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La Liga - Spain Liga de Fútbol Profesional (Professional Football League), commonly known as the Primera División or simply La Liga, is the top professional football league in Spain. Nine clubs have been crowned Campeones de Liga. Since the 1950s, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have dominated the competition. The former have been champions 31 times while the latter have won it on 18 occasions. However during the 1930s and 1940s and in more recent seasons, the Primera División has been more competitive. Other winners include Valencia, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Deportivo de La Coruña, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad and Real Betis. In addition to their success in Primera División, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are two of the most successful teams in European competition history. In 2005/06 Barça 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 the English Premier League in second and Italy's Serie A in third. The 2005–06 average attendance of 29,029 for league matches is the sixth highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world. Among professional football (soccer) leagues, Primera División was third-highest, behind the Bundesliga in first and the Premier League in second Foundation In April 1927 Jose Maria 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 1928. FC 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. Athletic Madrid, RCD Español and CE Europa qualified as Copa del Rey runners-up and Racing Santander qualified through a knockout competition. Only three of the founding clubs, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao, have never been relegated from the Primera División. The new millennium As Primera División entered a new century, the Big Two 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 FC 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 CF 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 a Liga/UEFA Cup double 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. Sevilla FC also won the UEFA Cup in 2006 and again in 2007, when the Andalusians defeated fellow Spaniards RCD Espanyol 3-1 on penalties. |
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