LaLiga calendar draw: teams, rules, format and how it works

Follow live the draw of the League calendar: First Division

The start of the season is approaching and, although it has been waiting, Today, Monday, August 31, it will be known when the 20 teams from LaLiga Santander and the 22 from LaLiga Smartbank will face each other. It is planned that at 6:30 p.m. the draw for the calendars is held of both categories of Spanish football in the City of Soccer from Las Rozas. It can be seen through the channels of the Spanish Football Federation and LaLiga.

How does the giveaway work?

For the third consecutive year it will be asymmetric, that is, the first 19 days will not be identical to the 19 of the second round. For this, 99,999 different calendars are made thanks to a tool from the Barcelogic company, which works hand in hand with the Polytechnic University, and whose software has also been used by FIFA, the Portuguese league, the Dutch league and the ACB. Once all the calendars have been prepared and entered into the machine (it takes three days to do so), you must select by lot which of the 99,999 is chosen. Thus, in Las Rozas five drums will be placed, with ten balls from 0 to 9 each. The innocent hands, which this year will be sanitary in tribute to their work against the coronavirus, will take out the different balls that will give the code of the chosen calendar. From that moment on, the Federation will make public the 38 days of First and 42 of Second of the season that will start on September 12.

Conditioning factors

Calendars are conditional, in addition to so that the matches of the first round do not coincide with the second round, to avoid safety issues and ensure the greatest possible show during the season. Therefore, in its preparation A series of premises are added that must be met, such as the usual request from clubs not to play the first few days at home due to construction work (This is what Osasuna, Huesca, Levante and Elche have requested). They also try to avoid that two teams from the same city play the same day or that their matches coincide with local festivities. Also that in periods like Christmas long trips are made and geographically closer matches are played or avoid derbies and Classics from coinciding on the same days.

Participating teams

Despite the complications of the Fuenlabrada Case and the different modification proposals, the CSD imposed, in the absence of an agreement between the League and the Federation, that both the First and Second Division maintain the same number of participating teams. In LaLiga Santander there will be 20 teams and in LaLiga SmartBank (the Federation proposed to expand it to 24 and keep Deportivo and Numancia, and AFE to 26) it will be made up of 22 clubs.

First division

Alavés, Athletic, Atlético, Barcelona, ​​Betis, Cádiz, Celta, Eibar, Elche, Getafe, Granada, Huesca, Levante, Osasuna, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid and Villarreal.

Second division

Albacete, Alcorcón, Almería, Cartagena, Castellón, Espanyol, Fuenlabrada, Girona, Malaga, Mallorca, Mirandés, Las Palmas, Leganés, Logroñés, Lugo, Oviedo, Ponferradina, Rayo, Sabadell, Sporting, Tenerife, Zaragoza.