La Liga
Introduction to La Liga
La Liga is the top professional football association under the Spanish football league system in Spain. Considered to be the top division of the Spanish football league, La Liga is also known as Liga BBVA due to various sponsorship reasons. A total of 20 teams are known to contest in a La Liga football tournament, out of which two teams are selected from the top positions in the Segunda division and at the same time three lowest teams from La Liga are sent to play in the Segunda division football matches.
Apart from this, the one winning team from a play- off match is also made a part of these 20 teams that can participate in La Liga any given season of football matches. So far a total of 60 teams have played in La Liga, out of which 9 teams have emerged as champions. Two of the ruling clubs in La Liga are Barcelona with 22 championship titles as well as Real Madrid with 32 championship titles.
La Liga is the strongest football leagues in Europe as well as one among the strongest professional football leagues in the world.
Clubs
Real Madrid:
It is a professional football club, also known as Real, based in Madrid, Spain. Since its creation, the official members have operated as well as owned this football club unlike the case of other footballs clubs across the globe. Considered to be the world’s richest football club, Read Madrid has some prominent players to its credit, such as Iker Casillas, Pepe, Lucas Silva and Sergio Ramos.
FC Barcelona:
Based in Barcelona, Spain, this is a professional football club. Unlike other clubs, FC Barcelona is owned and operated by the supporters of this club. Having won more than 80 official titles internationally, Barcelona is Spain’s joint most successful football club.
Atletico Madrid:
Atletico Madrid is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. This club is a permanent participant in the La Liga and is also the current champions of the La Liga Championship. Indian Super League’s Kolkata Franchise is also owned by this club and it is known as Atletico de Kolkata.
Sevilla FC:
Sevilla FC is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, Spain. This club has won 3 UEFA Championship Cups in year 2006, 2007 as well as 2014. Considered to be the 7th best football club of all times in the history of Spanish League Football, Sevilla FC also won the UEFA Super Cup in the year 2006.
Valencia CF:
Valencia CF is a Spanish professional football club based in Valencia, Spain. An all- time participant in the La Liga Championship, Valencia CF is one among the prominent football clubs in the European and Spanish football leagues. This club has won 6 La Liga Championship titles so far.
Villarreal CF:
A professional Spanish football club based in the city of Vila- real, in the community of Valencia. Having participated in various football championships across the globe, Villarreal CF is the perfect example of a club that is small in size but very successful.
Malaga CF:
This is a professional Spanish football club based in Malaga, Spain. La Liga is the top division in Spanish football and Malaga CF is an all- time participant in this football league. This club reached the quarter- finals stages of UEFA Champions League after winning the UEFA Intertoto Cup in the year 2002.
Eibar:
Also known as SD Eibar, is a Spanish professional football club based in Eibar in the Basque County. Eibar football club holds the record of being the only club that has the UNE-EN-ISO 9001 quality certificate.
Espanyol:
RCD Espanyol is a professional Spanish multi- sports club based in Barcelona, Spain. Out of all the sports played, the RCD Espanyol football club is exceptionally popular. This club has also qualified for the UEFA Cup 7 times after its inception.
Celta Vigo:
Celta Vigo is a professional Spanish football club based in the city of Vigo in Galicia. This team was a participant at the recently held La Liga in 2014. This La Liga season, this football club came at the 6th position and has qualified to play in the UEFA Cup.
Athletic Bilbao:
A professional football club based in Bilbao, Biscay in the Basque County. This club is also known as “the Lions” and has been an active member of La Liga since its existence in 1929. They have won La Liga Championship 8 times.
Rayo Vallecano:
Also known as Rayo, this Spanish professional football club is based in Madrid in Spain. It plays in La Liga and some of its prominent players are David Cobeno, Emiliano Insua, Leo Baptistao and Tito among others.
Real Sociedad:
Also known as La Real, it is a professional Spanish football club based in the San Sebastian city in the Basque Country. This club was the founder member of the La Liga Championship in the year 1928. Other games supported by this club include Field hockey, Women’s football, Basque Pelota and Track & field.
Deportivo La Coruna:
It is a professional Galician football club based in the A Coruna city (La Coruna in Spanish) in the city of Galicia, Spain. This club has been a regular participant in European football competitions, making its way 5 times in a row into the UEFA Champions League.
Getafe CF:
This is a Spanish professional football club which competes in La Liga Championship and is based in the city of Getafe in the metropolitan area of Madrid. The home games of this football club are held at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez ground in Madrid.
Almeria:
Also known as UD Almeria or Union Deportiva Almeria, it is a Spanish professional football club based in the city of Almeria in Andalisia community. This team has played 6 seasons in La Liga.
Cordoba CF:
Based in Cordoba in Spain, it is a professional Spanish football team which plays in the La Liga Championship. This club has spent majority of its time in 2nd and 3rd divisions of the S League.
Granada CF:
This is a Spanish professional football club based in the city of Granada. This club currently plays in the La Liga Championship and it is also the third football club from Andalusia to compete in La Liga.
Elche CF:
Based in the city of Elche in the province of Alicante, Elche CF is a Spanish professional football club which currently participates in the La Liga championship. The current squad of Elche CF consists of Edu Albacar as the Captain, along with other prominent players.
Levante:
Levante UD is a professional football club based in the city of Valencia in Spain. This club was founded in the year 1909 and it plays in the La Liga Championship. This club is also known as Levante Union Deportiva.
Top sports betting sites for La Liga
Top scorers of La Liga
- Cristiano Ronaldo (scored 28 goals for Real Madrid)
- Lionel Messi (scored 22 goals for FC Barcelona)
- Neymar (scored 15 goals for FC Barcelona)
- Carlos Bacca (scored 12 goals for Sevilla FC)
- Antoine Griezmann (scored 11 goals for Atletico Madrid)
Game format
The game format followed in La Liga is the usual double round- robin format used in all football leagues. During each football season, each team has to play a total of 38 matches, which involves playing twice against every other team, one in away and the second in home match.
There are 3 points given to each team for a win, no points for a loss and 1 point for draw. Instead of individual wins, teams are scored taking in account the total points and the team with the highest overall score at the end of La Liga tournament is crowed as the champion of that season.
Zamora Trophy
In the year 1958, the Ricardo Zamora Trophy was established by Spanish newspaper MARCA and it is a very popular football award in La Liga Championship. This award is named after Ricardo Zamora, legendary Spanish goalkeeper. Goalkeeper with the lowest “goals to games” ratio is given this award at the end of each La Liga Championship. FC Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was one among the top footballers to receive this award in La Liga Championship 2014- 15.
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