Last Monday's LaLiga game at Mendizorroza between Alavés and Levante saw a crowd of 13,691 witness the action, the lowest all season for the Basque side. The poor attendance was no surprise given the discontent amongst supporters of regular Monday slots for "El Glorioso". The match was preceded by a "mock funeral" marking the death of modern football with supporters boycotting the first five minutes of the game leaving the stadium close to empty.

ALAVES - LEVANTE DIARIO AS

In the 23 match-days of the current LaLiga season, 18 games have been played on Monday with an overall analysis witnessing a 12.5% drop-off in attendance against matches when played on Saturday and Sunday.

Just 14,328 supporters showed up to the RCDE Stadium in match-day 11 to witness Espanyol's win over Athletic Club, a figure which represents a drop-off of 31.7% when compared to the Catalan side's average match-day figures for games staged on Saturdays and Sundays.

Only three games staged on Monday this season have bucked this negative trend, two coming at the opening stage of the 2018-19 campaign and a local derby. Valencia faced Atlético on the opening weekend of the season on Monday August 20 with 46,174 fans packed into Mestalla (18.84% increase from their Saturday-Sunday average). The following week 21,122 watched Levante-Celta which represented a slight 0.67% increase on their Saturday-Sunday mean. The regional Basque derby - Alavés vs Athletic - also saw a spike of 8.23% in the average Mendizorroza average.

Exemption

All LaLiga sides playing in European competitions (currently Real Madrid, Barça. Atletico, Sevilla, Villarreal, Valencia and Real Betis) are contractually exempt from playing on Mondays and the lack of "big names" is another important factor in the unpopularity of Monday games. Added to the equation is the complexity for visiting supporters to travel on a work day plus the complaint from supporters that their respective clubs are constantly falling foul of the television schedulers, dissatisfaction has seen an increase in protests as was witnessed at Mendizorroza las Monday.

German example

A similar situation existed in Germany's Bundelsiga where Monday night games were also singled out as being unpopular for supporters. After a series of protests and match boycotts, the Bundesliga relented and confirmed that upon the renewal of the next television deal in 2021-22, the Monday night game will be abolished