RFEF says appeal failed to meet the standard of force majeure
Real Madrid will play their first match of the 2025-26 La Liga season against Osasuna on 19 August 19 originally scheduled, after the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) dismissed the club’s appeal for a postponement.
Madrid had made a formal request for additional recovery time after playing in the Club World Cup this summer, where they reached the semi-finals before falling to Paris Saint-Germain.
After La Liga rejected the request, the club then made an appeal to the RFEF. But on Thursday, the RFEF upheld the earlier decision and said that the fixture would not be moved.
In its ruling, the RFEF said the request failed to meet the standard of “force majeure”, which is an extraordinary circumstance beyond the club’s control that would justify changing the fixture calendar.
Without such a serious and exceptional situation, altering the fixture schedule could jeopardise the integrity of the league.
Madrid had claimed to have reached a verbal understanding with their opponents Osasuna to move the match, but the RFEF judge said there was no record of any formal agreement or response from the Pamplona-based club.
The judge said: “Although the requesting club claims to have the agreement of the opposing party, CA Osasuna, there is no record of this entity having responded to the request made by this judge.”
