When Does the Football Season Start and End?

You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. That is exactly what it feels like being immersed in the football off-season.

There is simply nothing more exciting on the minds of football fans than the arrival of the brand-new season. Football to watch every week, away days coming in abundance, fantasy football leagues, cup competitions – it is what dreams are made of.

As pre-season continues to take its toll for what feels like forever, how long do we actually have left to wait for the new campaign?

Of course, many leagues vary in timing based on a wealth of factors. These include the number of teams in the divisions, the number of cup competitions interrupting the league season, and potential ‘playoff’ games at the end of a season.

The general rule of thumb in the majority of football leagues - and predominantly in Europe – is that the campaign will start in August and finish in May. However, we have seen these months alter quite frequently depending on what dates the weekends fall on.

Moreover, some leagues across the world are midway through their season now, as it started in January/February and concludes in October/November.

England

Throughout England, the leagues often follow the same procedure as each other in terms of when they start and finish. However, with the EFL and non-League obtaining more fixtures across a league season, their campaign often precedes the Premier League weeks earlier.

League One and League Two’s 46-game season is set to begin on Friday 1st August this time round, as Luton take on AFC Wimbledon in League One. The remaining fixtures for match-week one will then be played across that same weekend for both leagues.

Tune in to the EFL opening fixtures LIVE on Sky Sports! ⚽

All other opening day matches will be streamed live on Sky Sports+ 🔥 pic.twitter.com/g7wlANCYa1

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) June 26, 2025

Despite the Championship having the same number of teams, they do not compete in the EFL Trophy, nor the first two rounds of the FA Cup, therefore their season commences exactly one week later. This year, it is Birmingham and Ipswich that will initiate things, as they play of Friday 8th August. Additionally, the National League begins on that same weekend.

As for the Premier League, they do not start until the weekend commencing the 15th of August, as current champions Liverpool play AFC Bournemouth on the Friday night.

This is where it gets interesting, the Premier League’s final day of the season has been announced as Sunday 24th May 2026, with every match being played at 16:00 GMT.

However, each of the Championship, League One and League Two all finish up on Saturday 2nd May 2026, prior to playing 15 playoff games between the three leagues, throughout May. The playoff finals will then take place on the same weekend in which the top flight has its finale.

Spain and France

Both the Spanish and French Leagues follow a similar pattern to the English Leagues, with the Spanish La Liga and the French Serie A commencing on the weekend starting Friday 15th August.

Girona and Rayo Vallecano will kick things off for the Spanish top flight come August, leading the season all the way towards the end of May, as the 38-gameweek campaign ends on Sunday 24th May 2026.

And this is how #LALIGAEASPORTS 2025/26 kicks off... 🔥

🗓🚨 Check out the fixtures for the opening matchday of the season! pic.twitter.com/visTx5Bh7F

— LALIGA English (@LaLigaEN) July 1, 2025

Spain’s second division – La Liga 2 follows the same dates as well. However, the two Federación leagues each start their season later, on the last day of August.

Ligue 1 begins on Sunday 17th August, with all 18 teams competing at the same time. However, with their league consisting of less teams than La Liga, the Ligue 1 season will close a week earlier on Saturday 16th May 2026.

France’s descending leagues, Ligue 2 and National, each mimic the English Championship, starting their season on Friday 8th/Saturday 9th August this year.

Germany and Italy

The German and Italian leagues commence their league seasons fairly late in comparison to the other elite European divisions.

This year’s Bundesliga season starts on Friday 22nd August and plays out the first game-week throughout that same weekend. Their season then goes all the way until the 16th of May 2026, where each team will play at the same time on the final day.

However, juxtaposing from the top tier, both the 2. Bundesliga and the 3. Liga launch their campaigns much earlier, both starting on Friday 1st August. But then these still run until a similar closure point as the Bundesliga – on the 17th of May 2026.

The Italian Serie B and Serie C are yet to release their fixtures for the coming season, but the Serie A have. Similarly to the Bundesliga, they start late, on Saturday 23rd August. However, the Italian top flight does in fact finish a little later than the Bundesliga, on the 24th of May next year.

All the 25/26 #SerieA fixtures at a glance! 📆 pic.twitter.com/CVzugbg73P

— Lega Serie A (@SerieA_EN) June 6, 2025

The German and Italian teams all compete in domestic cup matches – DFL Pokal and Coppa Italia – throughout August, which may play a part in why both first divisions start things off belatedly.

Scotland

The Scottish League season is set to commence on the weekend starting Friday 1st August for all of its top four leagues, with Arbroath vs Ayr United in the Championship being the very first fixture.

Despite the Premiership being included in this, their fixtures are more spread out that weekend, with two games on the Saturday, three on the Sunday and one of the Monday.

The Premiership season is then set to finish on Saturday 11th April 2026, before moving into championship and relegation groups to decide who wins the title and who gets relegated. This process lasts for over a month, heading into mid-May, with each side playing an extra five games.

BREAKING: The Scottish Premiership 2025/26 fixtures are in! 🚨

Here's how the first weekend of the season shapes up 📆 pic.twitter.com/CExUg4h0R4

— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) June 20, 2025

Whereas the Championship, League One and League Two operate in a traditional table format - with each of their seasons closing on the 1st/2nd May 2026.

USA (Major League Soccer)

Here is where things alter. The MLS is already currently halfway through their league season, after it started on the 22nd of February this year. Teams in both conferences have now played up to 23 games so far this term, with still 11 (or more) to play in the regular league format.

Afterwards they will then move onto the Championship Playoff process, involving the top seven teams in each conference being involved. This takes the MLS all the way to mid-October, where the season will have officially ended.

There are plenty of other countries that follow this ‘calendar’ format as well. Ireland, China, Brazil and Argentina to name a few.