Spanish League Games

The Spanish League is the highest level of professional soccer in Spain and consists of two divisions of teams. The highest level, known in English-speaking regions as La Liga or the Spanish Premera, is the top division in Spain and features 20 teams, while the second tier has a group of 22 clubs.

  1. League Games

    • League matches make up the majority of the games played by most Spanish League sides. Teams in the top division play 38 league games each season, with one match at home and one on the road against each of the other 19 teams in the top division. Teams in the second division play an additional four games, or 42 total, as there are an additional two teams in the league. Matches that end in a draw do not feature any overtime periods or shootouts, meaning a team will accumulate three different types of results over the course of the season. Victories earn a team three points in the league table, while losses earn zero. In the event of a draw, each team earns one point. For this reason, it is better for a team to earn a win and a loss against an opponent than to draw twice. At the end of the season, the team with the most points in each league is the winner, with no playoff system like in American sports. Additionally, the bottom three teams in La Liga are relegated to the second division for the following season, while the top three teams from the second division take their place. The bottom three teams in the second division drop out of the Spanish League and are replaced by the three top clubs in the premier non-League division.

    Domestic Cup Games

    • Two domestic cups are also awarded each season. The best domestic campaign a club can have would be winning the treble, meaning they won the top division as well as the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup. The Copa del Rey is a single-elimination tournament, which teams from the many divisions of Spanish soccer may enter, meaning even lower-level teams could win the Cup with enough victories. The Spanish Super Cup is played prior to the beginning of a new League season and is a single match played between the previous season's Copa del Rey winner and the previous season's La Liga champion.

    International Cup Games

    • While not held under the governing body of the Spanish League, many Spanish clubs also participate in international cups during the season. The premier international cup is the UEFA Champions League, while the secondary European Cup is the Europa League. The exact number of spots awarded to Spain varies by season. It is based on the results of Spanish sides in the cups in recent seasons. Both cups feature a mix of group and knockout stages. Spanish sides can also participate in the UEFA Super Cup, which like the Spanish Super Cup, is a single match that pits the previous winners of the Champions League and the Europa League against each other. Should a Spanish side win the Champions League, it will also be invited to participate in the FIFA Club World Cup. In the 2009-2010 season, Barcelona gained recognition for completing an unprecedented sextuple, capturing both the domestic treble and the international treble, when it won the Champions League, the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup.