The (), also known as LALIGA (the abbreviation LFP was used until the 2015–16 season), is a sports association responsible for administering the two professional football leagues in Spain, the Primera and Segunda Divisions, or LALIGA EA SPORTS and LALIGA HYPERMOTION for sponsorship reasons. Movistar+ and DAZN hold the broadcasting rights until 2032 and can each screen five matches per day.
Founded in 1984, the organisation has independent legal status from the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and it is autonomous in its operations. Its main role, in addition to defending its members' interests, is to organise the National League Championship in conjunction with the RFEF.
LaLiga has been detecting and denouncing attitudes of racism, xenophobia and violence to the RFEF Competition Committee and the Spanish State Anti-Violence Commission for years. Faced with what LaLiga considered to be inaction on the part of these bodies, it filed a complaint with the Hate Prosecutor's Office some time ago. However, due to the disparate criteria and the lack of convictions by the prosecutor's office, LaLiga went a step further and since the 2022–23 season has gone directly to court in the case of racist insults. This route, although it is starting to produce results, is slow. That is why, given the lack of sanctions and sentences for what LaLiga denounces, LaLiga has requested sanctioning powers to decree the total or partial closure of sports venues, the prohibition of access to the same and the imposition of economic sanctions. LaLiga has also stated that if they are given the sanctioning powers, they will put an end to racism in football in a matter of months.
The rejected the European Super League from the outset, considering it an exclusive and exclusionary championship that did not reward sporting merit, eliminated national leagues as a vehicle for earning a place in the European elite, and based its governance model on the power of wealthy clubs.
LaLiga is headquartered at the Murano Building, in Calle de Torrelaguna 60, Madrid. Since 2013, Javier Tebas serves as the chairman of the organisation.
Competition: National League Championship The 42 member clubs of LaLiga are grouped into two divisions: Primera División or LALIGA EA SPORTS (20 clubs) and Segunda División or LALIGA HYPERMOTION (22 clubs). In any given season a club plays each of the others in the same division twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents. This makes for a total of 38 games played each season in Primera División and 42 in Segunda División. Clubs gain three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a defeat. At the end of each season, the club with the most points in Primera División is crowned Spanish champions. If points are equal, the head-to-head records determine the winner. If still equal, the goal difference and then goals scored become the deciding factors. As for Segunda División, at the top end three clubs win promotion to Primera, with the bottom three LALIGA clubs taking their places. At the lower end, four clubs are relegated to Primera Federación, while four teams from Primera Federación join Segunda instead.Alex Ivars "Descenso a Primera RFEF: ¿quién desciende y cuántos equipos bajan desde Segunda División?" DAZN
The National League Championship has only been interrupted on two occasions throughout its history, during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The competitions were suspended between 9 March and 11 June 2020, when they began again without spectators.
LaLiga Teams +Primera División LALIGA EA SPORTSSegunda División LALIGA HYPERMOTION Alavés Athletic Club Atlético de Madrid Barcelona Celta Vigo Elche Espanyol Getafe Girona Levante Mallorca Osasuna Rayo Vallecano Real Betis Real Madrid Real Oviedo Real Sociedad Sevilla Valencia Villarreal Albacete Almería Andorra Burgos Cádiz Castellón Ceuta Córdoba Cultural Leonesa Deportivo La Coruña Eibar Granada Huesca Las Palmas Leganés Málaga Mirandés Racing de Santander Real Sociedad B Real Zaragoza Sporting Gijón Real Valladolid
Organisation Headquartered in Madrid, the institution is also present in 55 countries through its 11 offices and 46 delegates. The majority of the association's social outreach work is carried out by its Foundation. Featuring amongst LaLiga's main responsibilities is the organisation of the professional football competitions, the implementation of a financial control system, managing the centralised sale of the audiovisual rights and overseeing an internationalisation and technology leadership strategy. During the COVID-19 pandemic and in light of the announcement of a state of alarm that saw citizens confined to their homes, LaLiga organised various cultural and sports events online.
General Assembly The General Assembly is the deliberative assembly of la "". It is composed of the 42 football clubs and public limited sports companies (, S.A.D.) that make up the Primera and Segunda División. Each club/S.A.D. is usually represented by its respective president.
President The president, along with the other members of the executive committee, is responsible for the day-to-day running of the organisation. The current president is Javier Tebas, who was elected to the post in April 2013 and re-elected in October 2016 and in December 2019.
PresidentClubTerm Manuel Vega-Arango Alvaré Sporting Gijón 1983–1984 Espanyol 11 December 1984 – 11 February 2001 Espanyol 11 February 2001 – 9 June 2004 José Luis Astiazarán (interim) Real Sociedad 9 June 2004 – 22 June 2005 Guillermo Cabello Valero (interim) Terrassa 22 June 2005 Carlos del Campo Cola (interim) N/A 2005 José Luis Astiazarán Real Sociedad 15 July 2005 – 26 April 2013 Javier Tebas Medrano N/A 26 April 2013 – present
Name and sponsorships In its first statutes, which were passed in 1984, the organisation was officially named as the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, although amongst the media and supporters the institution's name was shortened and informally referred to as "La Liga" or "Liga de Fútbol Profesional", with the acronym "LFP" commonly used.
