La Liga Standings
Spanish La Liga Standings & Rankings
The Spanish soccer league operates on a system where teams compete against each other in a series of matches, and the La Liga standings and rankings are determined based on their performance over the course of a season.
Throughout the season, the standings are updated after each round of matches, reflecting the current performance and position of each team. This system creates an exciting and competitive environment as teams vie for the top spots and fight to avoid relegation.
In the La Liga, 20 teams compete from August to May in a double round-robin format. In the Spanish La Liga standings, losses are not rewarded, one point is awarded for draws, and the full three points are given for a win. At the end of 90-minutes and stoppage time, every league result is final and reflected in the standings.
La Liga Rankings
The winner of each La Liga season is the team who finishes the 38-game schedule with the most points in the table. The head-to-head goal difference is the tiebreaker between two teams in the table. A tie between three or more La Liga teams is broken by head-to-head points. Promotion and relegation operate similar to the English Premier League.
La Liga relegates the bottom three teams to La Liga 2 each season. In the La Liga 2 standings, first and second are automatically promoted to La Liga. The last team who goes up from La Liga 2 is the winner of the promotion playoff. The promotion playoff is contested in two rounds and features the teams who finish third to sixth in the second tier.
The end of the season often rewards tanking in American sports, but that’s not the case in La Liga. Spanish La Liga standings and scores are important for most every team as the top six teams can qualify for European competition and teams near the bottom fight to stay out of the bottom three.
La Liga’s top-four teams earn a place in the Champions League, the first-tier UEFA club competition. A Europa League place is given to fifth-place and the sixth-place team gains entry into the relatively new UEFA Conference League. If the team who wins the domestic cup, the Copa del Rey, finishes outside of the top-five, they are also awarded a place in the Europa League.
Point spreads will take multiple factors into account but one of them is each team’s place in the La Liga standings and recent scores.
Spanish La Liga Standings & Format
Points System:
In each match, teams earn points based on their performance. The points system is as follows:
- Win: A team earns 3 points for winning a match.
- Draw: Each team earns 1 point if the match ends in a draw.
- Loss: No points are awarded to the losing team.
Tiebreakers:
If two or more teams have the same number of points at the end of the season, the following tiebreakers are applied to determine their position in the standings:
- Head-to-head points: If the tied teams have played each other twice in the season, the team with more points in those direct matches gets the higher position.
- Head-to-head goal difference: If the teams are still tied, the team with the better goal difference in their direct matches takes precedence.
- Overall goal difference: If the tie persists, the team with the better overall goal difference across all matches in the season gets the advantage.
- Goals scored: If necessary, the team with the higher number of goals scored throughout the season is ranked higher.
European Qualification:
The teams that finish at the top of the La Liga standings qualify for various European competitions like the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The exact number of qualifying spots depends on UEFA coefficients and can change from season to season.
Relegation:
On the other end of the standings, the three teams that finish at the bottom of the table are relegated to the second-tier league, known as La Liga SmartBank. They are replaced by the top three teams from La Liga SmartBank.
