The Primera División (First Division) of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (LFP), commonly known in the English-speaking world as La Liga (/lə ˈliːɡə/, Spanish: , The League), and officially named for sponsorship reasons Liga BBVA (BBVA League) is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. It is contested by 20 teams, with the three lowest placed teams relegated to the Segunda División and replaced by the top two teams in that division plus the winner of a play-off. A total of 60 teams have competed in La Liga, nine of which have been crowned champions. Since the 1950s, Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated the championship. Real Madrid have won the title a record 32 times and Barcelona 22 times. During the 1930s and 1940s and in the last two decades, however, La Liga has seen other champions, including, Atlético Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, Real Sociedad, Real Betis, Deportivo de La Coruña and Sevilla.

La Liga is the strongest league in Europe over the past five years, according to UEFA''s league coefficient. La Liga has been the strongest and leading league in Europe for longer than any other European league (17 years in total). Real Madrid and Barcelona top the table of clubs listed by number of times they were top-ranked in Europe over a 5 year period. Real Madrid (15) Barcelona (8) followed by Juventus of Italy (7). La Liga clubs have the highest total with 24 followed by Italy''s Serie A with 9. La Liga players have won the highest number of Ballon d''Or awards, joint with Italy''s Serie A and the outright highest number of FIFA World Player of the Year awards. Italy''s Serie A has the second highest. In addition, La Liga players also have the highest number of runners-up (second best in the world) in both awards. In 2010, 2011 and 2012, La Liga players were voted in as first, second and third best in the world each year at the FIFA Ballon d''Or and in 2009 for the Ballon d''or. The same goes for the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award in 2011 and 2012. La Liga clubs have won the most UEFA Champions League tournaments (14) and Real Madrid are the competitions most successful club, as a 10-time champion. Sevilla are the joint most successful club in the UEFA Europa League with 3 wins. La Liga is the first and only league to be represented by both finalists in a UEFA Champions League final on two occasions. La Liga players represent the highest all time number of the FIFPro World XI with 51 ahead of Italy''s Serie A with 9. In addition, La liga players represent the highest all time number of the UEFA Team of the Year with 64 players ahead of England''s Premier League with 33. La Liga is the biggest exporter of players in Europe. 211 Spanish players are currently playing in European leagues outside Spain. La Liga has the highest percentage of homegrown players for a major European league and the second most of any league in Europe with 62.4%. La Liga continues to be the league of choice for players considered to be the best in the world. In each of the last two seasons the player to win England''s Premier League Player of the Season has immediately moved to play in Spain. Gareth Bale and Luis Suarez and previously Cristiano Ronaldo and Thierry Henry did so the following year. Games between Real Madrid and Barcelona are dubbed El Clásico. Other than the UEFA Champions League Final, El Clasico is the most followed club football match in the world, watched by hundreds of millions of people. La Liga is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world, with an average attendance of 30,275 for league matches in the 2011–12 season. This is the fifth-highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world and the third-highest of any professional association football league in the world, behind Germany''s Bundesliga and England''s Premier League. Atlético Madrid are the current champions.

• 1 Competition format
  • 1.1 Ranking of clubs on equal points
  • 1.2 Promotion and relegation
  • 1.3 Qualification for European competitions
• 2 History
  • 2.1 Foundation
  • 2.2 The 1930s
  • 2.3 The 1940s
  • 2.4 Di Stéfano, Puskás, Kubala and Suárez
  • 2.5 The Madrid years
  • 2.6 The 1980s
  • 2.7 The 1990s
  • 2.8 The 2000s
• 3 Teams
  • 3.1 Transfers
  • 3.2 Stadiums and locations
• 4 La Liga clubs in Europe
• 5 Champions
  • 5.1 Performance by club
• 6 All-time La Liga table
• 7 Players
  • 7.1 Eligibility of non-EU players
  • 7.2 Individual awards
  • 7.3 All-time top scorers
  • 7.4 Ballon d''Or
• 8 Official match ball
• 9 See also
• 10 Notes
• 11 References
• 12 External links

The competition format follows the usual double round-robin format. During the course of a season, which lasts from September to June, each club plays every other club twice, once at home and once away, for a total of 38 games. Teams receive three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, with the highest-ranked club at the end of the season crowned champion.

