A background of the leagues.
The English Premier League.
The First Division of the Football League was formed in 1888, and was later rebranded as the Premier League which started in 1992. This league, today, holds the image and the reputation of widely being regarded as the best league in the world, even though the top English clubs don’t win the continental competitions as frequently as the top clubs in Spain, the Premier League is still regarded as the most challenging competition to win in the entire sport. The Premier League in it’s early days used to be sponsored by Barclays Bank and went through a significant period where it was named The Barclays Premier League.
The Premier League’s history went through a rough patch for club football in England overall. The league had a general low attendance overall and the league became infamous for hooligans. During the period between 1985 and 1986, the league began without a TV coverage deal due to numerous parts being unable to reach an agreement and make a deal. During this period, the biggest teams in the country started conversations regarding the launch of a new league that would operate independently.
The formation of the Premier League resulted in a historic seperation of the high level division from the Football League. The new league wouldn’t fall under the Football League, which was formed in the 1880s. However, it would form part of the league system, the worst positioned teams in the league would be demoted/relegated to the second division, Football League One, and the best positioned teams in the second divison would be promoted to the first division which is the Premier League. New deals were formed TV organisations that saw the vision regarding thr growth of the sport. Sky received the TV rights and they made an expansion to the program with five-hour segments. The idea was massively influenced by the NFL in terms of broadcasting, as a result new segments were added to the product such as Monday Night Football, something similar to what the NFL have with NFL GameDay KickOff and other segments such as NFL 360.
English Football League system
The Premier League is the first division of the English football league system and has been since the 1992/1993 season, before that, it was formerly known as Division One, and functioned the same way and used the same format. The next three divisions are merged into the English Football League. Two additional divisions follow after that which form the National League. An insight of the present league format is portrayed in one table.
La Liga
La Liga, which is Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera Division, is the first division league in Spain was formed in 1929. The first division is known as Primera Division, which is widely known as La Liga and the second division is known as the Segunda Division, 20 teams have been participating in the first division since 1997.
The Catalan Football Championship, Campionat de Catalunya, the first football league in Spain, was formed in 1901. After the establishment of La Liga, there was a co-existence between The Catalan football championship and the national league for several years and then it was cancelled in 1940.
Spain’s first national league was formed in 1929, the first season started in February that year and concluded in June. During the period, it was comprised of one divison, Primera Division, including ten teams. The amount of teams would grow later during numerous events. In 1987, it got to 20 teams including a small period between 1995 and 1997 where there were 22 teams competing in the league.
Spanish Football League System
The first and second division of Spanish football were both established in 1929. The Segunda División B was established in 1977 to replace Tercera División as the 3rd division. Since then the Tercera División has been the 4th division. An insight of the present national league format is portrayed in one table. Underneath the 4th division, regional divisions are played with national football.
European tournament qualification.
Currently, the teams that finish in the top four positions of La Liga, qualify for the Champions League, and the team that is in fifth place will qualify for Europa League, one extra spot is granted to the team that wins the Copa Del Rey.
Relegations/Demotions of teams
Currently, the 3 teams positioned at the bottom of La Liga, positions 18, 19 and 20 are relegated are demoted to the Segunda Division.
Top goalscorers
The all-time leading goalscorer is Lionel Messi, who scored 438 goals for Barcelona. Lionel Messi is the only player to score 50 goals in one season, it should also be highlighted that the number of matches per season has changed over time, for example, Telmo Zarra scored 38 goals in the 1950/1951 season when each club played 30 matches.
The 2nd all-time leading goalscorer is Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 311 goals for Real Madrid in 292 games, which is a goal to game ratio record in the league. Other noteworthy goalscorers in the league are namely, Hugo Sanchez, who scored 234 goals for Real Madrid between 1981 and 1994; Raúl, who scored 228 goals for Real Madrid between 1994 and 2010 and Alfredo Di Stefano who scored 227 goals for Real Madrid between 1953 and 1966.
Players who played the most games
The player who played the most games, is the ex-national team goalkeeper, Andoni Zubizarreta. He played majority of his games for Barcelona and had a total of 622 La Liga matches. After him is former Real Madrid forward, Raúl, who made 550 appearances.
Serie A
Serie A, full official name being Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A, is the top Italian football league and has been around since 1898, and from 1929 onwards was structured as it is today. Since 1961, the winner receives the cup, which is known as Coppa Campioni d’Italia. In the league’s establishment, it had 18 teams involded, however, since its decrease and expansion numerous times, from a minimum of 16 teams to a maximum of 21 teams, from the 2004/2005 season onwards, the league has 20 teams involved. Today, the league is also called Lega Serie A, but is widely and mainly known as Serie A.
