First Barcelona match of 2026-27 season will be postponed by La Liga in wake of 2026 World Cup developments | OneFootball

Barcelona had been due to start the defence of their La Liga title on the weekend of 14-16 August, but this will no longer be the case. The Catalans’ start to the 2026-27 season will now be delayed, with official confirmation set to come soon.

AFE (Spanish footballers association) rules established in relation to the World Cup state that that players need a minimum three weeks of rest and a further three weeks of preparation in order to be able to return to action. This means that clubs have the power to postpone matches if one of their stars features in the 2026 World Cup semi-finals, which will be the case for Barcelona.

Jules Kounde’s France reached the last four of this summer’s tournament after they defeated Morocco 2-0 on Thursday, and as per MD, this will trigger an automatic postponement of Barcelona’s MD1 clash against Athletic Club. Thus, their opening match of the 2026-27 season will now be the following weekend at Elche.

When will the Athletic Club match be played?

The match against Athletic Club will be pushed back by approximately 10 days, meaning that it will be Barcelona’s second match of the season. La Liga will confirm exactly when the fixture will be played, as will also be the case for Real Madrid’s match-up with Real Sociedad, in the coming days, now that it has been confirmed that both clubs will have players in action during the World Cup semi-finals.

Kounde is unlikely to be the only Barcelona player that reaches the next stage of the international tournament, with the Catalans also having stars across the Spain and England squads – one of those being Lamine Yamal, who spoke recently on his determination to step up his level during the latter stages of his World Cup, which he will hope to do starting on Friday when La Roja face Belgium in their quarter-final tie.