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Argentine Football - Liga Profesional y Seleccion

Punchanello

Punchanello

Impact Sub
Joined
Jun 23, 2026
Replies
192
Thought I would start a thread for anyone interested and the trainspotters.

The 2026 domestic season has been weird (weirder than most anyway) with what looks like an ad-hoc, arbitrary and unnecessarily complex set of new rules. As simply as I can describe it, the new season format is -
  • Two tournaments: Apertura and Clausura.
  • In each tournament:
    • The 30 teams are split into 2 groups of 15.
    • Teams play every other team in their group once.
    • Each team also plays 2 cross-group matches.
    • The top 8 teams from each group qualify for the Round of 16.
    • The knockout rounds (Round of 16, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals and Final) are all single-match eliminations.
  • The Apertura winner qualifies for the 2027 Copa Libertadores as Argentina 1.
  • The Clausura winner qualifies as Argentina 2.
  • Other international places are decided by the overall season standings.
League title
  • A new title, “League Champion”, is awarded to the team with the most points across the entire season.
Relegation
  • Two teamsare relegated:
    • One based on the relegation coefficient system.
    • One for finishing last in the overall season table.
 
Why is it like this? Like everything in Argentina, it's some combination of politics, self-interest and money.

The positive angle is that this is about -
  • Expanding the top tier beyond a Buenos Aires dominated league and into the provinces (30 teams)
  • Offering opportunity for smaller clubs to be more financially viable and competitive for longer across the season
The negative POV is -
  • AFA consolidating power
  • Favouritism towards BA clubs
  • A battle between the traditional member driven club model (this is still the dominant model in Argentina) and a desire for greater corporatisation of the game.
Everyone except AFA and the club executives seem to think that it's shit.

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