The 1997–98 La Liga season was the 67th since its establishment. It began on 30 August 1997, and concluded on 16 May 1998.
On 29 March 1998, following Sporting Gijón's 0–0 draw with Zaragoza, combined with Racing Santander's 4–3 loss to Athletic Bilbao, Sporting Gijón became the first team in La Liga history to be relegated in March, ending the season with a league-record lowest points tally of just 13.
Promotion and relegation Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the Segunda División. The promoted teams were Mérida, Salamanca (both teams returning after a season's absence) and Mallorca (returning after a five-year absence). They replaced Rayo Vallecano, Extremadura, Sevilla FC, Hércules CF and CD Logrones after spending time in the top flight for two, one, twenty two, one and one years respectively. Starting from this season, twenty teams contested in the La Liga as opposed to previous seasons with twenty-two teams.
Team information
Clubs and locations
1997–98 season was composed of the following clubs:
Team Stadium Capacity Barcelona Camp Nou 98,772 Real Madrid Santiago Bernabéu 80,354 Espanyol Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc 55,926 Atlético Madrid Vicente Calderón 55,005 Valencia Mestalla 55,000 Real Betis Benito Villamarín 52,132 Athletic Bilbao San Mamés 39,750 Deportivo de La Coruña Riazor 34,600 Real Zaragoza La Romareda 34,596 Celta de Vigo Balaídos 32,500 Real Sociedad Anoeta 32,200 Valladolid José Zorrilla 27,846 Sporting de Gijón El Molinón 25,885 Real Oviedo Carlos Tartiere 23,500 Tenerife Heliodoro Rodríguez López 22,824 Racing de Santander El Sardinero 22,222 Mallorca Lluís Sitjar 18,000 Salamanca El Helmántico 17,341 Mérida Estadio Romano 14,600 Compostela San Lázaro 12,000
League table
Results
Relegation playoff
First leg
Second leg
Awards
Pichichi Trophy The Pichichi Trophy is awarded to the player who scores the most goals in a season. RankPlayerClubGoals 1 Christian VieriAtlético Madrid 24 2 RivaldoBarcelona 19 3 Luis EnriqueBarcelona 18 4 Darko KovačevićReal Sociedad 17 5 Lyuboslav PenevCompostela 16 6 PauletaSalamanca 15 7 Fernando CorreaRacing Santander 14 8 Gabriel AmatoMallorca 13 Juan EsnáiderEspanyol Alen PeternacValladolid
Zamora Trophy The Ricardo Zamora Trophy is awarded to the goalkeeper with the lowest ratio of goals conceded to matches played. RankPlayerClubGoals againstMatchesAverage 1 ToniEspanyol 31 37 2 AlbertoReal Sociedad 37 38 3 Bogdan SteleaSalamanca 32 30 4 Imanol EtxeberriaAthletic Bilbao 42 38 5 Andoni ZubizarretaValencia 40 34
Attendances
Source:
# Club Avg. attendance Highest 1 FC Barcelona 74,053 115,000 2 Real Madrid 73,368 104,000 3 Valencia CF 44,684 54,000 4 Real Betis 38,816 47,500 5 Athletic Club 36,158 41,000 6 Atlético de Madrid 30,895 58,000 7 Real Zaragoza 23,053 35,000 8 Celta de Vigo 22,714 32,000 9 Real Sociedad 22,651 28,399 10 RCD Espanyol 21,921 31,500 11 Deportivo de La Coruña 21,395 33,000 12 CD Tenerife 19,068 22,500 13 Real Valladolid 17,966 23,000 14 Racing de Santander 17,237 22,000 15 RCD Mallorca 16,966 30,800 16 Real Oviedo 16,500 23,500 17 Real Sporting de Gijón 15,154 22,000 18 UD Salamanca 12,916 20,199 19 Mérida UD 10,789 15,000 20 SD Compostela 8,381 14,000
See also 1997–98 Segunda División 1997–98 Copa del Rey
References