Valladar Liga-1

The Valladar Liga-1 (League-1 in and Ligue-1 in ), is Valladares’s top division of. Run by the Liga Federal de Valladares, an entity affiliated to the Valladar Football Association, it contains twenty clubs from across the country, and maintains a system of promotion and relegation of three or four clubs a year between it and the Valladar Liga-2, Valladares’s second division.

The season runs from March to November, during which time 38 matches are played per team, totalling 380 matches overall. The vast majority of matches are played on weekends, with some on Friday nights and one matchday during Independence Day on October 8th. It is broadcast by GOL, who own the rights to all of the league's matches.

The Liga-1 was set up in 1977 as the Valladar Super League, the first national league competition ever organized in Valladares, and before that, its most prominent teams were competing in amateur leagues organized by the Football Associations of each federal state. The first league season was contested in 1978 by 16 clubs, but it was later expanded to 20 in 1980. Historically, the league has been dominated by Fontvielle Impact and Metropolis Alligators, from the industrial town of Fontvielle and the capital city Metropolis respectively, both of whom being the only clubs that have won four or more leagues in a row. L’Impact’s 16 titles and the Alligators’s 14 mean that nearly half of all the titles contested have been won between the two clubs. For its 31st season, in 2008, it was taken over by the Liga Federal de Valladares and rebranded as the Liga-1.

The current champions of the league are Canalave Dragons, who won their second title at the conclusion of the sixty-eighth season. Every year, at the start of the season, the last season’s champions play the last season’s champions of the King's Shield in an event known as the Canalave Crown, and in addition to this, the league’s top teams every season get to play in the tournaments organized by IFCF, such as the Champions League and the Challengers Cup. The league is currently ranked as the second strongest league of the multiverse according to the IFCF rankings after IFCF season 13.

Origins
The Valladar Liga-1’s beginnings date back to 1977, when the State Championships were the most important football competitions in the nation. At the time there was no nationwide football competition in Valladares and interstate club matches were rarely held. In a meeting held at the headquarters of the Asociación de Fútbol Distrital in Metropolis in July 1977, representatives from the football associations from each Valladar mainland state voted 6–1 in support of the creation of the Valladar Football Association, and in turn, of a nationwide football league, with only the Mountbatten Football Association opposing the idea brought forward by the Metropolis and Eterna football associations. As a result, the Valladar Super League was created and invitations to participate in its first season were sent to the top clubs in each State Championship at the end of the 1977 season, the clubs that accepted the invitation are italicized:


 * División 1 Distrital: Metropolis Alligators (champion), Marinos Metropolis (runner-up), and Nacional (third place)
 * Mountbatten A-League: Tannenberg FC (champion), AC Tallin (runner-up), and FC Lilí (third place)
 * Eterna Top Championship: Slateport Bulls (champion) and Eterna Stars (runner-up)
 * Campeonato Chiquitense: Chiquito FC (champion) and SC Caimanes (runner-up)
 * Championnat d'Honneur Foixien: AS Bezieres (champion) and Fontvielle Impact (runner-up)
 * Liga Estatal Antioqueña: Pradera FC (champion) and Hamanos Athletic Club (runner-up)
 * League of Canalave: Canalave Dragons (champion) and Canalave Rangers (runner-up)

With Nacional, FC Lilí, Antioquian champions Pradera FC, and both Canalese clubs having declined their invitations, the VFA decided to appeal to the next large cities left without a team in the newly-created league, such as Maldonado (Pumas Maldonado and Universitario de Maldonado were both invited after both League of Canalave teams declined), Valencia (Cardenales FC were invited to replace Nacional), and Gatineau (RC Belfort received an invite to replace Pradera FC), while the last berth into the new league was awarded to Olympique de Fontvielle, thus completing the 16 clubs that competed in the first VSL season, which was won by Metropolis Alligators. The football associations of the states of Westlands, Arauco, Alto Danubio, and the city of Junín joined the Valladar league system later on.

Competition format
20 clubs compete in each Liga-1 season. During the course of a season, usually from March to November, each club plays the others twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents, for a total of 38 games. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then head-to-head performance, goal difference, away goals scored, goals scored, number of wins, and then a drawing of lots. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned champion. If there is a tie between two teams for the championship, a play-off match at a neutral venue decides the champion.

