October Clásico Between Barcelona & Real Madrid Postponed With Clubs to Decide New Date

​The first hugely anticipated Clásico of the 2019/20 season between Barcelona and Real Madrid has been postponed over fears of potential civil unrest and protests relating to the sentencing of Catalan separatist leaders on the same day could engulf the game.

It had been scheduled to take place at Camp Nou later on 26 October, but rather than switch it to Madrid's Bernabeu, the encounter is expected to be rescheduled for December. 

RFEF has confirmed that its competition committee will allow the clubs to discuss and decide the date and time of the new fixture, but will intervene and determine it for them if no agreement has been reached by 10am (CEST) on Monday 21 October.

It had earlier been reported that there were conflicting preferences from the competition committee and La Liga over the potential new date of the game.

According to Marca, SPORT and Mundo Deportivo, La Liga proposed the new date be Saturday 7 December, with a weekend fixture rather than midweek thought to have less of an impact on the global audience for what is by far the league’s biggest draw.

That would require other fixtures that Barça and Real are due to play that weekend, against Mallorca and Espanyol respectively, to also be moved – potentially to three days earlier.

The reported alternative proposed by RFEF's competition committee is 18 December, which falls on a Wednesday. That is not ideal for La Liga, who as already mentioned, prefer their most marketable fixture of the season to be played on a weekend date.

La Liga president Javier Tebas has also criticised the 18 December date as it would clash with the Copa del Rey second round fixtures that are being played that day – 16 La Liga teams will be in the competition, although Barça and Real won’t enter until a later round.

It presents the problem of El Clásico overshadowing those other games and potentially hindering the sale of television rights as interest will be diminished.

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