Primera División Argentina

Infobox football league
current =
Torneo Apertura 2008

pixels=140
caption="Primera División Argentina
sport=Football
founded=1931
teams=20
country=ARG
confed=CONMEBOL
confed_cup = Copa Libertadores
Copa Sudamericana
champions=River Plate
season=Torneo Clausura 2008
tv = TyC Sports, TyC Max, Fox Sports, Fox Soccer Channel, SporTV, Chilevisión, Digital+, CCTV

Primera División (English: First Division) is the top category of Argentine Football, and is organized by the Argentine Football Association. It was founded in 1931, and currently, there are 20 teams in the first division.

The Argentine league is regarded as one of the strongest leagues in the football world. Teams from Argentina have won the Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and the now defunct Intercontinental Cup more than any other country.

Clausura 2008, the most recent tournament, was won by River Plate, who is also the most successful club in the league's history with 33 championships.

Format

The 20 teams play two single round-robin tournaments each year: the Clausura, from February to June, and the Apertura, from August to December. Thus, there are two champions each season. Unlike most European countries, Argentina has no official cup competition.

The names of the tournaments, "Clausura", literally means "Closing", and "Apertura", literally means "Opening", reflect Northern Hemisphere sports seasons. This scheme was introduced in 1990 to replace the austral season, and was at the time alien to Argentines — who live in the Southern Hemisphere and are used to sports seasons that span a single calendar year (for example 2004, as opposed to 2004/05). Since then, many South and Central American leagues adopted the format, including Uruguay, Mexico and , although Uruguay is to return to austral season in 2009.

2008-09 teams

Other official competitions

Other than the league tournaments, AFA also officially recognizes three other competitions.

* Copa Suecia in 1958, which was held when the league was interrupted by the 1958 World Cup and was won by Atlanta
* Copa Argentina in 1969, which was contested as the qualifying competition for Copa Ganadores de Copa 1970 and was won by Boca Juniors
* Copa Centenario in 1993/94, which celebrated AFA's 100th anniversary and was won by Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata

These three competitions are not considered league tournaments, but the competitions are official and the championships are regarded as official titles. For example, there are "two stars" on the jersey of Gimnasia y Esgrima, representing the title of Copa Centenario and their only league title in 1929.

Topscorers

The all-time top scorers of Primera División Argentina are Arsenio Erico and Angel Labruna both with 293 goals. However, Arsenio Erico holds a better percentage scoring 293 goals in 332 games compared with Angel Labruna 293 goals in 515 games. Most players on the all-time top scorers table had their golden age before 1970s, with all of the top five all-time scorers having retired before 1973. The only current player in the top twenty list is Martín Palermo, who had played for Estudiantes and Boca in the Primera División.

Argentine Clubs in Current International Competitions

Copa Libertadores

ee also

*Football in Argentina
*Argentine Football Association
*List of football clubs in Argentina
*Argentine football league system
*Records of Primera División Argentina
*All-time Argentine First Division table
*Apertura and Clausura in Argentine football
*Qualifying method of Copa Libertadores in Argentina
*Football rivalries in Argentina
*List of Argentine football announcers
*Copa Suecia
*Copa Argentina de Fútbol
*Copa Centenario de la AFA

References