This Thursday the long-awaited draw for the calendar for next season in the First Division took place. A draw that has been conditioned especially by the remodeling works that Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are carrying out in their stadiums. The white team has asked LaLiga to play the first three games at home, while the blaugrana will only do so on the first game to finish adapting the Montjuïc Stadium that will host them during the Camp Nou works.
The competition this year will start on the weekend of August 13 and will do so with Barça and Real Madrid playing away from home. Ancelotti’s men will start the League in San Mamés against Athletic Club and will then visit Almería and Celta. Its debut at the Bernabéu will wait until the first weekend of September (2-3), and it will be against Getafe. He will then play two straight games at home, also against Real Sociedad.
FC Barcelona faces a season away from home. The Camp Nou is undergoing a complete structural reform and the activity of the blaugrana team will have to move to the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. Some conditioning tasks are being carried out on Montjuïc, for which reason the club had asked to start the course at home. The Joan Gamper Trophy can be played, a priori, in its new home, but there will be some adjustments to be able to host a League match. Barça’s first game at home will be on the second day, on August 13, hosting Getafe.
They are not the only aspects that have conditioned the draw for this afternoon in Las Rozas. No team can repeat their rival in the last day of the League and they also seek to avoid complicated coincidences such as a match in Seville during Holy Week. Historically, there has also been a tendency to use proximity criteria in the days surrounding the Christmas holidays, although this year this has not been the case at all. Matchday 19, the first of 2024, will be played on January 3 with upcoming matches such as Getafe-Rayo, Valencia-Villarreal, Real Sociedad-Alavés, and even Granada-Cádiz. Others such as Athletic, who will travel to Seville, Barça, who will play in Las Palmas, or Mallorca, who will travel to the Bernabéu, have not been so lucky.
In addition, it should be remembered that the 38 days of the First Division are distributed in a calendar called asymmetric. That is, the pairings in the first and second rounds do not coincide. The reason is explained by the president of LaLiga himself, Javier Tebas: “The main objective of making an asymmetric calendar is to be able to comply with a series of security conditions, European competitions, clubs and works, holidays and events, and to maximize attendance at stadiums and audiences. on TV. Following these conditions, some 99,999 different calendars are generated and one of them is chosen by lottery”.
