La Liga

La Liga is one of the world's most popular professional football league. The top league in Spain, La Liga, has evolved into one of Europe’s most remunerative and entertaining football league. Since its inception in 1928 it has only grown in both popularity and fan base. It now sits pretty as one of the most decorated football leagues in the world. Jose Maria Acha, who was the director at Arenas Club de Getxo, was the person who came up with the idea of initiating a national league in Spain. The previous winners of Copa del Rey: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Arenas Club de Getxo and Real Union along with the runners-up: Espanyol, Europa and the knock out competition winners Racing Santander were chosen to play in the first season of the league. Only three of the before mentioned founding teams: Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao have managed to stay away from relegation till date. Only 9 teams among the 58 that have taken part in the competition till date have managed to win the championship. Real Madrid and Barcelona have been the most dominant teams in the league. However, Real Madrid tops the list with 31 titles to their name while Barcelona has been crowned champion on 19 occasions.
The double round-robin format is employed in La Liga, where each team plays the others twice, once at their home stadium and the other at their opposition’s. The league is contested by a total of 20 teams in a season. And thus each team plays a total of 38 games. The season spans from September to June. A points system is employed where the winning team is awarded 3 points; 1 point is awarded to each team in case of a draw and no points are given to the losing team. Team rankings in the league are determined by the points they score, and the team which stays at the top of the charts by the end of the season wins the championship. In case of a tie in the number of points scored by the teams, head-to-head results determine the placement. The first tie breaker used, in case of a tie in terms of points, is the goal difference between resulting from the two matches between the teams in question. When more than 2 teams are tied, the point accumulated by the teams from the matches played among them decides their placement, the goal difference is also considered if necessary. If head-to-head results aren’t sufficient to separate the teams then, goal difference and goals scored throughout the season may be considered. The La Liga follows a promotion and relegation system where the 3 lowest ranked teams in the Liga by the end of the season are replaced by top ranked teams from the Second Division.
Recent statistics show that La Liga is the 3rd most attended professional football league in the world. La Liga boasts of lucrative clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona etc. and hence is never short of star players which undoubtedly make it one of the most entertaining leagues in the world of professional football.