In the 1996/97 season, the media began to refer to the competition by its nickname, "Liga de las estrellas" ('League of the stars'). The onset of financial prosperity, conversion of clubs to SADs, sale of audiovisual rights and the Bosman ruling, which enabled greater movement of European Union footballers (and other foreigners, including South American and African players), attracted the best foreign footballers and saw the Spanish game take off once and for all. At this time, the competition was often referred to as the Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP), despite this not being its official name.
This unofficial moniker, which didn't represent any issue amongst the Spanish media, did begin to prove problematic, given that it was identical to and featured the same acronym as France's Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP).
The competition's first sponsorship agreement was signed with BBVA. From 2008, the top flight's name featured BBVA, its lead sponsor, and was known as the Liga BBVA, whilst the second rung was referred to as the Liga Adelante. The sponsorship deal with BBVA ran up until the 2015/16 campaign.
On 21 July 2016, the association signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Santander Bank. This saw the name of the league regain independence as it came to be known as LaLiga whilst the organisation's corporate identity was revamped. The sponsorship agreement with Santander Bank resulted in new names for the institution's two main competitions. The top flight was renamed as LaLiga Santander, whilst the second tier would now be known as LaLiga 1|2|3. The latter underwent another name change in August 2019, when it became known as LaLiga SmartBank.
Following the sponsorship agreement signed with Electronic Arts in 2022, LALIGA EA SPORTS and LALIGA HYPERMOTION are the names of the Primera and Segunda Divisions, starting in the 2023–24 season and for the following four seasons.
Ball Sponsorship Nike was the official ball supplier of LaLiga for more than 10 seasons between the 1996/97 season and the 2018/19 season, taking over from Adidas. From 2019 to 2020, German sportswear company Puma became the official provider of match balls.
Official match ball 1996–1998: Nike 850 Geo 1998–2000: Nike 800 Geo 2000–2002: Nike Geo Merlin 2002–2004: Nike Geo Merlin Vapor 2004–2006: Nike T90 Aerow I 2006–2008: Nike T90 Aerow II 2008–2009: Nike T90 Omni 2009–2010: Nike T90 Ascente 2010–2011: Nike T90 Tracer 2011–2012: Nike Seitiro 2012–2013: Nike Maxim 2013–2014: Nike Incyte 2014–2015: Nike Ordem 2 2015–2016: Nike Ordem 3 2016–2017: Nike Ordem 4 2017–2018: Nike Ordem 5 2018–2019: Nike Merlin 2019–present: Puma
Financial management
Cleaning up finances and financial controls A process involving a clean-up of Spanish football's finances and the implementation of financial control measures began in 2013 in response to the critical financial plight of the majority of the clubs. In an assembly meeting held on 21 May 2014, the clubs approved the Financial Control Regulations for the National Professional Football League Member Clubs and Public Limited Sports Companies, which saw the clubs and SADs self-impose a series of stricter regulations than those enforced by UEFA and establish that LaLiga would be responsible for overseeing a financial control system and monitoring of its member clubs and SADs.
This saw the clubs and SADs embark on a process during which they settled outstanding player wages and reduced their debts with the Spanish tax authorities (AEAT) and social security. This led to improved financial solvency and established fair competition between clubs, avoiding financial doping.
Audiovisual Rights LaLiga's progress and consolidation is also the result of the centralised marketing of the audiovisual rights of the top-flight and second-tier clubs (LALIGA EA SPORTS and LALIGA HYPERMOTION) and public limited sports companies. The centralised sale of audiovisual rights, which represents the clubs' primary source of revenue, was approved during the Congress of Deputies held on 14 May 2015, with the regulations established in the Royal Decree-Law 5/2015.
This legal framework replaced the previous system of individual negotiation by clubs and consolidated the joint marketing of audiovisual rights for competitions organised by LaLiga. The decree law put an end to the tug-of-war between LaLiga, the RFEF and the government, which began in 1997 with the ruling that one game per week must be shown free.
In November 2025, LaLiga awarded Movistar Plus+ (Telefónica) and DAZN the audiovisual rights for the 2027–2032 cycle. This includes the rights to broadcast First and Second Division matches in Spain, as well as associated content. The forecast for domestic audiovisual revenues for the period from 2027–28 to 2031–32 exceeds €6.135 billion, representing an approximate increase of 9% over the previous cycle (2022–27). This figure encompasses both Divisions and the entire five-season cycle, with an aggregate annual amount of around €1 billion per season. In the case of LALIGA EA Sports, Telefónica and DAZN both have the rights to broadcast five matches per matchday, with the matches being distributed equally between them.
Socio-economic impact The financial activity generated by LaLiga represents a strategic sector. According to a study published by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) in 2019, the competition generated €15.7 billion in the 2016/17 season, which represented 1.37% of Spain's GDP and provided 185,000 direct and indirect job positions.