Copa del Rey today, Football on TV

Now, there are 2 Copa del Rey live televised matches and 2 TV channels will broadcast each and every one of them. The next match you will be able to enjoy is Real Madrid - Real Sociedad and it will be played next 01 April 2025 at 21:30 televised by Premier Sports Extra, Premier Sports 1.

The Copa del Rey is the most important elimination tournament in Spain . It is organized by the Royal Spanish Football Federation and has been held annually since 1903. It could only be held in 1937 and 1938 due to the Civil War in the country.

Until the creation of La Liga in 1929, it was considered the main soccer championship in Spain . Its name has changed over the years, generally addressing issues related to politics: Spanish Championship (1903-1930), Republic Cup ( 1931-1936), National Football Tournament (1939) and Copa del Generalísimo (1940-1976).

The current format of the Copa del Rey began to be used in 2019. 126 teams from La Liga and the Primera Regional participate. 122 begin to compete from the first round, except for the four participants in the Spanish Super Cup who enter the tournament in the round of 32. All heats, with the exception of the semi-finals, are decided on a single match. Until the quarterfinals, the draw matches the highest category clubs with those of the lowest division. The winner gets a place in the Europa League . In case it is already classified, it goes to the sixth classified of La Liga.

In the 1979-80 edition, something very unusual happened. Real Madrid managed to qualify for the final with both the first team and Real Madrid Castilla, its subsidiary. The whites faced each other at the Santiago Bernabéu in front of 65,000 spectators. Starting in 1990, reserve teams were prohibited from participating in the competition.

The final of the Copa del Rey 2019 is already part of the tournament's history. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain caused all football in the country to stop. Athletic and Real Sociedad expected to face thousands of fans in the stands. For this reason, they gave up the Europa League place that is awarded to the winner and decided to postpone the match for more than a year in order to do so. Finally, due to health reasons, it was played without spectators at the La Cartuja Stadium and with totally different squads with which they had qualified.

Thirteen clubs know what it is to have this title on their record, but only three have managed to surpass the fifteen winged in their entire history: Barcelona, Athletic and Real Madrid . The Catalan team has dominated the competition in recent years, reaching the six finals from 2014 to 2019 and winning four of them.