La Liga

La Liga is a men’s professional football league in Spain that includes world-respected teams such as FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. In the United States, this type of football is known as soccer. The top division in the league, Primera División, is also commonly called La Liga. The league, which is officially known as Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, was formed in 1929. The two top divisions, the professional football leagues in Spain, are administered by Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP). By the 2020s, sixty-two teams had played in La Liga in more than nine decades of professional soccer in Spain.

La Liga is the top of a pyramidal football structure in Spain, which is structurally similar to the English football league system in England. Regional football federations administer the next-level division. The fifth through ninth tiers, the Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol, are administered by the regional football federations. A points system determines promotion and relegation between the tiers.

Background

Spain had amateur football leagues early in the twentieth century. The Copa del Rey league was formed in 1903, and some federations, such as Catalonia, comprised more than two hundred clubs. While other countries supported professional teams, Spain remained a holdout. When Spain sent a football team to the 1920 Olympic Games, it brought home a silver medal and won a devoted following. Spain became crazy for football, and the voices in favor of establishing a professional league, with professional athletes instead of amateurs, grew louder.

In 1927, José María Acha, vice president of Arenas Club de Getxo, suggested that the country needed a national league. Those of like mind began examining national leagues in other nations to get ideas for forming Spain’s. Many competing ideas circulated, however, with clubs, regional federations, and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) all wanting to be heard. Acha and the Minimilistas wanted only previous national champions to be included in the league. This would limit the league to six teams, which would allow the national championships to retain their importance. However, the Maximalistas pointed out that several teams that had not become national champions had long and storied traditions and should be included in the league, which they argued should be much larger. Maximalistas also wanted to see regional tournaments end, but others believed that smaller clubs would not survive this change.

After much discussion, the two sides could not agree. The Minimalistas formed their own league, El Torneo de Campeones, and the Maximalistas formed La Liga Maxima. After one season, neither side had attracted sufficient fans, and both sides disbanded their leagues and agreed to work together to form one national league.

The new league formed two divisions. The top league, Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera, or La Liga, was made up of ten teams. Six were previous winners of the Copa del Rey, the national championship then known as the Copa del Ayuntamiento de Madrid, or Madrid City Council’s Cup: Arenas Club de Getxo, Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, and Real Unión. Three second-place teams—Atlético Madrid, Espanyol, and Europa—also qualified for La Liga. The tenth team was decided by a brief tournament between ten clubs. The champion, Racing de Santander, joined La Liga. A second division, Segunda División, comprised the remaining nine teams from the tournament.

La Liga was officially established by the Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP) in 1929. The first season ran from February to June 1929. Over the following years, the number of teams grew, and by 1987, the league included twenty clubs. That remained the standard except for two seasons, from 1995 to 1997, when La Liga included twenty-two clubs. Another division, Tercera División, was also added.

Tercera División was replaced as the third tier by Segunda División B, which was created in 1977. Tercera División then became the fourth tier of the league. Below the fourth tier, national football is organized into regional divisions.

Overview

The teams in the league use a points system, which since 1995 has given three points for a win and two for a draw. Each team plays one home and one away game against every other team in its division. The top four La Liga teams qualify for the Champions League. The fifth-place team has an opportunity to play in the Europa League. The three lowest-ranked teams, eighteenth through twentieth, are moved down to Segunda División. The top two teams in Segunda and the winner of a playoff are moved to La Liga. Three of the original La Liga teams—Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona, and Real Madrid—have never been bumped to a lower division.

Segunda Division comprises one section of twenty clubs. Segunda División B includes four sections of eighty clubs. Tercera División, meanwhile, has eighteen sections serving 360 clubs.

Real Madrid has been a powerhouse throughout La Liga’s history. By the mid-2020s, the team had won thirty-six titles. Barcelona was not far behind with twenty-seven titles. Atlético Madrid, with eleven, and Athletic Bilbao, winner of eight titles, led the rest of the pack.

Lionel Messi was the league’s all-time leading goalscorer. Playing for Barcelona, he had made 474 goals between 2004 and 2021. Messi, a native of Argentina who also played for Argentina’s national team, held many records. In December 2019, he was awarded a record sixth Ballon d’Or, the France Football award for the best football player in the world. Second place in goal scoring is Cristiano Ronaldo. His 311 goals between 2009 and 2018 were for Real Madrid.

La Liga is significant not only as a reflection of Spain’s national identity. It is also a notable contributor to the country’s national gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to around 1.44 percent in the 2020s. Its tax contribution was more than 8.3billion euros annually, in part due to the growing popularity of sports tourism. The league employed 194,000 people, directly and indirectly. The primary drivers of La Liga’s annual growth were commercial revenue and revenue from player transfers. While the league was financially strong in 2019, the 2019–2020 season was interrupted by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Spain was significantly impacted by the contagious illness. On March 23, 2020, the league announced the indefinite suspension of the season. Discussions in the league in early 2020 centered on cutting player salaries and making other changes to maintain La Liga’s financial health. However, by the mid-2020s, the league recovered and games resumed.

Bibliography

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McWilliam, Rab. Life in La Liga: The Story of Spanish Club Football. Birlinn Ltd., 2019.

Savage, Jeff. Real Madrid: Soccer Champions. Lerner Publishing Group, 2019.

“Spanish Primera División Scores.” ESPN, www.espn.com/soccer/scoreboard/‗/league/ESP.1. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

"Statistics LALIGA EA SPORTS 2024/25." Laliga, www.laliga.com/en-GB/stats/laliga-easports/scorers. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

"What Is LALIGA?" Laliga, www.laliga.com/en-GB/pressroom/what-is-laliga. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.