Celta Vigo's opening match of the new La Liga season has been postponed after a fungal outbreak tore through the playing surface at Balaídos, the club's home stadium, leaving it unfit for a top-flight fixture.
The match against Osasuna, originally due to kick off on Sunday, will now be played on Thursday, August 27, after La Liga, Celta and Osasuna agreed jointly to push the date back, ONE reports.
According to Celta's own statement, league inspectors had already checked the Balaídos turf the previous week and signed off on remediation work already under way to eradicate the disease. But a run of adverse weather in the days that followed set that recovery back sharply, and a further evening inspection convinced officials the pitch could not host a competitive match on schedule.
La Liga said simply that the postponement was needed "due to an illness that has affected the stadium's pitch," language that underlines how unusual the disruption is for a fixture in the league's opening round.
Celta Vigo issued a public apology to supporters, saying it regretted the inconvenience caused by what it called "exceptional circumstances" and thanking fans for their patience as groundstaff work to restore the surface before the rescheduled date.
Balaídos has been earmarked as one of the stadiums under consideration for renovation ahead of a possible 2030 World Cup bid on the Iberian peninsula, adding an awkward backdrop to a pitch failure just as the new season was getting under way.
For now, both clubs are left waiting more than a week longer than planned for their first competitive outing of the campaign, with groundstaff racing to get the Balaídos turf back into playable condition before August 27.
