The 2022-23 La Liga season kicks off in Spain this weekend with some subtle changes to rules and the uncertainty over the effects of a pre-season break for the World Cup finals will cause.
The first three rounds of matches won't have midday or mid-afternoon games due to the probability of hot weather and the season kicks off just as temperatures appear to be easing after the hottest summer on record in Spain.
Trouble for Barcelona
There is also some uncertainty over which players will be able to play in the opening weekend, with several clubs (among them FC Barcelona) struggling to meet La Liga's tough financial fair play rules and complete the inscription of their new signings.
Big spending FC Barcelona kick off their season at home to Rayo Vallecano on Saturday and at the time of writing it is still uncertain whether new signings Franck Kessie, Robert Lewandowski, Andreas Christensen, Jules Kounde and Raphinha or Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto will be able to play due to financial restrictions.
The club is expected to activate another economic lever (ie sell off more assets) by the weekend to ensure at least some of the seven are available.
Strong Real Madrid
Real Madrid get their title defence underway to newly promoted Almeria, and as they showed in the European Supercup win away to Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday, it looks to be business as usual for Carlo Ancelotti's men, although Ancelotti has announced some changes for the weekend.
Gennaro Gattuso makes his debut as Valencia coach and will hope to have Nico Gonzalez available for the visit of newly promoted Girona, after losing Goncalo Guedes to Wolves.
When: August 13 (Saturday)
Live Streaming: Voot Select and JioTV
Timing: 00:30pm IST onwards
