LaLiga is already planning what to do during the World Cup break. The First Division will put the brakes on November 13 and will not resume until December 21. With more than a month of hiatus, the employers are looking for formulas so that it does not affect footballers not called up with their countries to be so long without playing. The solution will be to recreate a preseason and take advantage of playing friendlies in a market in which Spain is growing: North America.
This season will be one of the most anomalous ever. It is the first time that a World Cup will be played in winter. Which interrupts club-level competitions for a month. Players who are called up by their national teams must be released by their teams as of November 14leaving Luis Enrique and the rest of the coaches only one week to prepare for a World Cup that will kick off on November 21 and will end on December 18.
Thus, players who are not summoned, that the figure will be around 350 and 400, they would be unemployed for more than a month. But LaLiga is working so that the rhythm of the competition is not broken. They have agreed with AFE that once the weekend of November 13 is over, the first round of the Copa del Rey will be played (with the First Division clubs except for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Betis and Valencia, exempt as they are classified for the Super Cup), the players not summoned have ten days of vacation. Later, LaLiga plans a tour of the United States and Mexico, a market in which they are trying to expand and have a greater presence to increase the value of their audiovisual rights.
The employer is working to close friendlies with local teams from the United States and Mexico, some other European club that also goes to North America for that break or even between the Spanish. How to carry it out is still being defined. Although it is about organizing games parallel to the World Cup, they will not coincide in time with the matches held in Qatar. It will also be about not harming the Second Division, which, unlike the First Division, will not stop and will continue to play. This is how the clubs in the silver category themselves wanted it, which voted in April by a large majority to play. They consider that the World Cup would barely affect them (only half a dozen players out of more than 500 registered would leave) and they can also take advantage of it to have better audiences (scheduling important matches such as possible derbies) and ticket sales.
Secondly, the participation of clubs such as Real Madrid or Barcelona in this type of proposal remains to be seen. Leaving aside the tensions between the directives (Superliga issue, CVC and others) and the employers,Both clubs are two of the most affected in terms of losing players. They could have more than a dozen summoned among their ranks, which would prevent them from having a sufficient squad to play friendlies and make great expeditions around the world.. It should be remembered that they will not be able to use the subsidiaries, since those teams will be playing official competition. The First RFEF, like the Second Division, will not stop. There are about four months ahead to close the fringes of this project.