Club football returns in August with the start of LaLiga 2024/25. It’s a season that will see more elite level games than ever before given the extended formats of the major European competitions. Here are the key Spanish football dates for the 2024/25 season featuring league, Copa del Rey, UEFA and FIFA competitions, as well as the dates for El Clasico and the big derby clashes.
Minor alterations to this schedule are possible and exact dates and times for matches are typically only announced a few weeks before each LaLiga matchday. At the time of writing, a schedule for Liga F and the other female competitions in Spain had not been published.
2024 – 2025 Spanish football dates
24th July – 10th August 2024 – Olympics football tournaments in France
The Paris Olympics will see Spain compete in both the male and female competitions. The men’s team will be in Group C and kick off against Uzbekistan at the Parc des Princes on 24th July. They’ll play six matches if they reach the final which is at the same venue on 9th August with Pau Cubarsi, Fermin Lopez and Alex Baena among those in Santi Denia’s squad for the tournament.
As world champions, the Spanish women’s team are one of the favourites for gold. They start their campaign on 25th July in Nantes against Japan with Nigeria and Brazil also for company in Group C. They’ll be hoping to reach the final in Paris on 10th August with Monte Tome in charge of a golden generation of players.
14th August 2024 – UEFA Super Cup (Real Madrid vs Atalanta) in Warsaw
Real Madrid play their first competitive match of the 2024/25 season when they take on Europa League holders Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup in Poland. Los Blancos are hoping to win the competition for the sixth time.
15th-19th August 2024 – LaLiga & Segunda Division opening matchdays
League action kicks off the following day with an irregular staggered opening matchday seeing two games per day in LaLiga between Thursday 15th August and Monday 19th August.
San Mames is the setting for the LaLiga 2024/25 season opener between Athletic Club and Getafe with Betis hosting Girona later on Thursday evening. Matchday one also sees Barcelona travel to Valencia, Atletico Madrid visit Villarreal while Real Madrid have an away date at Mallorca to kick off their title defence.
The Segunda Division also starts on Thursday 15th August with recently relegated Granada hosting Albacete in the first game. Newly promoted Deportivo de La Coruña host play-off finalists Real Oviedo in perhaps the pick of the opening fixtures.
17th-19th September 2024 – League phase of the Champions League commences
UEFA’s new format for the Champions League sees 36 teams plonked into one big league and the first matches will be in mid September. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and European debutants Girona are the Spanish participants.
All will play eight matches during the league phase, four home and four away with eight different opponents in total. The full draw is set to be revealed on 29th August.
25th-26th September 2024 – League phase of the Europa League commences
The Europa League follows the same format as the new Champions League, although Athletic Club and Real Sociedad will have to wait a week longer before starting their campaigns in the final week of September. The Basque duo will face competition from the likes of Manchester United, Tottenham, Lyon, Lazio and Roma.
Real Betis will play in the Conference League and will need to win a play-off tie in August to reach the league phase which will only consist of six fixtures compared to eight in the other competitions. The league phase of the Conference League will commence on 3rd October.
26th/27th October 2024 – El Clasico: Real Madrid vs Barcelona
El Clasico takes place on the final weekend of October which is matchday 11 of LaLiga 2024/25. The first meeting of Real Madrid and Barcelona of the campaign will take place at the Santiago Bernabeu and Los Blancos will take confidence from having won all three competitive clashes against their eternal rivals last season.
Tickets for the big game will be in high demand and won’t go on sale via the Real Madrid website until mid October and members will have priority access. If you’re interested in getting El Clasico tickets or other ones for other big games and want to guarantee a seat, it may be wise to purchase an advanced ticket via sportsbreaks.com, an official supplier of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid ticket packages.
We also have a separate guide to buying LaLiga tickets which may be useful for anyone looking to attend a match in Spain.
4th-5th January 2025 – Copa del Rey 3rd round
The Copa del Rey follows the same format as recent seasons and will get into full swing on the first weekend of January when Real Madrid and Barcelona, as well as last season’s finalists Athletic Club and Mallorca, enter the competition at the last 32 stage.
The 3rd round will be the first Spanish football action of 2025 with LaLiga on a three-week break between matchdays 18 and 19.
8th-12th January 2025 – Spanish Supercopa in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia will again be the setting for the 2025 Spanish Supercopa with all matches expected to take place in Riyadh. Holders Real Madrid will play Mallorca in one semi-final while Barcelona take on cup winners Athletic in the other with the final pencilled in for 12th January.
28th-30th January 2025 – League phase of the Champions & Europa League concludes
In perhaps the most significant change to the 2024/25 football calendar, there will be European action in January with potentially decisive Champions League and Europa League matches taking place across the final two weeks of the month.
The league phases of those competitions conclude in the week of 27th January with all sides hoping to finish in the top eight which would mean qualification to the round-of-16 which starts in March.
11th-13th February 2025 – Champions, Europa & Conference League knockout stages commence
The sides between 9th and 24th in the league phases will head into the two-legged knockout round play-offs which kick off in the week of 10th February in all three European competitions.
The second legs are the following week which will reveal the last 16 in each of the UEFA Champions, Europa and Conference Leagues with the business end of each competition set to take place in March, April and May as is the norm.
26th April 2025 – Copa del Rey final in Seville
The Copa del Rey final is slightly later this year, scheduled for the final Saturday in April. There’ll be no league action that weekend in the top flight with LaLiga matchday 33 taking place a few days earlier in midweek. La Cartuja in Seville will host the final for the sixth straight season.
