AS.com

La Liga's organisational body the LFP has released a statement explaining the reasoning behind the kick-off times for the opening two league games of next season, which caused uproar after games were scheduled to start at 23:00.

The statement said:

"The kick-off times were conditioned by an agreement between the LFP and the AFE (the players' union) that the Spanish league season should start on the same weekend as the rest of the leagues in Europe, on 18 August.

"The players need to be protected from the high temperatures of mid August and so the AFE asked us to make sure that no games started before 19:00.

"Therefore, we have had to schedule games at unusual times in August. Kick-off times will return to the usual times as of the third weekend of the season.

"When divising the kick-off times we took into account geographical location and the impact of tourism on football to give people incentives to go to matches during the summer holidays.

"What's more, we've had to consider all these factors at the same time as coordinating our league alongside other European leagues. The aforementioned decisions and factors were all explained to the governors of the LFP a long time before the kick-off times were announced. The league committee and the LFP assembly, which all clubs participate in, were also aware of the situation and we received no complaints.

"The LFP does its best to combine the interests of everyone associated with professional football in order to gain the best outcome for everyone in the midst of our current economic situation by organising the fixtures in the least harmful way possible.

"We also want to publish kick-off times as far in advance as possible for the benefit of fans who want to follow their teams."