The Spanish Competition Committee has officially approved a request from Barcelona and Real Madrid to play el clásico on December 18th, having postponed the match that would have taken place this coming weekend due to protests relating to Catalan independence.

La Liga is expected to challenge the date. Their original proposal was to play at the Santiago Bernabéu on the original date, but, after this idea was rebuffed, they proposed playing it on December 4th. The reason for that was that there would not be Copa del Rey games on the 4th, but there are some games programmed for the 18th.

La Liga is expected to challenge the date in court, arguing that only the idea to change venues was struck down, and that they should be heard on the merits of having the match on the 4th.

The biggest problem for La Liga is that changing the date and time, not to mention day of the week, for el clásico puts them in a bind with sponsors and TV channels particularly in Asia. The match was scheduled in such a way to benefit the Asian market, but if it’s played on a weekday at night in Spain, it’ll be in the middle of the night or very early in the morning in Asia.