MADRID — Real Madrid will begin their La Liga campaign with a home game against Osasuna as scheduled after Spain’s federation (RFEF) rejected their appeal to postpone the August 19 fixture on Thursday, local media reported.

Real had requested a longer rest period and pre-season after playing in the Club World Cup in the US, where they lost to Paris St Germain in the semi-finals on July 9, according to the report.

An RFEF judge ruled that in order to preserve the integrity of the competition only a case of force majeure would warrant a change to the official calendar, and that Real’s case did not justify an alteration, Europa Press news agency reported.

“Finally, it should be added that although the requesting club claims to have the agreement of the opposing party, CA Osasuna, there is no record of this entity having responded to the request made by this judge,” the sole judge was quoted as saying in his ruling by the Europa Press.