SPANISH LA LIGA

SPANISH LA LIGA

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The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries. It is officially known as La Liga Santandar for sponsorship reasons.  It is the Spanish Football League System for Men’s top professional clubs. It is organized between 20 teams where the bottom three teams are replaced to the Segunda División by the top two teams and a play-off’s team in that division. Total of 62 teams have participated till now and out of which 9 teams have won the title so far. Barcelona being the first
one to win the title and Real-Madrid holding the record of winning 35 titles. The most popular professional sports league globally.

HISTORY

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José María Acha, a director at Getxo, proposed the idea of national football competition in Spain in 1928. After agreeing to the first ten teams who would form Primera Division in 1929.  
Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Club, Real Sociedad, Getxo, and Real Unión were all selected as previous winners of the Copa del Rey,
Atlético Madrid, Espanyol, and Europa qualified as Copa del Rey runners-up, and 
Racing de Santander qualified through a knockout competition
Till now, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletico Madrid have won 35, 26 and 11 titles respectively followed by Athletic Bilbao, Valencia and Real Sociedad winning 8, 6 and 2 titles respectively. With the remaining teams Deportivo La Coruna, Sevilla and Real Belts winning one each title. 

COMPETITION FORMAT –

Double Round-Robin format is followed in the competition during the season which lasts from august to may. Every club plays twice with each club, for every win club gets three points, for every draw club gets one point and no points for loss. Total points are calculated at the end of season and the teams are ranked accordingly, highest ranked team is crowned with the title.

PROMOTION AND RELEGATION- this exists in between Primera Division and Segunda Division in which the three bottom teams in La Liga are relegated to the Segunda Division and the top two teams from the Segunda Division are promoted to the La Liga, with an addition to it, a club is promoted which is from the runner up’s i.e. third, fourth, fifth and sixth.

Number of Clubs participated throughout these years

1929-1934                       10 clubs

1934-1941                       12 clubs

1941-1950                       14 clubs

1950-1971                       16 clubs

1971-1987                       18 clubs 

1987-1995                       20 clubs

1995-1997                       22 clubs

1997-at present              20 clubs

 Entering European competition 

Talking about UEFA Champions League, top four teams qualify for the group stage of UEFA Champions league. UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League’s winners also qualify for the UEFA Champions LEAGUE. Holding 4th place in LA Liga  will lead the club to play in the UEFA Europa League, as a nation is maximized to have 5 teams. The winner of Copa Del Rey and the 5th place in La Liga qualifies for the UEFA Europa League’s group stage.  

CLUBS

Positions of the clubs as per 2021-2022 season-

Alavés                                           16th
Athletic Bilbao                           10th
Atlético Madrid                         1th
Barcelona                                    3rd
Cádiz                                            12th
Espanyol                                     1st(SD)
Getafe                                           15th
Granada                                       9th
Levante                                       14th
Mallorca                                      2nd(SD)
Osasuna                                      11th
Rayo Vallecano                         3rd(SD)
Real Betis                                   6th
Real Madrid                               2nd
Real Sociedad                           5th
Sevilla                                         4th
Valencia                                     13th
Villarreal                                    7th

Elche                               17th
Celta Vigo                       8th

Eligibility of Non-European Players
As per the recent league, Clubs are allowed to have five non-EU player wherein they can only include three players each on the match day.  Players can  claim  Spanish citizenship by playing for spain for about 5years or more, this could be done when a player in not having a European ancestry. It could lead to triple-citizenship situation wherein a player who was born  in Belgium, is of  Argentine heritage yet can claim a Spanish passport, having played for La Liga for or over 5 years.
Till 2008-2009, there was no as such individual awards for the players. In 2008-2009, LFP award was introduced by the governing body for the players and the coaches. There are four variation in awards- top scorer of the season (Pichichi Trophy), the goalkeeper with the fewest goals allowed per game (Ricardo Zamora Trophy),  best overall player of the division ( Alfredo Di Stéfano Trophy) and   the top scorer between Spanish domestic football player (Zarra Trophy). From 2013-2014, La Liga introduced monthly  manager of the month and player of the month award.

The 2020–21 season started on September 12. The teams participating in La Liga 2020–21 are Athletic Club de Bilbao, Atlético de Madrid, Barcelona, Betis, Cádiz, Eibar, Getafe, Huesca, Levante, Osasuna, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Sevilla, Valencia, Valladolid, Villarreal, Elche, Alavés, Eibar and Celta Vigo.  The teams joining the Primera División, coming from Segunda are Cadiz, Elche and Huesca. Atletico Madrid won the 2020–21 season with Real Madrid as runners-up. The 2021-2022 season was won by Real Madrid followed by them Barcelona stood second .