Real Madrid season opener vs Osasuna will not be rescheduled as postponement request denied | OneFootball

Having participated in the FIFA Club World Cup until earlier this month, Real Madrid have barely any time to prepare for the new season ahead.

Los Blancos’ last game in the global event came against PSG in the semifinal stage of the competition and was played out on the 10th of July.

On 4th August, the team begin pre-season and players thus have less than a month to recover and rest.

As inhuman as that sounds, the regulations allow such a schedule because Real Madrid’s first game of the new season is only scheduled for the 19th of August against Osasuna, thus giving more than four weeks’ gap after the last official match.

What it does mean, however, is that Xabi Alonso will have just two weeks of pre-season and Real Madrid thus pushed to postpone the season curtain-raiser against Osasuna, something that both clubs, the RFEF and the AFE agreed with.

La Liga wins

As relayed in a report by AS now, however, the proceedings between Real Madrid and La Liga, the only party against the postponement, have now come to a close. The decision has gone in Javier Tebas’ favour.

Real Madrid will play Osasuna on August 19. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

This implies that Real Madrid’s game against Osasuna will go ahead as planned on August 19th and will not be postponed. There is no hope for any deferral of the game.

The grounds for claiming a later date, after all, were purely moral and required the sole judge of the RFEF Competitions Committee to understand and prioritise player well-being over the clearly stipulated regulations that La Liga had to present.

Going by the rulebooks, there is no clause that players should have a minimum of three weeks of pre-season after a three-week rest and Real Madrid’s plea was thus rejected citing that current scheduling meets those requirements.

The management and dressing room, thus, have little time to rest. Pre-season will begin on August 4th and the players will have just over two weeks to get back into match rhythm. They must play with their welfare compromised – such is the state of the sport.