The División de Honor Juvenil is the top level of the
Spanish football league system
The Spanish football league system consists of several professional, semi-professional, amateur and non-professional leagues bound together hierarchically by promotion and relegation.
The top two tiers of the male league pyramid — Primera Di ...
for youth players 19 years old and under. The División de Honor is administered by the
RFEF
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. Founded on 29 September 1913, it is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid.
RFEF organizes the national cup competitio ...
through the ''Liga Nacional de Fútbol Aficionado (LNFA)''.
Format
The División de Honor begins the first weekend in September and ends in April or May. The División de Honor's season is similar to the senior players'
La Liga
The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...
playing a double round-robin points based system. There are seven groups of 16 teams. The teams with the most points in each group are declared champion of its group and advance to the
Copa de Campeones Juvenil de Fútbol
The Copa de Campeones de Juvenil is the tournament created by the RFEF to determine the overall youth champion of Spain.
Since the 2014–15 season, the winner of this competition will qualify for the UEFA Youth League.
Competition format
The w ...
. In each group, the teams placing 13th and below are relegated to the Liga Nacional or the Canarias Preferente in the case of those teams from the Canary Islands (Group6).
History
Created in 1986, the ''Superliga Juvenil'' was a national league with 16 teams. However, traveling across the country caused financial hardships for some clubs.
Real Valladolid
Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the .
The club ...
(in 1993), and
Las Palmas
Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean.
It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...
and
Espanyol (in 1994) dropped out of the league.
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...
withdrew from the league in 1994 when their second reserve team
Real Madrid C
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol C, commonly known as Real Madrid C, is a Spanish association football team, and is Real Madrid's second reserve team. They play in , holding their home games at La Ciudad del Real Madrid in Valdebebas outside the cit ...
kept their status in the
Segunda División B
Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...
. 15 teams played in 1994–95 and the league was disbanded after the season. In 1995, the RFEF elevated the six regional based groups of the División de Honor (which was the second level) as the top youth level and created a new tournament to crown the overall youth champion of Spain.
Copa de Campeones de Juvenil
The ''Copa de Campeones'' is a two phrase tournament that starts a week after the end of the División de Honor held at a site selected by the RFEF.
Until 2011, the seven group winners were divided into two groups: Group A had three teams and was played in a round-robin format, while group B was composed by four and was played in a
single elimination
A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...
format.
The two group winners played the final match.
Since the 2011–12 season, the seven group winners and the best runner-up are drawn into a knock-out tournament in a neutral venue determined by the
Royal Spanish Football Federation
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. Founded on 29 September 1913, it is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas de Madrid, Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid.
RFEF organizes the natio ...
.
Each team nominates an 18-man roster. There are no replacements for sickness or injury even if it is a goalkeeper.
Since the 2014–15 season, the winner qualifies to the
UEFA Youth League
The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...
.
Copa del Rey Juvenil
*32 teams qualify to the main domestic cup:
**28 teams placed 1st-4th in each of the 7 groups after 1 round of league matches completed
**4 best 5th-placed teams
History
Established in 1950, the ''Campeonato de España'' was Spain's top tournament for youth teams for over thirty years. Barcelona won the first cup, ''Copa de Su Excelencia Generalísimo'' and now holds the record for winning the most (currently 18). Since 1976, teams are playing for the ''Copa de Su Majestad El Rey Don Juan Carlos I'' or Copa del Rey.
Format
Since 1995, the Campeonato de España/Copa del Rey started a week after the Copa de Campeones and was played in four rounds. The top two from each División de Honor group plus the best two third-placed teams qualified. The first round, Quarterfinal and Semifinal are played in two legs and the Final is one match at a neutral site.
In 2022 the format was extended to 32 teams based on their performance in the first half of the season with the cup played during the second half, and the semi-finals and final taking place in a mini-tournament at a single location.
Restructuring
2005–06
For the 2005–06 season, the RFEF reorganized Grupo IV of División de Honor as the ''Andaluza Group'' similar to the Canarias have in Grupo VI. Teams from the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla also included.
2006–07
For the 2006–07 season, the RFEF added another 16-team regional group.
Champions
Superliga Juvenil
Liga de Honor Sub-19
División de Honor
In gold, champions of the
Copa de Campeones; in silver, runners-up of this tournament.
References
External links
RFEF site(archived)
División de Honor: Results and tablesat ''Resultados de Fútbol''
at the
RSSSF
The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Division de Honor Juvenil de Futbol
Juvenil
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
Youth football in Spain
Recurring sporting events established in 1986
1986 establishments in Spain