[Saba Sports News] According to Spanish media, La Liga is confronted with a thorny scheduling headache. With Spain advancing to the World Cup semi-finals, as many as five opening-round fixtures of the new La Liga campaign will be forced to be postponed. The new La Liga season was originally scheduled to kick off across the weekend of August 15–16. However, LaLiga (the Spanish Professional Football League) had previously issued a warning that certain matches might face delays due to the World Cup schedule. Two high-profile opening games are among the most affected: Barcelona against Athletic Bilbao, and Real Madrid versus Real Sociedad. The reasoning behind the rule is straightforward. Under the collective labour agreement, every player is entitled to a minimum of 21 consecutive days of vacation after their final competitive match of the summer. To make up for insufficient pre-season preparation time, an additional pre-season training window has been added. Any club that fields players competing in the World Cup semi-finals will therefore have its opening league fixture rescheduled without exception.
The editor believes that La Liga did its utmost to minimise disruptions caused by the World Cup when drawing up the fixture list. It deliberately scheduled high-profile opening matches featuring Barcelona versus Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid against Real Sociedad. These clubs boast a large contingent of international players, especially Spanish internationals. The league anticipated a high risk of postponement for the opening matchday, and this contingency plan has proven effective in practice.