10th/11th May 2025 – El Clasico: Barcelona vs Real Madrid
It’ll be matchday 35 by the time Barcelona and Real Madrid meet for the second time in LaLiga 2024/25 and depending on the situation at the top of the division, it could be a vital game in determining the outcome of the title race.
Barcelona are hoping to be playing in the new Camp Nou by that point and depending on their progress in Europe, this could be the first really big occasion at the revamped venue.
21st May 2025 – Europa League final in Bilbao
Athletic Club supporters are still basking in the glory of ending a 40 year wait for a major trophy by winning the 2024 Copa del Rey. That victory guaranteed their place in the Europa League and with the 2024/25 final at San Mames, Athletic have all the incentive they could possibly need to target a long run in Europe with the carrot of a potential hometown final.
Real Sociedad are the more experienced of the two Basque sides when it comes to recent European football though and La Real will also be hoping to put together a really strong Europa League campaign, having exited the Champions League at the last 16 stage against PSG last season.
24th/25th May 2025 – Women’s Champions League final in Lisbon
The 2024/25 UEFA Women’s Champions League is expected to conclude on either 24th or 25th May in Lisbon at Sporting’s Estadio Jose Alvalade.
FC Barcelona Femeni are the defending champions and are hoping to win the trophy for the fourth time in five seasons to extend a golden era for the Catalan club. Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid are the other Spanish representatives having finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in Liga F last term.
24th-25th May 2025 – LaLiga final weekend
LaLiga 2024/25 finishes on the weekend of 24th/25th May. As has tended to be the case in recent years, the league has done its best to serve up an exciting finish with Athletic hosting Barcelona, Girona taking on Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid facing Real Sociedad in the final fixtures.
Much will of course depend on the standings given the 2023/24 season ended in fairly flat fashion with little riding on the final fixtures. Among the other matchday 38 fixtures, newly promoted duo Leganes and Real Valladolid meet while Espanyol’s home game against Las Palmas is another that could end up being very significant at the bottom.
28th May 2025 – Conference League final in Wroclaw
Real Betis should be one of the strongest sides in the UEFA Conference League this season with Chelsea and two-time finalists Fiorentina among their biggest rivals in Europe’s third club competition.
If Manuel Pellegrini’s side can make good progress, they’ll start to fancy their chances of making it all the way to the 43,000 capacity Stadion Wroclaw in Poland which will host the final in late May.
31st May 2025 – Champions League final in Munich
The 2025 UEFA Champions League final will be at Munich’s Allianz Arena on Saturday 31st May.
Real Madrid will start as one of the favourites to win the competition for the third time in four years while Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are both hoping to improve on quarter-final exits last term.
Girona’s chances of making it all the way to Munich are slim, but Michel will want his side to make their mark in the competition after an outstanding 2023/24 campaign.
31st May – 1st June 2025 – Segunda Division final weekend
The Segunda Division regular season concludes a week after the Primera. Almeria, Cadiz and Granada will be hoping to continue the recent trend of relegated teams securing an immediate return to the top flight, although there’s rarely much to choose between the sides at the top with the automatic promotion and play-off races often going to the wire.
15th June – 13th July 2025 – FIFA Club World Cup in the USA
Another new addition to the 2024/25 season is the new 32-team FIFA Club World Cup which will take place in the United States in June and July of 2025.
FIFA’s plan for a much extended tournament to add to an already hectic schedule has not gone down well in all quarters with Carlo Ancelotti even casting doubt on Real Madrid’s participation in the tournament in June before he and the club swiftly backtracked on those comments.
Atletico Madrid will also take part in the tournament by virtue of their performances in the Champions League over the past four years but Barcelona have not been awarded one of the 12 slots available to European teams.
22nd June 2025 – Segunda Division play-off final 2nd leg
The domestic season in Spain will conclude in late June with the Segunda Division play-off final 2nd leg set to take place on Sunday 22nd June. Espanyol overturned a one goal deficit to defeat Real Oviedo in the 2024 edition with the Asturians hoping to mount another strong promotion push in 2024/25.
2nd-27th July 2025 – Women’s Euro 2025 in Switzerland
July see’s the Women’s Euros take place in Switzerland. 16 teams will take part and world champions Spain have already sealed their place after qualifying victories over Denmark, Belgium and the Czech Republic.
They’re likely to head into the tournament as the favourites, despite having fallen at the quarter-final stage in their last three Euro campaigns.
LaLiga Derby Dates
In addition, there are a host of major derbies in LaLiga to look out for, with the South Madrid and Barcelona derbies back on the menu this season following the promotions of Espanyol and Leganes.
These are the dates for some of the big local derbies in LaLiga 2024/25:
14th/15th September 2024 – Girona vs Barcelona
21st/22nd September 2024 – Getafe vs Leganes
28th/29th September 2024 – Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid
5th/6th October 2024 – Sevilla vs Real Betis
2nd/3rd November 2024 – Barcelona vs Espanyol
23rd/24th November 2024 – Athletic Club vs Real Sociedad
8th/9th February 2025 – Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid
1st/2nd March 2025 – Leganes vs Getafe
29th/30th March 2025 – Real Betis vs Sevilla
29th/30th March 2025 – Barcelona vs Girona
3rd/4th May 2025 – Real Sociedad vs Athletic Club
13th/14th/15th May 2025 – Espanyol vs Barcelona
Note – the derby dates refer to the weekend or midweek they are scheduled for. Exact dates will be confirmed nearer the time and it’s possible some fixtures may be moved to Fridays or Mondays.
