Spanish Football Ups & Downs 2025-26: Promotions, Relegations & European Places

Here are the Spanish Football Promotions, Relegations & European Places for the 2025-26 season.

Updated June 10, 2026 with playoff semifinal results. You can skip ahead to this season’s results here.

Like in England, Spanish football uses a promotion and relegation system where teams move through the tiers of leagues. But how does it work?

Meanwhile, here is a post all about promotion and relegation in the top European football leagues.

Spanish Football League Structure

At the top of the Spanish league system is La Liga., including all the famous clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid and the rest. Just below that is Segunda División, and below that is Primera Federación. Beneath that in the fourth tier is the Segunda Federación. Clubs in that tier are semiprofessional and amateur, and from the fifth tier down it’s all amateur.

Connecting all of this, as in England, is a system of promotion and relegation.

Spanish Football Clubs Qualifying For Europe

At the top of La Liga, similar to the Premier League, the top five clubs qualify for the next season’s Champions League. No. 6 goes to the Europa League, and no. 7 goes to the Europa Conference League.

The winners of the Copa del Rey also go to the Europa League, but if they already qualified via the league table for the Champions League, then #6 takes their spot in Europa, and #7 goes to Conference League. This happens often!

Spanish Football Promotion and Relegation

The three clubs at the bottom of La Liga, nos. 18, 19, and 20, are automatically relegated to the Segunda División.

Meanwhile, in the Segunda División, the top two teams are automatically promoted to La Liga.

Teams that finish 3rd through 6th in the Segunda División qualify for the promotion playoffs, with the winner claiming the third promotion spot to La Liga.

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2025-26 Promotions, Relegations and European Places in Spain

Spanish European Places

At the end of the 2025-26 La Liga season, the top of the table looked like this. (Links here go to our profile of each club).

1. Barcelona — Champions League (Buy Barcelona Tickets)
2. Real Madrid — Champions League (Buy Real Madrid Tickets)
3. Villarreal — Champions League
4. Atlético Madrid — Champions League (Buy Atlético Madrid Tickets)
5. Real Betis — Champions League (Buy Real Betis Tickets)
6. Celta Vigo — Europa League
7. Getafe — Conference League Qualifying Round
8. Rayo Vallecano — nothing
9. Valencia — nothing (Buy Valencia Tickets)
10. Real Sociedad — Europa League because they won the Copa del Rey.

Relegated from La Liga to Segunda División, 2025-26 Season

The 2025-26 La Liga season is over, and these teams will be in Liga 2 next season:

• Mallorca — (Buy Mallorca Tickets)
• Girona — (Buy Girona Tickets)
• Real Oviedo — (Buy Oviedo Tickets)

Promoted from Segunda División to La Liga, 2025-26 Season

The Liga 2 season ended on May 31. Here is the top of the final table.

1. Racing Santander — promoted
2. Deportivo La Coruña — promoted
3. Almería — playoffs
4. Málaga — playoffs
5. Las Palmas — playoffs
6. Castellón — playoffs

Spanish Promotion Playoffs, 2025-26 Season

Here are the matchups and schedule for the 2025-26 Liga 2 promotion playoffs:

• Almería 4-3 Castellón
• Málaga 2-1 Las Palmas
• Almería and Málaga play for the final promotion spot on June 14 and 21

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