Liga Asobal is the premier professional

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

league in Spain. It was founded in 1958 with the name of División de Honor, changing its name to the current name in 1990. The Liga ASOBAL, which is played under EHF rules, currently consists of 16 teams, including famous ones like FC Barcelona,

Ademar León Ademar is a masculine Germanic name, ultimately derived from ''Audamar'', as is the German form Otmar. It was in use in medieval France, Latinized as ''Adamarus'', and in modern times has been popular in French, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking cou ...

, Bidasoa and Granollers. Famous handball players who have played in the league include Jackson Richardson,

Talant Dujshebaev Talant Mushanbetovich Dujshebaev (russian: Талант Мушанбетович Дуйшебаев; born 2 June 1968) is a former handball player who successively played for 4 national teams: Soviet Union, Unified Team, Russia and Spain finall ...

, Staffan Olsson,

Mikhail Yakimovich Mikhail Ivanovich Yakimovich ( be, Міхаіл Іванавіч Якімовіч; russian: Михаил Иванович Якимович, born December 12, 1967) is a former Belarusian handball player. Throughout his senior career, Yakimovich p ...

Ólafur Stefánsson Ólafur Indriði Stefánsson (born 3 July 1973 in Reykjavík, Iceland) is a former Icelandic handball player who, for many years was the captain of the Iceland men's national handball team but announced his international retirement after the 20 ...

Oleg Kisselev Oleg Viktorovich Kiselyov (russian: Олег Викторович Киселёв; born 11 January 1967 in Yaroslavl) is a Russian team handball, handball player. He won a gold medal with the Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics ...

Alberto Urdiales Alberto Urdiales Márquez (born 17 November 1968 in Santander, Cantabria) is a Spanish handball player. He competed in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympics. In 1992, he was a member of the Spanish handball team which finished fifth in the Olympic ...

Mateo Garralda Mateo Jesús Garralda Larumbe (born 1 December 1969) is a Spanish retired handballer and the current head coach of the Chilean national team. He competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics, in the 1996 Summer Olympics, in the 2000 Summer Olympics, and ...

Enric Masip Enric Masip Borrás (born September 1, 1969 in Barcelona) is a retired Spanish handball player. He is considered one of the best Spanish handball players ever. Formed in the younger categories of BM Granollers, in 1987 begun to play with the fir ...

Iñaki Urdangarin Iñaki Urdangarin Liebaert (born 15 January 1968) is a retired Spanish handball player turned entrepreneur and the husband of Infanta Cristina, younger daughter of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía. He was the brother-in-law of King Felipe VI. ...

David Barrufet David Barrufet Bofill (born 4 June 1970 in Barcelona, Spain) is a former Spanish handball goalkeeper, who last played for FC Barcelona Handbol during the 2009-10 season. He began playing handball in SAFA Horta school in Barcelon ...

Kristian Kjelling Kristian Cato Walby Kjelling (; born 8 September 1980) is a retired Norwegian handball player, who last played for the Norwegian club Drammen HK. He is now their coach. Career Before re-joining Drammen HK he played for the Spanish clubs Portland ...

, Mikkel Hansen,

Petar Metličić Petar Metličić (born 25 December 1976) is a retired Croatian handball player. He was captain of the Croatian national team Ivano Balić Ivano Balić (; born 1 April 1979) is a Croatian former professional handballer who is currently working as assistant coach (sport), coach of the Croatia men's national handball team, Croatia national handball team. He was voted five times in a ...

Juanín García Juan Antonio "Juanín" García Lorenzana (born 28 August 1977 in León) is a Spanish handball player. He currently plays for CB Ademar León. He participated at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as a member of the Spain men's national hand ...

, Mats Olsson, David Davis, László Nagy, Raúl Entrerríos,

Alberto Entrerríos Alberto Entrerrios (born 7 November 1976 in Gijón, Asturias) is a Spanish former professional handball player. He is 192 cm tall and weighs 102 kg. He spent 10 seasons (2002–2012) playing for BM Ciudad Real and 1 season (2011–201 ...

, and many others.

History

* The "División de Honor" Handball championship was created in 1958 and was managed by the Spanish Handball Federation (FEBM) until 1990. ASOBAL (Handball Clubs Association) was formed in 1984. In 1990, ASOBAL took control of the División de Honor and renamed it Liga ASOBAL. * FC Barcelona have won every championship since 2011, in part due to the disbandment of previous top clubs

Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ; en, "Royal City") is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. History It was founde ...

and Portland San Antonio. *The 13-time champions Granollers have not won the title since the 1973–74 season.

Championship rules

Each team of every division has to play with all the other teams of its division twice, once at home and the other at the opponent's stadium. This means that in ''Liga ASOBAL'' the league ends after every team plays 30 matches. Like many other leagues in continental Europe, the ''Liga ASOBAL'' takes a winter break once each team has played half its schedule. One unusual feature of the league is that the two halves of the season are played in the same order—that is, the order of each team's first-half fixtures is repeated in the second half of the season, with the only difference being the stadiums used. Each victory adds 2 points to the team in the league ranking. Each drawn adds 1 point.head-to-head. At the end of the league, the winner is: #The team that has most points in the ranking. #If two or more teams are level on points, the winner is the team that has the best results #If there is no winner after applying the second rule, then the team with the best overall goal difference wins.

2022-23 season teams

Champions by year

Primera División champions

División de Honor champions

Liga ASOBAL champions

Performance by club

All-time Liga ASOBAL table

*''Updated at completion of 2017–18 season.'' League or status at 2018–19 season:

Statistics

EHF coefficients

The following data indicates Spanish coefficient rankings between European handball leagues. ;Country ranking: EHF League Ranking for 2018/19 season: *1. (''1'') Handball-Bundesliga (128.50) *2. (''2'') Liga ASOBAL (115) *3. (''3'') Nemzeti Bajnokság I (106.83) *4. (''4'') LNH Division 1 (105.83) *5. (''5'')

Polish Superliga The Polish Superliga, also known as the PGNiG Superliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's handball league in Poland. The current champion is Vive Kielce, the most titled Polish handball club, maintaining its position at the top of the tab ...

(75.71) ;Club ranking: EHF Club Ranking as of 3 March 2019: * 1. Barcelona (1002) * 25.

(346) * 28. La Rioja (317) * 32. Granollers (295) * 52. Anaitasuna (165)

References

External links

Official website

The ASOBAL Magazine, "balonmano"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liga Asobal 1 Professional sports leagues in Spain