La Liga has closed the door on Real Madrid’s hopes, officially and definitively refusing to postpone the opening match against Osasuna in La Liga, despite the club’s repeated requests.
La Liga announced that the Real Madrid vs. Osasuna match would be played on Tuesday, August 19, while Florentino Pérez’s administration wanted to postpone it further to give the players a chance to recover after last season’s hectic fixture schedule.
Real Madrid based its request to La Liga on the fact that the last match played last season was on July 10 against Paris Saint-Germain in the 2025 Club World Cup semi-final, and that players medically require 21 days off to recover.
Thus, Real Madrid’s players will return to pre-season training on August 4, leaving Xabi Alonso with less than two weeks to prepare for the start of La Liga. This contravenes all sporting and medical regulations and threatens the players’ safety and the risk of injury if they play against Osasuna.
Although Osasuna itself welcomed the idea of postponing the match, La Liga maintained its firm stance by refusing to comply with Real Madrid’s request. This was supported by the Spanish Football Federation’s competition judge, who found there were no sufficient or convincing reasons to change the date of the match.
Osasuna goalkeeper Sergio Herrera had requested the match be postponed out of respect for Real Madrid, saying, “Anyone with a brain can clearly see that Real Madrid doesn’t have enough time to play against us at 100% capacity. We want to help Real Madrid and postpone the match.”
