La Liga to make history with kick-offs

Madrid: The Spanish Liga will make history this weekend by having all 10 matches kick off at different times.

Never before has this happened in a major football league.

The reason for this innovative schedule is to increase subscriptions for pay-per-view television, both inside Spain and abroad.

La Liga has been edging towards this kind of schedule — with games finishing at lunch time on Sunday and at midnight every evening — for several years, to the dismay of players, fans and journalists.

Radio Marca said on Wednesday that attendances were down by almost a third this season, and commented that, “it is not difficult to see why.

“The fans are fed up with these strange match times, and are staying at home... The difficult economic situation is also a major factor.”

Valencia paper Super Deporte, meanwhile, said: “This looks like a plan to empty the stadia, and this is certainly what it will achieve.”

The four games scheduled for Saturday, between 4pm and midnight, are Celta Vigo v Osasuna, Zaragoza v Malaga, Deportivo Coruna v Getafe and Mallorca v Real Sociedad.

At lunch time on Sunday, beneath what threatens to be a burning sun, revelation team Rayo Vallecano will face Sevilla.

Rayo, surprisingly, are joint top with Valladolid and Barcelona, having won their first two matches. Sevilla are in joint fourth place.

Valladolid, for their part, will travel to Bilbao to face an Athletic side rock bottom of the table, having lost their first two games and conceded nine goals.

By Sunday Bilbao will probably have sold off Spain striker Fernando Llorente. On Wednesday midfielder Javi Martinez confirmed his departure for Bayern Munich.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid will receive Granada. On Wednesday Real edged out Barcelona in the Super Cup on the away goals rule, after a 2-1 victory on the night saw the tie end 4-4 on aggregate.

Real will be without the suspended Fabio Coentrao but will be able to count on newboy Luka Modric.

Later on Sunday, Barca will be at home to Valencia, who have made a shaky start. Barca coach Tito Vilanova will have to improvise a patched-up defence, because Carles Puyol and Dani Alves are injured, and Adriano will be suspended.

The third round of matches will finally finish on Monday, with Atletico Madrid away to Betis.