Spanish Soccer - History of La Liga
History - Clubs - Records - Winners - Standings - Calendar
La Liga de Futbol Profesional or La Liga (how's been refered to since the 50's) is the premier Spanish League and it has been active for almost the last 8 decades. La Liga’s founder was the director of the Arenas Club de Getxo, Jose Maria Acha. During the early days, after several negotiations La Liga was created and became a professional division with the participation of ten teams.
Throughout the years La Liga added more teams and it currently consists of twenty teams. Among these teams the ones which have achieved the most success are: Real Madrid with 31 titles; FC Barcelona with 18 titles; Atletico Madrid with 9 and Atletico Bilbao with 8.
Some of the most visited football stadiums are: Camp Nou in Barcelona with capacity for around 99,000 spectators; the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid and the Vicente Calderon also located in the Madrid central area.
Throughout its history it has featured some of the best players in the world, such as: Raymond Kopa, Luis Suarez, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Johan Cruyff, Hristo Stoichkov, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Luis Figo, all of them elected European Footballer of the Year while playing for La Liga Spanish clubs.
In addition, Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Romario, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Fabio Cannavaro, were also voted FIFA World Player of the Year. Other famous players in La Liga include: David Beckham, Deco, Samuel Eto'o, Raul, Pablo Aimar and Fernando Torres.
In Europe La Liga is consistently rated as one of the strongest ones along with the English Premier and the Italian Serie A. La Liga football clubs have an excellent record in European competitions, like the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup.
The 2008-09 season began last August 30th, 2008 and it is scheduled to conclude on May 31st, 2009. The three teams that were promoted from the Second Division for this season's competition are: CD Numancia, Málaga CF and Sporting de Gijón. The current defending champion is Real Madrid.