The Valencia-Real Madrid match which was to be played this weekend at Mestalla at 9:00 p.m. will be played on another date due to the climatic disaster in the Valencian Community.
The heavy rains that fell on Tuesday in the Levante region of Spain have already caused nearly 100 deaths and enormous damage to basic infrastructure. Many roads are closed and the rail network is so damaged that service is not expected to resume for several days. Many La Liga and Copa matches have been suspended.
“The suspension and postponement of a meeting to a date disrupting the calendar may be authorized for reasons of force majeure that have undoubtedly been proven,” the RFEF said in a press release. Although the center of Valencia, including the Mestalla stadium, was spared from the disaster, the league had requested the postponement as a sign of mourning and all that was needed was the approval of the Competition Judge, which was done. A deadline is given to the clubs to propose, by mutual agreement, a new date… even if it is not simple in the case of Valencia-Madrid.
The date problem
The postponement poses a headache for the organizers, because the schedule is so tight that there are very few free dates to recover the match. Real Madrid's schedule is extremely busy: they have the Champions League and La Liga next week, then the international break. After the break, he has a league day again on the weekend and the Champions League right after, which brings us to December, where he has a weekday, against Athletic.
Throughout December, in addition to the match against the Basques, Madrid has another engagement in the Champions League and the 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup, which takes place just before the last day before Christmas. The situation would therefore be as follows: either we shorten the players' Christmas vacation, or we will have to wait until 2025.
The match could take place in January, but for that to happen Valencia and Madrid would both have to be eliminated quickly from the Copa del Rey, which is played throughout January and early February. If Real Madrid reach the top 8 of the Champions League group stage, February would be freer, but if they were to play in the play-offs, there would also be no place for the match during the second month of the year.
The worst scenario would be for Real Madrid to reach the final of the Copa del Rey (which would be played throughout January and early February), play in the Champions League play-offs (throughout February), and reach the final of the Champions League itself, which would prevent him from playing weekday matches for virtually the entire month of April and May. In this case, it would be difficult to find a date other than May 21 or 22, 2025, between the 37th and 38th days…