If points are equal between two or more clubs, the rules are:

• If all clubs involved have played each other twice:
  • If the tie is between two clubs, then the tie is broken using the goal difference for the two matches those clubs have played against each other (without away goals rule)
  • If the tie is between more than two clubs, then the tie is broken, using the games the clubs have played against each other:
    • a) head-to-head points
    • b) head-to-head goal difference
    • c) head-to-head goals scored
• If two legged games between all clubs involved have not been played, or the tie is not broken by the rules above, it is broken using:
  • a) total goal difference
  • b) total goals scored
• If the tie is still not broken, the winner will be determined by Fair Play scales. These are:
  • yellow card, 1 point
  • doubled yellow card/ejection, 2 points
  • direct red card, 3 points
  • Suspension or disqualification to coach, executive or other club''s personnel (outside referee decisions), 5 points
  • Misconduct of the supporters: mild 5 points, serious 6 points, very serious 7 points
  • Stadium closure, 10 points
  • If the Competition Committee removes a penalty, the points are also removed
• If the tie is still not broken, it will be resolved with a tie-break match in a neutral stadium.

A system of promotion and relegation exists between the Primera División and the Segunda División. The three lowest placed teams in La Liga are relegated to the Segunda División, and the top two teams from the Segunda División promoted to La Liga, with an additional club promoted after a series of play-offs involving the third, fourth, fifth and sixth placed clubs. Below is a complete record of how many teams played in each season throughout the league''s history;

The top teams in La Liga qualify for the UEFA Champions League, with the first, second, and third placed teams directly entering the group stage and the fourth placed team entering the playoffs for the group stage of UEFA Champions League. Teams placed fifth and sixth play in the UEFA Europa League, along with the cup winners. If both teams in the cup final finish in the top 6, an additional berth in the Europe League is given to the team that finishes in 7th. Real Madrid are the current European champions with a record of 10 titles.

In April 1927, José María Acha, a director at Arenas Club de Getxo, first proposed the idea of a national league in Spain. After much debate about the size of the league and who would take part, the Real Federación Española de Fútbol eventually agreed on the ten teams who would form the first Primera División in 1929. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Arenas Club de 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. Only three of the founding clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Athletic Bilbao, have never been relegated from the Primera División.

Although Barcelona won the very first Liga in 1929 and Real Madrid won their first titles in 1932 and 1933, it was Athletic Bilbao that set the early pace winning Primera División in 1930, 1931, 1934 and 1936. They were also runners-up in 1932 and 1933. In 1935, Real Betis, then known as Betis Balompié, won their only title to date. Primera División was suspended during the Spanish Civil War.

In 1937, the teams in the Republican area of Spain, with the notable exception of the two Madrid clubs, competed in the Mediterranean League and Barcelona emerged as champions. Seventy years later, on 28 September 2007, Barcelona requested the RFEF to recognise that title as a Liga title. This action was taken after RFEF was asked to recognise Levante FC''s Copa de la España Libre win as equivalent to Copa del Rey trophy.

When the Primera División resumed after the Spanish Civil War, it was Atlético Aviación (nowadays Atlético Madrid), Valencia, and Sevilla that initially emerged as the strongest clubs. Atlético were only awarded a place during the 1939–40 season as a replacement for Real Oviedo, whose ground had been damaged during the war. The club subsequently won their first Liga title and retained it in 1941. While other clubs lost players to exile, execution, and as casualties of the war, the Atlético team was reinforced by a merger. The young, pre-war squad of Valencia had also remained intact and in the post-war years matured into champions, gaining three Liga titles in 1942, 1944, and 1947. They were also runners-up in 1948 and 1949. Sevilla also enjoyed a brief golden era, finishing as runners-up in 1940 and 1942 before winning their only title to date in 1946. By the latter part of the decade, Barcelona began to emerge as a force when they were crowned champions in 1945, 1948 and 1949.

