Everything you want to know about La Liga

Introduction about La Liga

The Premier Spanish Football League is called ‘La Liga’ by the English speaking fans of football. It is a professional football league for men’s football played in Spain and is affiliated with UEFA. The club was founded in 1929 and is one of the most popular sports leagues across the globe.

Basic Information

Official Name: Liga BBVA

Country: Spain

Association with: UEFA

Founded in: 1929

Number of teams: 20

Levels on the pyramid: 1

Relegation to: Segunda Division

Domestic Cups: Copa del Rey and Supercopa de Espana

International Cups: UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League

Most number of championship wins: Real Madrid (32)

Current Champions: Barcelona (22^nd)

Current Broadcasters: Canal+ 1, Canal+Liga, Gol Television, Cuatro, beIN Sports and TVE (for Highlights)

Official Sponsors: BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A – A multinational Spanish Banking Group)

Brief History of La Liga

The Primera Division, Liga Nacional de Futbol Profesional (LFP) is officially called Liga BBVA (or BBVA League) because of the sponsorship reasons. La Liga is contested by the twenty different professional football clubs across Spain and three bottom teams on the table get relegated to the Segunda Division and they are replaced by top two teams from the Segunda Division itself along with the winner of a play-off. Since its incarnation, total 59 teams have taken part in La Liga and only nine of them have been crowned champions! Since the decade of 1950s Real Madrid and Barcelona has dominated the La Liga Championships. Since 1950s Real Madrid has won 32 La Liga titles and Barcelona has won 22.

When it comes to the European Clubs Championships, La Liga has made its own presence felt. It is the most popular professional leagues in the world as per the UEFA’s league coefficient by having an average attendance of 30, 275 for league matches in the year 2011-12. Not only this, but La Liga is also the third highest of any professional association football league in the world, just behind Germany’s Budesliga and English Premier League.

Current La Liga Teams (For the year 2013-14):

• Real Madrid
• FC Barcelona
• Atletico Madrid
• Athletic Club
• Sevilla FC
• Real Sociedad
• Villarreal CF
• Valencia CF
• Levante UD
• RCB Espanyol
• Malaga CF
• Royo Vallecano
• Celta de Vigo
• Elche CF
• Granada CF
• Osasuna
• Real Valladolid
• Getafe CF
• UD Aleria
• Real Betis