Confrimed: The official date and time for this season’s first El Clasico

The first El Clasico of the season between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the Camp Nou has been scheduled for 28 October with an afternoon kick-off.

The match will get underway on Sunday with a 16.15 (Spanish time, CEST) start, meaning the match will be broadcast in the United Kingdom as opposed to previous afternoon games, which fell on a Saturday.

La Liga president Javier Tebas confirmed the scheduling on Onda Cero’s El Transistor show, with the weekend coming after a round of Champions League match.

Madrid take on Czech side Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday 23 October while Barca play Inter the following evening.

Both clubs have a global fanbase: they are the world’s two most followed sports teams on social media—on Facebook, as of July 2018, Real Madrid has 107 million fans, Barcelona has 103 million fans, on Instagram, Real Madrid has 60 million followers, Barcelona has 57 million followers.

The rivalry intensified in 2011 where, due to the final of the Copa Del Rey and the meeting of the two in the UEFA Champions League, Barcelona and Real Madrid were scheduled to meet each other four times in 18 days. Several accusations of unsportsmanlike behaviour from both teams and a war of words erupted throughout the fixtures which included four red cards.

Spain national team coach Vicente del Bosque stated that he was “concerned” that due to the rising hatred between the two clubs, that this could cause friction in the Spain team.

In recent years, the rivalry has been “encapsulated” by the rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. This season will be different though as the Real Madrid legend switched to Juventus last summer.