Pre-season fixtures

As usual there will be an intensive programme of pre-season matches, this year starting early July and going on to the end of August, when the league programme starts again. The first match is already next Saturday, less than a week after the second division B play-offs signalled the end of the 2003/4 season, with Villarreal kicking off in the Intertoto Cup. Most clubs will have no formal commitments though for the next two months, and to fill the gap there will be international tours (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia will all be in Japan at the end of July / beginning of August) and local tournaments, some of which have been going on for many years. Real Madrid and Deportivo will be starting their Champions League campaign in mid-August, and Spain's new manager (whoever he is) will have a chance to try out his squad in a friendly match with Venezuela later in the same month. See our separate section for details of fixtures agreed to date. (30.06.04)