The Primera Division is the top competition in Argentine football and features 20 clubs in a league format. The competition was set up in 1893 and is now regarded as one of the strongest leagues in the world. The most successful team in Argentina remain River Plate who have won 33 titles in the nation’s championship. Argentina now have five times from their championship that qualify for the Copa Libertadores, the South American club championship.

The early years of the competition were dominated by Buenos Aires clubs like Boca Juniors, River Plate, Independiente, Racing and San Lorenzo. In 1967 Argentina abandoned the traditional European league format and split their season into two with a Metropolitan Championship and a National Championship. This format continued for many years, and after a brief dalliance in the 80’s with a European style league season, was cemented in 1991 with the introduction of the Apertura and Clausura half-seasons. No longer is there an overall club champion in Argentina but instead there is the Apertura (the first half of the season) winner and the Clausura (the second half of the season) winner. Occasionally the same team will win both competitions, in fact this has happened five times since 1991 with the last winners being Boca Juniors in 2005/06. Boca also triumphed in the last Apertura with Velez Sarsfield winners of the most recent Clausura earlier in 2009.

Argentinean football has given the world some of the biggest and most famous clubs in the sport. As mentioned earlier River Plate have won more titles than any other Argentine club but other big names to emerge from the country are Boca Juniors, Independiente and Velez Sarsfield.