How the hell do the Spanish Leagues work?

[basskadet]

It has never struck me before how strange the Spanish football system is. I was looking at their lower divisions earlier &, altho I knew that the bigger teams' B sides play, it never really occurred to me just how weird that is.

The way their League is set up is just plain strange. They have the 1st Division & then the 2nd Division, but then they have the 2nd Division B. That 2nd Division B is then divided up into 4 'groups' which are all Leagues in themselves, with 20 teams each, & it is the same set up with the 3rd Division.

It all sounds incredibly complicated to me. The really weird thing is that the main teams virtually all have B teams playing within these Leagues & whilst I am unsure whether or not they can freely move any player they like between the 2, I do know that certain players they have registered with the B team can still play for the 1st team.

I do not understand. What is to stop a B team being promoted into the same League as the 1st team? That would just be odd, to play your own B team twice in a season in the same competitive League. Who would play for who then?

Can someone please explain this weird Spanish way of doing things to me?

[spursman18]

this is really answering your question but i remember the chavs wanted to put out their reserve team as a "B" team into the championship a couple of seasons back so it would have been interesting to see what happened with that. But obviously that team would stick together and play the first team

[Ekad]

The 'B' teams cannot be promoted into the top league. I think it was either Barca 'B' or RM 'B' that were in that situation not so long ago.

I think the lower Spanish leagues work like they do in Argentina where they have the top league, one below and then split into two regional leagues. Like we have with the Blue Square prem, north and south leagues.

[gazza]

real madrid b qualified for the first division but couldnt go up of course. also villarreal b is a playable team in fifa 10 and you can get them promoted to the first division lolol

[Irish Yid Pavlyuchenko]

Instructions of the La Liga:

There are 2 teams. Real and Barca.

That is all.

[rudi]

Barca's B Team(FC Barcelona Atletic) (there's also a Barcelona C!) have their own stadium across the way from the Nou camp; it's bloody lovely, holds about 15k if I remember rightly. Guardiola was their manager the first tome I visited; no idea who was the boss last time I was there (just looked it up: it's Louis Enrique. Seems like an excellent way to train up your next boss, doesn't it?).

No B team is allowed to play in the same league as their parent (nor are they allowed to play in the Copa de Rey).

Ooh, and here's a brief list of some ex Barca B players ripped off the wiki. I'd give it a B+

Francisco José Carrasco, Ramón Calderé, Guillermo Amor, Albert Ferrer, Josep Guardiola, Sergi Barjuán, Víctor Valdés, Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodríguez, Bojan Krkić, Iván de la Peña, David Sánchez, Luis García, Pepe Reina, Mikel Arteta, Fran Mérida, Cesc Fàbregas, Albert Luque and Giovani dos Santos.

[rudi]

Some leagues are mental. Brazil run a national and various state leagues simultaneously, Argentina have two seasons every year(!) and teams get promoted and relegated based on their average scores over the previous three years (how confusing is that??).

Uruguay's the one I don't get though. Split into two seasons, the winner of the first plays the winner of the second, but what do you do if you win the first? Why bother to even compete in the second until the "final"? Makes no sense to me at all...

[HeroesComesandGoes]

Ooh, and here's a brief list of some ex Barca B players ripped off the wiki. I'd give it a B+

Francisco José Carrasco, Ramón Calderé, Guillermo Amor, Albert Ferrer, Josep Guardiola, Sergi Barjuán, Víctor Valdés, Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodríguez, Bojan Krkić, Iván de la Peña, David Sánchez, Luis García, Pepe Reina, Mikel Arteta, Fran Mérida, Cesc Fàbregas, Albert Luque and Giovani dos Santos.

Super FAIL

[basskadet]

No B team is allowed to play in the same league as their parent (nor are they allowed to play in the Copa de Rey).

OK then guys, does that then mean that a team being relegated into the League below would not get relegated if their 'B' team was in it? Or would the 'B' team have to go down as well, which would then mean that 1 of the other relegated teams would stay up . . . erm, I think ???

[steelktm]

something tells me that teams with "B squads" won't have to worry about that at all there Bass.

[T.K. Massive]

It has never struck me before how strange the Spanish football system is. I was looking at their lower divisions earlier &, altho I knew that the bigger teams' B sides play, it never really occurred to me just how weird that is.

The way their League is set up is just plain strange. They have the 1st Division & then the 2nd Division, but then they have the 2nd Division B. That 2nd Division B is then divided up into 4 'groups' which are all Leagues in themselves, with 20 teams each, & it is the same set up with the 3rd Division.

It all sounds incredibly complicated to me. The really weird thing is that the main teams virtually all have B teams playing within these Leagues & whilst I am unsure whether or not they can freely move any player they like between the 2, I do know that certain players they have registered with the B team can still play for the 1st team.

I do not understand. What is to stop a B team being promoted into the same League as the 1st team? That would just be odd, to play your own B team twice in a season in the same competitive League. Who would play for who then?

Can someone please explain this weird Spanish way of doing things to me?

woah, thought English football was complicated to explain to people. wouldn't want to explain where your local spanish team is to N Americans though

[steelktm]

woah, thought English football was complicated to explain to people. wouldn't want to explain where your local spanish team is to N Americans though

it would be easy. . .just explain how many teams it takes for your player to reach Real Madrid or Barcelona. so like the 7 steps to Kevin Bacon. except it would be 7 Teams to Real Madrid/Barcelona. done!