How Many Professional Football Teams in Spain?
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Overview
Spain has a rich football culture with a long history of producing top-notch teams. In this post, we’ll explore the number of professional football teams in Spain.
League Structure
Spanish football is administered by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), which oversees various leagues and competitions across the country. The main structure includes:
Top Leagues
- La Liga: The top-tier division in Spanish football, featuring 20 clubs.
- Segunda División: The second-tier league, consisting of 22 teams.
Lower Leagues
- Segunda División B: The third tier, comprised of 40 teams divided into five groups (groups 1-5).
- Tercera División: The fourth tier, featuring 90 teams in various regions of Spain.
- Regional and District Championships: Various local leagues and competitions that feed into the national pyramid system.
Professional Teams
While the exact number of professional football teams in Spain is difficult to pinpoint, we can estimate the total count by considering:
Top-Level Clubs
- The 20 clubs in La Liga are technically professional teams.
- Of these 20 teams, 12 have been crowned Spanish champions at least once in their history.
Lower-League Teams
- Most Segunda División and Segunda División B teams are also considered semi-professional or professional.
- Using estimates from the RFEF and various reports, we can assume around 40-50% of Tercera División teams are operating with at least a modest level of professionalism.
Regional Teams
- This section is too broad to estimate accurately. However, considering there are over 300 clubs participating in regional championships across Spain each season, it’s likely that some percentage will be considered professional or semi-professional.
Estimating the number of true, fully-fledged professional football teams in Spain proves challenging due to various factors such as amateurism, part-time professional status in lower leagues and local team hierarchies.