Although Atlético Madrid, previously known as Atlético Aviación, were champions in 1950 and 1951 under catenaccio mastermind Helenio Herrera, the 1950s saw the beginning of the Barcelona/Real Madrid dominance. During the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, there were strict limits imposed on foreign players. In most cases, clubs could only have three foreign players in their squads, meaning that at least eight local players had to play in every game. During the 1950s, however, these rules were circumvented by Real Madrid and Barcelona, who naturalized Alfredo di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, and Ladislav Kubala. Inspired by Kubala, Barça won the title in 1952 and 1953. Di Stéfano, Puskás, and Francisco Gento formed the nucleus of the Real Madrid team that dominated the second half of the 1950s. Madrid won the first division for the first time as Real Madrid in 1954 and retained its title in 1955. They were winners again in 1957 and 1958, with only Athletic Bilbao interrupting their sequence. During this period, Real Madrid also won an unprecedented five consecutive European Cups. Barcelona, with a team coached by Helenio Herrera and featuring Luis Suárez, won the title in 1959 and 1960.

Between 1961 and 1980, Real Madrid dominated the Primera División, being crowned champion 14 times. This included a five-in-a-row sequence from 1961 to 1965 and two three-in-a-row sequences (1967–1969 and 1978–1980). During this era, only Atlético Madrid offered Real Madrid any serious challenge, adding four more titles to their tally in 1966, 1970, 1973, and 1977. Of the other clubs, only Valencia in 1971 and the Johan Cruyff-inspired Barcelona of 1974 managed to break the dominance of Real Madrid.

The Madrid winning sequence was ended more significantly in 1981 when Real Sociedad won their first-ever title. They retained it in 1982 and their two in a row was followed by another by their fellow Basques Athletic Bilbao, who won back-to-back titles in 1983 and 1984. Terry Venables led Barcelona to a solitary title in 1985 before Real Madrid won again another five in a row sequence (1986–1990) with a team guided by Leo Beenhakker and including Hugo Sánchez and the legendary La Quinta del Buitre – Emilio Butragueño, Manolo Sanchís, Martín Vázquez, Míchel and Miguel Pardeza.

Johan Cruyff returned to Barcelona as manager in 1988, and assembled the legendary Dream Team. Cruyff introduced players like Josep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero, Txiki Beguiristain, Goikoetxea, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário, and Hristo Stoichkov. This team won Primera División four times between 1991 and 1994 and won the European Cup in 1992. Laudrup then moved to arch-rivals Real Madrid, and helped them end Barcelona''s run in 1995. Atlético Madrid won their ninth Primera División title in 1996 before Real Madrid added another Liga trophy to their cabinet in 1997. After the success of Cruyff, another Dutchman – Ajax manager Louis van Gaal – arrived at the Camp Nou, and with the talents of Luís Figo, Luis Enrique, and Rivaldo, Barcelona again won the title in 1998 and 1999.

As Primera División entered a new century, the Big Two of Real Madrid and Barcelona found themselves facing new challengers. Between 1993 and 2004, Deportivo La Coruña finished in the top three on ten occasions, a better record than either Real Madrid or Barcelona, and in 2000, under Javier Irureta, they became the ninth team to be crowned champions. Real Madrid won two more Liga titles in 2001 and 2003 and also the UEFA Champions League in 2000 and 2002, and won their third league title in 2007 after a three-year drought. They were challenged by a re-emerging Valencia in both competitions. Under the management of Héctor Cúper, Valencia finished as Champions League runners-up in 2000 and 2001. His successor, Rafael Benítez, built on this and led the club to a Liga title in 2002 and winning the double with a league title and the UEFA Cup in 2004. The 2004–05 season saw a resurgent Barcelona, inspired by the brilliant Ronaldinho, win their first title of the new century, in addition to the Liga-Champions League double in 2005–06. With world class players like Raúl, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Gonzalo Higuain, Real Madrid won back to back La Liga titles in 2006–07 and 2007–08 season. Under Josep Guardiola''s Dream Team, powered by La Masia talents such as Lionel Messi, Xavi, and Andrés Iniesta, Barcelona added three straight Liga titles (2008–09, 2009–10, and 2010–11). In the 2011–2012 season, Real Madrid won its 32nd title under the management of José Mourinho with a record-breaking points tally of 100, a record 121 number of goals scored, most overall (32) and away (16) wins in a single season in La Liga History. Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova matched the 100-point record a year later (2012–2013) season while battling terminal cancer. Atlético Madrid Won the 2013-14 title, their first in 18 years, and the first title in 10 years that Real Madrid or Barcelona had not won.

