In an era where we constantly look back at the era of peak Barclays Premier League and the BBVA La Liga, La Liga took a big step by announcing that the weekend of 10-13 April would be a retro week.
The retro week kicked off with the highly anticipated match between Real Madrid and Girona, and from the first minute of the game, it was clear how dedicated La Liga was to ensuring that everything about the weekend would be retro.
Before the match even kicked off, we saw the Match graphics go way back to the days when La Liga was sponsored by BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) from 2008 to 2016. The peak of the era during which the big three of real madrid barcelona and Atletico all won league titles at their very best.
While the older model focused on minimalism and delivering only the most important information, the modern one focuses on being more abstract with brighter colours. This is also, of course, partly due to La Liga’s partnership with EA Sports, which shares a similar match design in the game.
The next change was to the match ball that was used. LaLiga currently uses The Orbita LaLiga 1 sponsored by Puma, however, for the retro week, they went
Even the referees were made to turn the clock back as they, too, went retro and wore the uniforms from the retro era.
The old school referee kits for the retro LALIGA weekend are something else pic.twitter.com/wSFAMyuMYr
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) April 11, 2026
And of course, the most important change that everyone was looking forward to. The clubs would be donning retro jerseys for their weekend games. The most notable ones were Real Betis and Real Sociedad.
However, the two big clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid, both declined the offer to participate in the retro week. This comes to the agony of their fans, especially Barcelona, who even released a vintage kit last month in honour of Ronaldinho’s birthday.
La Liga also announced that the retro matchweek will also apply to the Segunda division and will be implemented on the 35th matchday.
The incredible aesthetics of this matchday brought us back to the days that made us fall in love with the beautiful game, and many fans came out and asked if these particular changes could be permanent.
The retro matchweek is set to be a seasonal fixture, and it will, without a doubt, be one that fans will wait for every season
