Why are Barcelona and Real Madrid not playing in the first round of the 24/25 Copa del Rey?

The Copa del Rey is back and the first round of the 2024-25 competition gets underway on Tuesday, with 55 first round games set to be played between Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

However, eagled-eyed Spanish football fans will notice that a handful of high profile teams are absent from the first round games with Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Athletic Club and Real Mallorca all missing out from the opening stage.

These four sides (along with third tier, 1A RFEF champions Deportivo la Coruña) all get a bye as they are the four representatives of the Spanish Super Cup which will be staged in Riyadh next January (2025).

Madrid and Barça are the league representatives as winners and runners-up from the 23-24 season with Athletic and Mallorca the Copa del Rey winners and beaten finalists last season.

When do Madrid and Barça start playing in the Copa del Rey?

Most of the other LaLiga big guns, including Atletico Madrid, Real Betis, Sevilla, Real Sociedad and Villarreal, will start their cup campaigns this week with Real Madrid and Barcelona (along with Athletic and Mallorca) given a bye straight through to the third round of the competition which takes place in early January (2025).

Since the 2019-20 season, all Copa del Rey ties are now been decided in one-off matches, with the exception of the semi-finals, which are played over two legs.

With teams in the lower divisions always playing at home, there has been lots of potential for cup shocks and the potential ‘banana skins’ this week include Poblense-Villarreal, Parla Escuela-Valencia, Villamuriel-Rayo, San Pedro-Celta and Vic-Atletico.