The three lowest ranked teams are relegated to Liga-2 at the end of the season, with the team in 17th place playing a double-legged relegation play-off against the runner-up team of the Liga-2 play-offs.

International qualification
As of the 13th IFCF cycle, and as determined by IFCF coefficients, the top four teams in Liga-1 qualify for the Champions League, with the league champions and runners-up entering the competition at the group stage. The fifth-placed team qualifies for the Challengers Cup, with the sixth-placed team having to play a play-off match against the Torneo de Verano winner for the last berth into the Challengers Cup. The other Challengers Cup berth is determined through the country's domestic cup competition, the King's Shield. If the cup winners qualify for IFCF through their league position, the sixth-placed team in Liga-1 will qualify for the Challengers Cup, and the seventh-placed team will play the Challengers Cup play-off.

Changes in league structure

 * Number of teams:
 * Seasons 1 and 2: 16
 * Since season 3: 20
 * Number of teams relegated (automatic relegation except as noted):
 * Season 1: 3
 * Season 2: No relegation (Super League expanded to 20 teams for season 3)
 * Seasons 3 to 13: 3
 * Since season 14: 3 automatic plus the loser of a double-legged relegation play-off between the 17th-place team in Liga-1 and the runner-up team of the Liga-2 play-offs

Clubs
A total of 56 clubs have played in Liga-1 from its foundation to the end of its 67th season. Currently, AS Bezieres, Eterna Stars, Fontvielle Impact, Marinos Metropolis, Metropolis Alligators, Olympique de Fontvielle, Real Campo Grande, Slateport Bulls, and Tannenberg FC are the only founding members of the league to be playing in Liga-1. AS Bezieres, Fontvielle Impact, Marinos Metropolis, Metropolis Alligators, and Tannenberg FC are the only clubs to have competed in every edition of the competition, while those clubs in addition to Nacional, Canalave Dragons, Deportivo Junín, and Yumbo FC have not suffered relegation.

Internationally, the most well-known Liga-1 clubs include Metropolis Alligators, Fontvielle Impact, AS Bezieres, Marinos Metropolis, Nacional, Tannenberg FC, and Eterna Stars, collectively known as the G-7.

Clubs for Season 69
The following 20 clubs will be competing in the 69th Liga-1 season.

Sponsorship
From seasons 1 to 58, the Valladar Liga-1 had title sponsorship rights sold to six companies, three of which were Valladar companies: public utility company EnergyValladares, electronics retailer Triangle, and AlfaCredit Bank, which was the most recent title sponsor, having sponsored the Liga-1 from seasons 50 until 58. In addition to this, three foreign companies sponsored the competition during the Super League era: Mytanar and Cafundelense banks OGI Banka and Banco Econômico, and Citiz dairy company ChocoMilk.

AlfaCredit's deal with the Liga Federal de Valladares expired at the end of the 58th season. Shortly after, the LFV announced that it would not pursue any further title sponsorship deals for the Liga-1, arguing that they wanted to build a "clean" brand for the competition while at the same time leaving the door open for a group of both national and international companies to become official partners and suppliers. The current sponsors of the Valladar Football Association are minor partners of the LFV.

Domestic
In Valladares, starting from the 60th Liga-1 season matches are broadcast by pay-TV channel GOL, a joint endeavour by the Liga Federal de Valladares and former rights holder SportsNet, which signed an exclusivity contract for 5 years where SportsNet agreed to pay P$ 7.2 million per year. GOL also has first rights to match highlights, which are aired in their program Lo Mejor de la Fecha at the end of the last match of each round. Match highlights are then released for the usage of other channels at midnight.

In the past, Valladar football matches were broadcast nationally by SportsNet themselves and later by VSPN, who aired up to 5 matches per round, while the clubs themselves sold the rights of their other matches not broadcast by either SportsNet or VSPN to local and regional broadcasters.

Radio coverage of Liga-1 matches is more varied, including full coverage of every match in the Cancha Valladares program on the stations and website of RNV, as well as other local radio stations which buy the rights to broadcast the home matches of clubs in their areas.