El Clásico lives up to its name on the calendar as well. In recent seasons, the second leg league clash between Real Madrid and Barcelona has settled on the calendar between the months of March and April. This will be the fourth consecutive season that it will be played between the 26th and 30th days. The same happens with the first round, which has settled on the calendar at the end of March, between the third and fourth day of the Champions League group stage.
The calendar draw had already been conditioned for many years by various factors that were introduced. Among them, to prevent the clashes between Madrid and Barça from being held too early or too late, so that the players would already arrive at the rhythm of the competition in the first round and the second round would not be held with the League already decided (as it happened with the Classic of the corridor in 2008). Also that a Clásico does not fall on inconvenient dates (bridges, dates during the week… that can reduce attendance at the stadium or television audiences (such as the one in 2003, which fell on Holy Saturday or the one in the hall, which was a Wednesday). But the traditional system was still maintained to make the calendar: the first day was raffled and with the order of the teams the rest of the days of the first round and their counterpart in the second round were generated.. In this article by Juan del Olmo in the magazine football notebooks of CIHEFE it is explained quite graphically how it worked. In fact, the procedure by which the draw was carried out meant that the dates of the Clásicos were determined in advance.
The implementation of the asymmetric calendar that sets a date for the Clásico
Since the 2018-2019 season, the preparation of the calendar undertook a revolution. That campaign, for the first time, the order of the days of the first round did not coincide with that of the second, the so-called asymmetric calendar. The following year suffered a new twist: no day of the first round was reflected in the second. An asymmetric and free calendar. The draw is limited to choosing a calendar among 100,000 previously generated and that meet the conditions entered.
This type of calendar makes it possible to avoid the date of a match in the first round being linked to that of the second round and makes it possible to distribute the big matches throughout the calendar without concentrating on a few dates, to avoid long periods without big games and also for reasons of optimizing the offers of the televisions that broadcast LaLiga in Spain and the rest of the world. It also makes it possible for teams to, for example, request to start the League by playing three away games to advance the works in their stadiums, as Madrid did this year. For example, in the days that are held between two consecutive weeks with European competitions, teams that are in Europe cannot be paired to avoid crossing a Champions League team that must play on Saturday with another from the Europa League that can only play on Sunday. .
LaLiga Santander
*Data updated as of March 17, 2022
The Clásico, the derby and the Atleti-Barça on the calendar
For this reason, in the last four years the Clásico and other stellar duels have ‘reserved’ specific sections of the calendar. The Classic of the first round has been scheduled between the October and November national team breaks. Between September and October the Madrid derby is located or one of the matches between Atlético and Barcelona (with the exception of last season, due to the late start of the championship) and the other match of these is placed after the FIFA dates of November and before the Christmas break. This season Atlético-Barcelona was played on October 2 (matchday 8) and the first derby was on December 12 at the Bernabéu (matchday 17).
Something similar happens with the matches in the second round. One of the big games takes place before the Champions League resumes (except last season, due to the calendar adjustment), another before the March national team break (usually the Classic) and the last after this. A) Yes, the Barcelona-Atlético was played on February 6 (matchday 23), the Bernabéu Clásico this Sunday March 20 (matchday 29) and the Wanda derby on May 8 (matchday 35). Six days and a month and a half between game and game.
LaLiga Santander
*Data updated as of March 17, 2022
And since there is no exception that does not confirm the rule, the upcoming campaign the disruption caused by the Qatar World Cup in the middle of the season, from November 21 to December 18, 2022, and the conditions of the new television contract will force us to rethink this distribution of the calendar. In the absence of confirmation, the League will start on August 12 and will stop on November 13. At best, squeezing the calendar as much as possible, they will be played 16 days before the World Cup.