A total of 20 teams contest the league, including 17 sides from the 2013–14 season and three promoted from the 2013–14 Segunda División. This included the two top teams from the Segunda División, and the victorious team of the play-offs.

The most expensive transfer in the world was Gareth Bale who was bought by Real Madrid in 2013 for £85.3 million (€103.4 million / $140 million) from Tottenham Hotspur F.C..

In addition to their success in Primera División, Valencia, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid are four of the most successful teams in European competition history. All four clubs are the only Spanish clubs to have won five or more international trophies. Whilst, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia are also in the top ten most successful clubs in European football in terms of total European trophies. In 2005–06, Barcelona won the UEFA Champions League and Sevilla won the UEFA Cup. The Primera División became the first league to do the European "double" since 1997.

The Primera División is currently first in the UEFA rankings of European leagues based on their performances in European competitions over a five-year period, ahead of England''s Premier League in second and Germany''s Bundesliga in third.

The All-time La Liga table is an overall record of all match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in La Liga since its inception in 1929. The table is accurate as of the end of the 2013–14 season. Teams in bold are part of the 2014–15 La Liga.

League or status at 2014–15:

In La Liga, players can claim citizenship from the nation their ancestors came from. If a player does not have European ancestry, he can claim Spanish citizenship after playing in Spain for five years. Sometimes, this can lead to a triple-citizenship situation; for example, Leo Franco, who is Argentine-born, of Italian heritage, and can claim a Spanish passport, having played in La Liga for over five years.

In addition, players from the ACP countries — countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific that are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement — are not counted against non-EU quotas, due to the Kolpak ruling.

Until season 2008–09, no official awards for La Liga existed. Following the 2008–09 season, the Liga de Fútbol Profesional, the governing body, instated the LFP Awards. Apart from these awards, many individual awards are given out relating to La Liga, although not sanctioned by the LFP nor the Royal Spanish Football Federation and therefore not regarded as official.

The most notable of these are four awarded by Spain''s biggest sports paper, Marca, namely the Pichichi Trophy, awarded to the top scorer of the season, the Ricardo Zamora Trophy for the goalkeeper with the least "goals-to-games" ratio; the Trofeo Alfredo di Stéfano, for the player judged to be the best overall player in the division; and the Zarra Trophy is awarded to the Spanish domestic player with the highest goal total in La Liga.

Since the 2013–14 season, La Liga also awards the monthly Manager of the Month and Player of the Month awards.

Updated at the end of the 2013–14 season

(Bold denotes players still playing in La Liga.)

• Alfredo Di Stéfano – 1957, 1959 (Real Madrid)
• Raymond Kopa – 1958 (Real Madrid)
• Luis Suárez – 1960 (Barcelona)
• Johan Cruijff – 1973, 1974 (Barcelona)
• Hristo Stoichkov – 1994 (Barcelona)
• Rivaldo – 1999 (Barcelona)
• Luís Figo – 2000 (Real Madrid)
• Ronaldo – 2002 (Real Madrid)
• Ronaldinho – 2005 (Barcelona)
• Fabio Cannavaro – 2006 (Real Madrid)
• Lionel Messi – 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 (Barcelona)
• Cristiano Ronaldo – 2013 (Real Madrid)

• 1990–1994: Adidas Etrusco Unico
• 1994–1996: Adidas Questra
• 1996–1997: Nike NK 350 Geo
• 1997–1998: Nike NK 850 Geo
• 1998–2000: Nike NK 800 Geo
• 2000–2002: Nike Geo Merlin
• 2002–2004: Nike Geo Merlin II
• 2004–2006: Nike T90 Aerow
• 2006–2008: Nike T90 Aerow II
• 2008–2009: Nike T90 Omni
• 2009–2010: Nike T90 Ascente
• 2010–2011: Nike T90 Tracer
• 2011–2012: Nike Seitiro
• 2012–2013: Nike Maxim
• 2013–2014: Nike Incyte
• 2014–2015: Nike Ordem