In 1898 an Italian National Championship had been acknowledged already, Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club were the first champions, regardless of the entire tournament being decided in one match. For more than two decades, the tournament, had a speration with reagional groups. At this time, 1922 to 1929, various positioning was attempted until numerous regional divisions were consolidated into one. During this period, Serie B, the second divison available. This occured simulataneously with a time in Italian football when the first Fascist party gve orders that no foreign nationals were allowed to compete in the league. This was counteracted at a high level by the introduction of Italian ancestries, known as rimpatriato, from South America.
In 1964, the league became known as Serie A as a result of the Lega Calcio being formed to replace Italian Federal Football Association. The Scudetti which is an Itlian term that means little shield, since 1924, is embroided on the shirt of the winner to wear. The team winning the league is referred to as winning the scudetto.
Italian League System
Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A is the top division in the Italian football league system. Division two was established in 1929 and is named Serie B. Numerous years laters, a 3rd division named Serie C was established. An insight of the national league format is presented on one table.
European tournament qualification
The teams positioned in the first 3 positions in the log qualify for the Champions League, an extra spot is given to the team that wins the Coppa Italia, and the clubs that are positioned in 4th to 6th will be given the opportunity to compete in other European tournaments such as the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League.
Relegation/Demotion format
From the 2006/2007 season onwards, the three bottom placed teams, 18;19 and 20, are relegated/demoted to Serie B. In 2005/2006 season, only two clubs got demoted. Before that format, three teams, 18; 19 and 20, faced direct relegation, and 2 clubs who were positioned in 17 and 18, would have playoffs where they play two-legged games which resulted in the winner avoiding relegation.
Ligue 1
The name of the first division in French football has been Ligue 1 since 2002, it was called Division One before that. The original league was established in 1932, 2 years after professionalism was legalised in French football.
Football became popular quite late in France. Cycling was the prime sport in France. Nonetheless, football began to prosper in Paris and started to grow in other regions. The first national tournament was organised in 1984 and only Parisian teams were eligible to compete at the time. This happened multiple decades before professional football in the country was introduced.
The first season of the first division league took place in 1932 and 20 teams were involved, during this time the league was called National, the same amount of teams that are involved in the league today.
Since 2007, the winner has been given the Hexagoal trophy which was made by Pablo Reinoso. It replaced the old cup which was named le Trophee de Ligue 1 which was made by d’Andree Putman.
The twenty clubs that participate, compete against each other in home and away games, in a 38-game format for each team in the league in a season. Since the 1994/1995 season, 3 points are awarded for a win and 1 point is awarded to both teams for a draw. The most points accumulated in a season was by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and this happened in the 2015/2016 season of Ligue 1 which was 96 points.
French league format
The top division in the French football system is Ligue 1, the 2nd divison in the system is Ligue 2, divisions 3; 4 and 5 are named Championnat National, in English it is known as the French National Championship. An insight regarding the league format in France is in one table.
Bundesliga
In 1963, the first division of German football, Bundesliga, was formed by the German Football Association. Since 2001 the league was planned by Deutsche Fußball Liga. The most decorated teams were grouped in one division for the first time.
German football leagues had existed far longer than the inauguration of the Bundesliga, in 1898 the first regional league named the Southern German football championship was formed.
The top clubs in the country were sent an invitation to become the founding members of the Bundesliga. These teams were namely FC Kaiserslautern, FC Köln, FC Saarbrücken, FC Nürnberg, Meidericher SV, Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Dortmund, Eintracht Braunschweig, Karlsruher SC, Hertha BSC Berlin, Preußen Münster, VfB Stuttgart, Hamburger SV, TSV 1860 München, Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen. FC Köln won by a six point gap including Uwe Seller being the golden boot winner with 30 goals for Hamburger.
Clubs with the most league titles
Information regarding the German teams that have won the best league numerous times, including the time between 1898 and 2024, including the era before Bundesliga.
In 1968, FC Nürnberg won its last league title, which is their only Bundesliga trophy. Schalke 04. Lokomotive Leipzig including Greuther Fürth, are the 3 teams on the list that never won the Bundesliga.
The other Bundesliga champions are namely Karlsruher FV, Holstein Kiel, 1860 Munich, SpVgg Blau-Weiß 1890 Berlin, Karlsruher SC, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Eintracht Frankfurt, VfL Wolfsburg, Freiburger FC, Rapid Wien, VfR Mannheim, Rot-Weiss Essen, Eintracht Braunschweig and Bayer Leverkusen. In 2013 BFC Viktoria 1889 was discontinued. In 1992 Blau-Weiß 1890 Berlin was discontinued.
Bundesliga Records.
Gerd Müller scored 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga appearances, a record that still stands and will be hard to beat. Charly Körbel holds the records for the most league appearances in Bundesliga history with 602 matches played for Eintracht Frankfurt.