How did the La Liga competition come about?
It was English workers and sailors who brought football to Spain at the end of the 19th century. In 1889 the very first football club was founded and Spanish football was born: Recreativo Huelva. This team currently still plays in the Second Division B.
It was not until the 1928-1929 season that Spanish football started with La Liga, the national league of the First Devision (Primera División), which then only had room for 10 teams. Now there are 20.
Before the creation of La Liga, the cup winner was considered a national champion in Spanish football.
The highest division of the national women’s league, founded in 1988, has also been called the Primera División since 2011, in which 16 clubs compete against each other. The first two of the final standings can participate in the UEFA Champion’s League and the first eight qualify for the cup match (Copa de la Reina), which has been played since 1983.
The best teams in this competition
In Spanish football, a total of 62 teams have ever participated in Primera División, nine of which have won the league title. Since the 1950s, Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated the First Division, with 34 and 26 titles respectively. From the 2004-2005 season, one of these two was the national champion. Only Atlético Madrid was able to steal one title in 2013-2014.
Based on the number of league titles, the three best clubs are followed by Atlético Bilbao (8x) and Valencia CF (6x). Nevertheless, since 2015-2016, in the final ranking of La Liga, Sevilla has outperformed Bilbao and Valencia.
REAL MADRID
Real Madrid is by far the most successful club in La Liga with 34 league titles. It also won the Spanish Cup 19 times and the Super Cup 11 times, this is the match between the Spanish national champion and the cup winner. In Europe, it won the European Cup I / Champions League 13 times (most recently in 2018), with which it holds the record for this competition before AC Milan, which won 7 times.
From 2009 until his move to Juventus in 2018, Cristiano Ronaldo played for this club.
FC BARCELONA
Barcelona (“Barça”) is number two in this list of successful La Liga champions with 25 league titles. It also holds the record for the Spanish cup competition with 31 wins, contesting no fewer than 9 finals and winning 6 of them in the period 2010-2011 to 2020-2021. In Europe it won the European Cup I / Champions League 5 times (most recently in 2015). Since 2004, Lionel Messi has been worth gold for this club in the Spanish first division.
ATLÉTICO MADRID
Atlético Madrid became 10x national champion (most recently in 2014), won 10x the Spanish Cup (most recently in 2012-2013) and 2x the Spanish Supercopa (most recently in 2014).
In Europe, the club was 3x (losing) finalist in the European Cup I / Champions League. It did win the Europa League 3x (most recently in 2018).
ATLÉTIC BILBAO
Atlético Bilbao became national champion 8 times and scores the second highest number of Spanish cup victories with 23 victories. It was also a 3-time winner of the Supercopa (most recently in 2020-2021).
SEVILLA
Since 2015-2016, in the final ranking of La Liga, Sevilla has performed better on average than Bilbao and Valencia. It has won the European Cup II / Europa League six times since 2006, including in 2020. It has won the Spanish Cup 5 times.
How does the competition work?
20 clubs compete against each other in the Spanish Primera División. The winner of the final classification is the national champion, while the last three are relegated. They will be replaced by the first two and a team from the Second Division A (Segunda División A) to be determined by play-offs.
The numbers 1 to 4 of the final standings qualify directly for the UEFA Champions League and the numbers 5 and 6 for the UEFA Europa League.
On the website of La Liga, after the name of the club, we successively get the total number of match points, the number of matches played, the number of won, undecided and lost matches, the number of goals and goals conceded, the goal balance.
The Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey), for which the clubs can qualify through various regional competitions, was first contested in 1902 and the Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey) is contested annually by clubs from Primera División, Segunda A and Segunda B.
The Supercopa is contested annually between the national champion and the cup winner.
A national women’s competition was also established in 1988. In 2011 she was renamed Primera División Femenina. Since 2012, the title has been contested between 16 clubs, with the champion and number two qualifying directly for the UEFA Women’s Champions League. With the exception of one season, the title went to FC Barcelona or Atlético Madrid.
Extra information Spanish football
Of the teams in La Liga, only Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Atlético Bilbao have never been relegated. The competition was canceled between 1936 and 1939 due to the Spanish Civil War.
Here are some records of Spanish football:
– Number of goals in one season: Lionel Messi with 50 goals, breaking Ronaldo’s record (40 goals). Messi also narrowly achieves the best ratio ever: 1.44 goals per game, compared to 1.37 for Ronaldo. Messi has already been the league’s top scorer 7 times; that is also a record; Ronaldo was that 5 times.
– Fastest goal: Joseba Llorente after 7 seconds and 82 hundredths in 2008.
– La Liga all-time top scorer: Lionel Messi with 467 goals.
– Most goals scored in the away league in a season: 58, Real Madrid (2016-2017).
– Most assists made in a season: Lionel Messi 21 (2019-2020).
– 15 points was the biggest difference between the number one and the second in the final score. That was in 2013, when FC Barcelona became champion.
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