The Spanish football champions are the winners of the primary football competition in Spain, La Liga. The league is contested on a round robin basis and the championship awarded to the team that is top of the league at the end of the season. La Liga, first established in 1929, originally contained ten teams. Before La Liga's organization, the Copa del Rey—a regionalised cup competition—was effectively the national championship.[1] La Liga is contested in by 20 teams; the three lowest-placed teams are relegated to the Segunda División and replaced by the top three teams in that division. Of the founding teams in La Liga, only Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao have not been relegated.[2] The league was cancelled between 1936 and 1939 because of the Spanish Civil War.[3]
Real Madrid and Barcelona are the most successful clubs; they have won 31 and 19 titles, respectively, as of 2009[update]. No other club has won the title on more than nine occasions; the most recent club other than Real Madrid and Barcelona to win the league is Valencia in the 2003–04 season. Athletic Bilbao has won the Spanish version of The Double the most, having won the league and cup in the same year five times in its history.[4] Barcelona is the only Spanish team that has won The Treble, which includes the UEFA Champions League along with the league and Copa del Rey. The current champions are Barcelona, who won the 2008–09 competition.[5]
Spain
.jpg){kind=link}