The Argentine Football Association (AFA) held an assembly on October 17 to decide the future of Argentine football. During the meeting, Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia was re-elected AFA president and the relegations of this year’s Primera División were annulled. This means Argentina’s top league will have 30 teams in 2025 — the most of any major footballing country — and a completely new format.

How will the new format work?

Similar to this year’s Copa de la Liga, the top division will be split into two groups of 15 teams. Each team will play the other in their group once. There will also be two ‘interzonal’ games — one clásico and another decided by a draw. At the end of the regular season, the top eight teams of each table will qualify for the playoffs.

This format will be used twice throughout the year. The first tournament will be held from late January until July, and the second will begin in mid-July and run until December.

At the end of the year, two teams will be relegated: the lowest-ranking team in the average points table, which reflects each team’s point total from the last three seasons in the top division divided by the number of games played, and the lowest ranking team in the annual table, which measures the total points earned from the two league tournaments in 2025.

Each team will play a minimum of 32 league games, and top-division football will be played throughout the 12 months of 2025.

This is not the first time the Primera División has had 30 teams. At the beginning of 2015, ten teams were promoted from the Primera B Nacional to the Primera, creating the first 30-team league in modern Argentine football history. The aim was to make the league more inclusive.

How does this affect Argentine football?

With the addition of two more clubs, there is a higher chance of clubs outside of the capital ascending to the first division, as seen by the recent promotions of Aldosivi and San Martín — teams that play in the cities of Mar del Plata and San Juan, respectively.

Argentine football historian Esteban Bekerman told the Herald there could be positive aspects to adding two more teams to the league.

“If clubs from the interior [areas outside of Buenos Aires] are able to promote a greater professionalization of football in their respective cities, this can lead to better infrastructure and the emergence of [new] stars,” he said.

However, critics of the new 30-team format recall issues from the 2015 championship, warning that while the format may be different, it’s prone to some of the same problems. They contend that many teams will have little to play for and that there will be a growing gap in quality between the smaller teams and the grandes, so it may only be a matter of time before the league format changes yet again.

“The main argument publicly put forth by the LPF (Argentine Professional Football League) is about promoting greater federalism,” journalist Santiago Bauzá told the Herald. “That’s relative, depending on which teams get promoted from the Primera Nacional. Both of the promoted teams could come from Buenos Aires, which would just be more of the same.”

Tapia, who spearheaded the new format, has been heavily criticized for multiple changes to league competitions over the years.

“[His] political line has consisted of keeping big and small clubs on his side with his decisions, regardless of how they affect the competition,” Bauzá added.

The AFA did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment.

Because Argentina is the first and only major footballing nation with so many teams in its top division, there’s no track record to dictate whether this system can work long-term.

© Buenos Aires Herald