Spanish Footballers Association pushes La Liga to postpone Real Madrid season opener vs Osasuna | OneFootball

The FIFA Club World Cup, as an idea, was a great success with the competition doing well in its first-ever season and winning hearts across the globe for unifying world football.

What it lacked, however, was proper planning and implementation in terms of the window in which it was hosted for it leaves participating teams with little to no time to recover before the next season begins.

Real Madrid, having made it all the way to the semi-final stage, are one of the worst hit by the same as players barely have a month before their first official game of the new season. Needless to say, the situation has raised concerns about players’ welfare and fitness.

A proposal to postpone

As relayed by AS in a recent update, the Spanish Footballers Association (AFE) has now demanded that Real Madrid’s opening La Liga game against Osasuna be postponed.

They cite the sports law and the labour law to protect the well-being of the players’ health, especially after their strenuous Club World Cup campaign.

Real Madrid lost to PSG in the Club World Cup semi-final. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

After all, they only rightly see that the players will not have sufficient preparation time for the new season which violates occupational safety regulations. A postponement, in their view, is only fair to avoid physical risks to the players.

Unsurprisingly, Real Madrid back the AFE and support their stance against La Liga’s scheduling. The league, however, refuses any such accommodation and cites that they are compliant with the minimum vacation agreement of three weeks before the new season.

The final decision now lies in the hands of a sports judge who will soon rule over the game’s potential postponement.

As it stands, the game between Los Blancos and Osasuna is set to kick off on August 19th, giving players a little over a month after their final game of last season.

Considering that they must start training at least a week before the game, a postponement will only be the right decision.