How many teams compete in La Liga each season? 20 teams. Spain’s top men’s football division uses a 20-club format, with every team playing the others twice during the league campaign.
That creates 38 matches per club: 19 at home and 19 away. Across the whole competition, the schedule contains 380 matches. Teams receive three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a defeat, with the standings ultimately decided by points and applicable tiebreakers.
At the end of the season, the bottom three clubs are relegated to Segunda División, Spain’s second tier. They are replaced by promoted teams, preserving the 20-team structure for the following campaign. The exact promotion play-off arrangements can affect which clubs come up, but not the division’s standard size.
La Liga began in 1929 with 10 founding clubs. The competition expanded over time before settling into the modern 20-team format. A neighbouring fact readers often ask is why a club plays 38 games rather than 39: the answer is that each of the other 19 teams is faced once home and once away.