The Spanish professional football league La Liga, also known as Primera División, began its history in 1928, when the top ten clubs were determined to participate in the tournament. It is the top division of the Spanish football leagues and one of the most significant championships in this sport in Europe and the world. As of 2021, it consists of 20 football clubs and only three founding clubs have never dropped into the lower divisions: Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao.
Meaning and history
The official sponsor of the league is the largest financial and credit organization in Spain, Grupo Santander, therefore the formal name of the championship is LaLiga Santander, and it is this name that can be found on the official logo since 2016. In addition to the name of the league, the official emblem of the championship includes the image of a soccer ball surrounded by seven multi-colored sectors corresponding to the colors of the rainbow.
1984 – 1993
The first logo we know appeared in 1984 with the establishment of the National Professional Football League (Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional), the main football sports association in Spain.
The logo is made in black and white in a square frame with rounded edges at the top. In the symbols depicted on the emblem, you can recognize the variation of the abbreviation LFP (Liga de Fútbol Profesional). The letters “F” and “P” seem to merge together, and the “L” resembles a right-angled triangle. There is also a soccer ball in the lower left quarter of the logo.
1993 – 2016
Since 1993 the championship has changed its name to “Liga de Fútbol Profesional” and transforms its logo. The image is credited to the Spanish design studio Giménez del Pueblo, founded in 1989.
Since then, the logo features a soccer ball surrounded by seven multi-colored sectors in accordance with the colors of the rainbow. Below this image is the abbreviation of the league’s full name: three letters LFP. The name is printed in black capital letters of the same size in Arial.
2016 – today
In 2016, the championship was officially renamed to its most popular name – La Liga. The main image remains almost unchanged from the 1993 logo. At the same time, the colors of the sectors became more saturated, and the image of the soccer ball changed slightly – it began to look more voluminous and less graphic, thanks to the broken lines. Added the title of the championship next to this image. The authorship of the new logo belongs to the creative studio IS Creative Studio.
Color and font
The main colors used in the logo since 1993 correspond to the shades of the rainbow: individual shapes are located clockwise, starting with red and ending with purple. There is a feeling that it was a single multi-colored ring around a soccer ball, split into sectors. The league’s name has been printed in black letters throughout its history. The logo, current for 2021, includes the name “La Liga”, with a specially omitted space between the two words. The lowercase “i” is shown taller than the rest of the letters in the logo, including the uppercase ones. After the official sponsorship agreement with Grupo Santander, the name “Santander” in red is added to the league’s name in the logo.
