamal (Barcelona) or Marc Cucurella (Real Madrid) cannot play until at least the 2nd week of the season.
Defending champion Barcelona will begin their journey to defend the throne with an away match to Elche's stadium on August 23. Blaugrana's squad has up to 8 players belonging to La Roja in the recent World Cup campaign, so everyone needs to recover to the best physical condition. Meanwhile, Real Madrid will have their first match of the season when they visit Espanyol's stadium on August 22.
After that, the El Clasico duo will return to their home ground. Barcelona will host Athletic Bilbao on August 27 and Real Madrid will face Real Sociedad on August 26.
Initially, La Liga decided to maintain its position of organizing all 10 matches of round 1 this weekend, despite the fact that other major European leagues started later. AFE strongly protested and they had an excuse to do this because the agreement with La Liga was approved by the Spanish Football Federation on June 30. Finally, to harmonize the interests of the parties, round 1 of La Liga will still be held in mid-August but will not have all participating teams.
The fact that round 1 is divided in half as it is now will force La Liga to organize almost no weekends from now until the end of August. This spreading also has the effect of limiting heat because this is the harshest period of weather in Spain. Matches will take place more in the evening to ensure the health of players.
With Atletico Madrid, they will play in the middle of next week even though the squad has the most players participating in the 2026 World Cup final. Four stars of the Spanish national team are Alex Baena, new signing Alejandro Grimaldo, Marcos Llorente and Marc Pubill. Five people of the Argentine national team are Julian Alvarez, Giuliano Simeone, Juan Musso, Nahuel Molina and Thiago Almada. Among these, Molina and Almada have just moved to another club.
La Liga has allowed postponement of Atletico's opening match against Malaga until the end of August. However, Canadian artist The Weeknd has a performance schedule at Metropolitano Stadium on August 28, 29 and 30. Therefore, Atletico is forced to play earlier and it is unclear whether stars like Llorente, Baena or Alvarez will be able to play in time.
