Primera Nacional (usually called simply Nacional B, in English "National B Division", and known as Primera B Nacional until the 2019–20 season) is the second division of the Argentine football league system. The competition is made up of 37 teams. It is played by teams from all over the country. Clubs from

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

surroundings Surroundings are the area around a given physical or geographical point or place. The exact definition depends on the field. Surroundings can also be used in geography (when it is more precisely known as vicinity, or vicinage) and mathematics, ...

, as well as some from

Santa Fe Province The Province of Santa Fe ( es, Provincia de Santa Fe, ) is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco Province, Chaco (divided by the 28th ...

, are promoted from or relegated to the

Primera B Metropolitana Primera B Metropolitana is one of two professional leagues that form the third level of the Argentine football league system. The division is made up of 17 clubs mainly from the city of Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, Greater Buenos Aires. ...

("Metropolitan B Division") while for teams from the other

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

the

Torneo Federal A The Torneo Federal A (in English "Federal A Tournament") is one of the two professional leagues that form the regionalised third level of the Argentine football league system, along with Primera B Metropolitana. The competition was established in 2 ...

("Federal A Tournament") is the next level down. In Argentine football, Nacional B is the second-highest league, and from it, the three best teams are automatically promoted to Primera División. Primera B Nacional games are often transmitted to Argentina and abroad on television by

TyC Sports TyC Sports is an Argentine pay television sports channel owned by Torneos and Clarín Group, based in Buenos Aires. In Argentina, the channel broadcasts the Argentine B Nacional, CONMEBOL Qualifiers, Argentina national football team friendly ...

History

It was created in 1986 to integrate unaffiliated clubs into the Argentine football structure, which until then had only participated in

Nacional championship The Campeonato Nacional was one of the two football tournaments that formed the Primera División season (along with the Metropolitano championship) since 1967. The Nacional championship was played annually until its last edition in 1985. The N ...

s of Argentina's First Division tournament. It brought together teams from the old Primera B (until then, the second division) and

regional leagues In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

from several Argentine provinces. After the 1985–86 season, the Primera B Nacional became the second hierarchical league in Argentina's professional football, after the Primera División, and it is above the Torneo Federal A and the Primera B Metropolitana, the last one started to act as a third division for the teams directly affiliated to AFA. Beginning in the 2019–20 season, the name was changed dropping the B to simply be known as Primera Nacional.

Format

Thirty-seven teams play each other once for a total of thirty-six rounds. The top-placed team will be the champion and will also earn promotion to the Primera División. The teams placed from 2nd to 13th place will compete in the "Torneo Reducido" for the second promotion berth after the regular season ends, with the team placed 2nd entering in the third round, the team placed 3rd entering in the second round and the teams placed 4th to 13th entering in the first round.

List of champions

Since the first season held in 1986–87, the following teams have crowned champions of the division:List of Argentine second division champions
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

;Notes

Titles by club

Seasons in Primera Nacional

Top scorers

Notes

References

External links

*
Ascenso del Interior

Interior Futbolero

Promiedos

Primera B Nacional summary
on Soccerway {{CONMEBOL second leagues 1986 establishments in Argentina 2 Professional sports leagues in Argentina

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Sports leagues established in 1986