The Spanish football league system consists of several professional, semi-professional, amateur and non-professional leagues bound together hierarchically by promotion and relegation.
The top two tiers of the male league pyramid — Primera División ( La Liga) and Segunda División ( La Liga 2) — are administered by the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, a sports association with independent legal status from the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), the governing body of football in Spain.
Conversely, the top tiers of the women's pyramid (Liga F), second and third tier of the women's pyramid, (Primera Federación and Segunda Federación) are administered by the RFEF.
The lower tiers (6th and below for the men's pyramid; 5th and below for the female one) are run by the regional federations.
In addition to clubs from Spain, and under the purview of the additional provision 17 of the 1990 Law of Sport, Andorran clubs affiliated to a Spanish regional federation are allowed to compete in the system.
The RFEF allows reserve teams to compete in the main league system, as is the case in most European domestic leagues.
However, reserve teams are not allowed to compete in the same tier as their senior team, and no reserve team has thus competed in the top flight.
Men La Liga La Liga is the highest level in the Spanish football league system and is operated by the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional.
Other professional divisions Segunda División, also called La Liga 2 is the second highest level in the Spanish football league system and is also operated by the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional.
Professional & Semi-Professional divisions The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) created a new tier to begin in the 2021–22 season placed between the Segunda División and the former Segunda División B which had been created in 1977. The federation officially named the third tier, containing two regionalised groups, the Primera Federación.
Below the new Primera División RFEF sits the fourth tier, the Segunda Federación, roughly corresponding to the format of Segunda B, other than that the new format has five regionalized groups. In contrast, the old system contained only four, other than in its final season, 2020–21, unique both due to the transition into the new system and complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain which led to more teams being included and a complicated format involving 10 localized leagues half the size of the usual groups, followed by 15 sections to determine which teams would go into the second, third, fourth and fifth levels.
Following the reorganization, the Tercera Federación is the fifth highest level in the Spanish football league system and is operated by the RFEF and 17 regional federations corresponding to each of the autonomous communities of Spain (there are 18 groups – Andalusia is divided into two due to its size). Prior to 2021, this was known as the Tercera División and was the fourth level, but had the same format. In 2020–21 the division also had an atypical form of 36 local subgroups followed by a total of 50 subgroups to allocate promotion, playoff, and relegation places.
Lower divisions From level 6, each of the RFEF's 19 regional federations runs its regional league pyramid under its own jurisdiction.
Pyramid table LevelLeague(s)/Division(s)Professional leagues1Primera División (LaLiga EA Sports) 20 teams ↓↑ 3 teams2Segunda División (LaLiga Hypermotion) 22 teams ↓↑ 4 teams Semi-professional leagues3Primera Federación40 clubs divided into 2 groupsGroup 1 20 clubsGroup 2 20 clubs ↓↑ 10 teams4Segunda Federación90 clubs divided into 5 groupsGroup 1 18 clubsGroup 2 18 clubsGroup 3 18 clubsGroup 4 18 clubsGroup 5 18 clubs ↓↑ 27 teams5Tercera Federación324 clubs divided into 18 groupsGroup 1 18 clubsGroup 2 18 clubsGroup 3 18 clubsGroup 4 18 clubsGroup 5 18 clubsGroup 6 18 clubsGroup 7 18 clubsGroup 8 18 clubsGroup 9 18 clubsGroup 10 18 clubsGroup 11 18 clubsGroup 12 18 clubsGroup 13 18 clubsGroup 14 18 clubsGroup 15 18 clubsGroup 16 18 clubsGroup 17 18 clubsGroup 18 18 clubs ↓↑ 54 teamsNon-professional leagues61st Regional Division72nd Regional Division83rd Regional Division94th Regional Division105th Regional Division
Evolution of the Spanish league system Tier\Years 1929 1929–34 1934–36 1936–39 1939–40 1940–77 1977–2021 Since 2021 1 Primera División Primera División 2 Segunda División Group ASegunda División Segunda División 3 Segunda División Group B 3ª División NoneNone 3ª División Segunda División B Primera Federación4NoneNoneLowerTercera DivisiónSegunda Federación 5 LowerTercera Federación 6 Lower 7 8 9 10
Notes
Women Since 2023–24 LevelLeagueProfessional league1Liga F(finetwork Liga F)16 teams ↓↑ 2 teams2Primera Federación14 teams ↓↑ 4 teams3Segunda Federación32 teams divided into 2 groups ↓↑ 6 teams4Primera Nacional6 groups, 14 teams each5Regional leagues
Youth LevelLeague1División de Honor (7 groups)2Liga Nacional Juvenil (21 groups)3Divisiones regionales
References