Why there is no Boxing Day in Spain and no LaLiga games being played

Boxing Day is a British tradition that has been going on for decades, bringing joy above all to millions of football fans who taste in person or on television one of the most important Christmas sports products in the world.

What Boxing Day means and why football matches are played in England on December 26

As usual in other countries, the question has been raised whether it would be worth replicating the model, both to entertain the numerous football fans and to grow and distribute the income from football among those who are part of the business that this is sports.

The point is that for some reason Spanish-style Boxing Day is not and will not be contested in our country, certainly not for the foreseeable future. That is not to say that no tests were done to see what results could be achieved, but the yield was far from desirable when it was tried.

It was in the 2015/16 season and although it was not a normal Boxing Day, a day was scheduled for the last two days of the year, December 30 and New Year’s Eve. However, the experiment did not please anyone and, of course, there were reasons for it.

Most of the day was played on the 30th, leaving only one match for New Year’s Eve, the Villarreal-Valencia, a regional derby where participants could dine at home with their families. As for the programming of the matches on the 30th, there was none that attracted attention, with the exception of a match between Real Madrid and Real Sociedad.

Attendance at the stadiums was not as expected and television coverage of the matches was lower than expected. The Christmas dates in Spain, the sports and television executives supposed, are days for family, shopping and fun outside the king of sport.

Likewise, the plethora of competitions and fixtures mean that footballers, and more specifically the AFE, are unwilling to lose Christmas half-time dates in favor of football becoming increasingly demanding of its key players.

Perhaps a planned date with a match schedule of great rivalry between clubs could lead the parties to reconsider the possibility of offering a very attractive product in exchange for fewer days off during the Christmas holidays. Meanwhile, Spain continues to stop at Christmas.