The football is back! Hallelujah! Rejoice! It has been just hours since the last footage of a game consumed the hive mind of social media and mere days since an actual competitive game of association football was thrust in front of us alongside casino and crypto adverts. How have we survived?
I’m only semi-joking, of course. While it’s true that the football never really stops, we are indeed very excited to have LaLiga back and ready to go. Racing, Málaga, and Deportivo will give a retro feel to the division, as will the clash between José Mourinho and [insert name here]. But there are also new(ish) kids on the block: young manager Iñigo Pérez is now managing Villarreal, and Lamine Yamal is somehow still a teenager. We’ve also got the basket cases of Sevilla and Valencia, and who doesn’t want to see Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang banging them in up north?
Kicking us off on Saturday 15 August we’ve got Alavés vs Getafe and Sevilla vs Rayo Vallecano. On Sunday 16 Racing take on Villarreal, Espanyol host Levante, and Deportivo play Elche on Monday 17.
Why aren’t Real Madrid and Barcelona playing on LaLiga opening weekend?
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) are the reason. They declared that teams with a significant number of players involved in the World Cup semi-finals or final were to be given the opportunity to postpone their opening league match until 25, 26 or 27 of August.
Both teams met the threshold and opted to push their games back. Real Madrid’s match-day 1 game against Real Sociedad was moved to Wednesday 26 August at the Santiago Bernabéu while Barcelona against Athletic Club was rescheduled for Thursday 27 August at Spotify Camp Nou.
However, that’s not the end of the story. Both teams will in fact play their match-day 2 games before their ‘official’ openers.
Real Madrid’s first game of the 2026/27 season will be played on Saturday 22 August against Espanyol; Barcelona will begin their season on Sunday 23 August against Elche.
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