Why don’t Atlético or Real Madrid have LaLiga fixtures this weekend?

The October international break is in the past and club football has returned. Several blockbuster fixtures took place on Saturday, such as Manchester United’s loss to Leicester or Inter’s first Serie A defeat of the season at Lazio. However, there are only eight matches in LaLiga Santander this weekend because Real Madrid vs Athletic Club and Granada vs Atlético Madrid have both been postponed.

The reason for these postponements is the fact that LaLiga has taken a unique stance in response to the delayed return of the CONMEBOL players who have been taking part in South American World Cup qualifiers.

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What is the reason for the postponement of Atlético and Real Madrid’s games?

With matches such as Brazil vs Uruguay scheduled for 02:30am Friday morning in Spanish time, the players involved wouldn’t have been available to play a league match on Saturday. Given that both the teams from Spain’s capital have their upcoming Champions League matches on Tuesday, they wouldn’t be able to contest their LaLiga Santander Matchday 9 fixtures on Sunday either.

That’s the crux of the problem. LaLiga didn’t want to ask those teams with several South American players out to have to play on Saturday, when those individuals would be unavailable.

As the league itself explained: “FIFA's decision on the alteration of the international match calendar transcends this specific problem; it is a clear declaration of intent to infringe on the autonomy of domestic leagues, in an abuse of rights. To mitigate the irreparable damage caused by this decision that threatens the sporting integrity of our competition, we announce changes to the matchday in question.”

Why hasn’t Barcelona’s match been postponed?

Barcelona will be in action this weekend, taking on Valencia at the Camp Nou this Sunday night. The reason for this is simple, which is that the Blaugrana do have the capacity to play on Sunday because their upcoming Champions League fixture isn’t taking place until Wednesday.

When the roles were reserved in Matchday 4 of the 2021/22 season, just after the September international break, LaLiga then postponed Sevilla vs Barcelona and Villarreal vs Alavés to help Sevilla, Barcelona and Villarreal, who on that occasion had Champions League fixtures on the subsequent Tuesday, just like the two capital city sides do this time around.

LaLiga have other fixtures this weekend with non-European teams who had various CONMEBOL players missing and this is why only two matches were played on Saturday. There are then four fixtures this Sunday and two more on Monday, to give clubs with several South American internationals as much time to recover those star players as possible.

After the November international break, when LaLiga Santander’s Matchday 14 comes up, this problem will likely surface again. On that occasion, it’ll be Sevilla, Barcelona and Villarreal who’ll have Champions League fixtures falling on the subsequent Tuesday. That could, therefore, require the postponement of three fixtures, namely Sevilla vs Alavés, Barcelona vs Espanyol and Celta Vigo vs Villarreal.

For now, there are just two matches postponed this weekend, a situation which means Atlético and Real Madrid will go into their midweek Champions League clashes with extra rest time, but also the potential for some rust.