Primera División

The Argentine Primera División is the top flight of men’s professional football in Argentina. Founded in April 1891, Argentina was the first country outside the United Kingdom to establish a football league, but it did not become a fully professional entity until 1931. The Argentine Primera División is under the stewardship of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and like many leagues worldwide, operates on a promotion-relegation system.

However, in addition to the standard promotion-relegation system, the Argentine Primera División uses a unique averaging method in which the two teams with the worst average point total over three years are relegated, while the top two teams from the Primera Nacional (second division) are promoted to the Primera División. Depending on a team’s performance, it will be eligible to compete in either the Copa Libertadores or the Copa Sudamericana.

The Primera División has undergone many changes in its format since its inception. It started as a round-robin format in its early days until the mid 1960s, before switching to a two championship system in which two tournaments (the Metropolitano championship and Nacional championship) were played each year.

From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, the league changes its format again, this time to the double round-robin format similar to what is done in many European leagues, but decided to move back to a single round-robin format and again split the league into two tournaments (Apertura and Clausura) from 1991 to 2012. As of 2020, the league has returned a single tournament in which each team plays each other once.

River Plate, Boca Juniors, Racing, Independiente, and San Lorenzo are among the most successful teams in Argentine Primera División history.

Matches in Argentina were previously broadcast locally by various channels, including Telefe, America TV, El Trece, and Channel 7. However, coverage has largely shifted to American-owned entities ESPN and TNT. ESPN Premium and TNT Sports split TV broadcasts, with each covering half of each match per round, while Argentinian broadcaster Televisión Pública also covers a select number of games. Live-streaming options include Prende TV, Star+ and Fanatiz.

Meanwhile, in the USA, matches have been live-streamed on Paramount+ since 2021, while TV broadcasters carrying the Argentine Primera División in the USA include Tyc Sports. ViX and Fanatiz offer additional live-streaming options for the Primera División with Spanish commentary in the USA.