La Liga 2024/2025 season guide: newcomers, calendar, the most high-profile transfers

The start of the 2024/2025 season in the top European leagues is just around the corner. The Dailysports team has prepared for you a story about what you need to know about the upcoming campaign of one of the strongest club championships in Europe - Spanish La Liga

Who will play in the 2024/2025 La Liga season?

The exchange between leagues in the Spanish league is organised similarly to the English league. Three teams from La Liga are relegated to the Segunda, and the top two teams from the Segunda and the winner of the play-offs in that league are relegated.

The play-offs are played between the teams that are ranked third to sixth in the standings: the third team plays the sixth team and the fourth team plays the fifth team. The difference from England is that here, both the semi-finals and the final consist of two matches: home and away.

Actually, in the play-offs for participation in La Liga 2024/2025 season Espanyol won, joining the top 2 of Segunda, namely Leganes and Real Valladolid. They will replace Cadiz, Almeria and Granada, who left the championship at the end of the 2023/2024 La Liga season.

The full list of participants is as follows:

• Deportivo Alaves
• Athletic Bilbao
• Atletico Madrid
• Barcelona
• Celta
• Espanyol
• Getafe
• Girona
• Las Palmas
• Leganes
• Mallorca
• Osasuna
• Rayo
• Rayo Vallecano
• Betis
• Real Madrid
• Real Sociedad
• Real Valladolid
• Sevilla
• Valencia
• Villarreal

When are the La Liga matches for the 2024/2025 season?

The 2024/2025 La Liga season will run from 15 August 2024 to 25 May 2025. During the campaign, there are international breaks for national team matches (2-10 September, 7-15 November, 11-19 November 2024, and 17-25 March 2025).

The players will also have almost three weeks of Christmas and New Year holidays, which will start after the end of the 18th round (approximately 22 December) and last until 12 January (the base date for the matches of the 19th round).

What coaching changes happened before the start of the season?

Five of the twenty teams changed their coaches before the start of the season.

• Barcelona: Xavi (left) - Hans-Dieter Flick (arrived)
• Osasuna: Jagoba Arrasate (left) - Vicente Moreno (arrived)
• Mallorca: Javier Arrigue (left) - Jagoba Arrasate (came in)
• Las Palmas: Garcia Pimenta (left) - Luis Carrión (came in)
• Sevilla: Kike Sanchez Flores (left) - Garcia Pimenta (came)

What high-profile transfers happened in La Liga before the start of the season?

Obviously, the most high-profile transfer of this summer happened at Real Madrid. "The Creamers ended the Killian Mbappe saga and the Frenchman ended up in Carlo Ancelotti's team.

Real's neighbours Atletico also had quite a high-profile summer, signing Manchester City striker Julian Alvarez.

Another club from the historic top-3 of La Liga, Barcelona, spent the transfer window rather modestly, also based on their financial capabilities, but they got RB Leipzig midfielder Dani Olmo in the Catalan capital.

With all the transfers of clubs of the Spanish championship, you can get acquainted in a separate table.

Who will represent La Liga in the European Cups?

Since La Liga is among the top 4 leagues in the UEFA coefficient table, the Spaniards have the maximum representation in the European Cups.

The top four, namely Real Madrid (who will also be defending their title as the strongest team in Europe), Barcelona, Girona and Atletico are heading to the Champions League league stage.

Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad will play at the same stage, but already in the Europa League. The only Spanish club that will play in European Cup qualification will be Betis, and it will be a Conference League qualification.

In the same way the European Cup quotas will be distributed in the 2024/2025 season: the top four in the league will qualify for the Champions League, the fifth team and the Spanish Cup winner will go to the same stage of the Europa League, and the sixth team will qualify for the Conference League.

If the Spanish Cup winner is a top-five La Liga team that has already secured a place in the Champions League or Europa League through the championship, then there will be a shift in the European Cup quotas: the fifth and sixth teams will play in the Europa League and the seventh team will play in the Conference League.