Which are the 10 Argentine soccer teams that achieved the most points in history?

On Friday, January 26, a new tournament will begin in Argentine soccer. It will be the 2024 Professional League Cup, a competition in which Central Rosary It was consecrated last December. However, Canalla is not among the 10 teams that have achieved the most points in history. He is eleventh. Who makes up the top ten? What tournaments are counted? Do names and positions change according to the type of competition? What is counted and what is not? Does the positions change the actual percentage of points obtained? That’s all this note is about, the accumulated points table in First Division tournaments and cups. With a clarification, participation in the promotion is not taken into account.

The history of Argentine football began in 1891 although The current AFA is recognized as founded on February 21, 1893. Since that year, there has always been a First Division championship. Since 1900, different cups began to be disputed. Some included Uruguayans. Like now, when the Tournament and the League Cup, the Champions Trophy, the Argentine Cup, the Argentine Super Cup and the International Super Cup are played, before too. As they are organized by the parent entity, they are all official. Furthermore, since 1960 there have been Conmebol competitions, bicontinental (South America-Europe, South America-Concacaf, etc.), and now under the orbit of FIFA (Club World Cup).

Everything is counted, beyond the valuation given to each competence. It is true, today a Libertadores is not the same as a Suruga Bank, nor is a world final in which the Europe-South American Cup was awarded the same as a River Plate cup like the Ricardo Aldao. But each era has its own value. What happens in 2023 cannot be measured with the same yardstick as what happened 50 or 100 years ago.

In January 2023, players from Racing They celebrated a title against Boca in the United Arab Emirates. The first edition of an invention called the International Super Cup. What will be the view on these events in half a century, of a cup that in just a few years will not have regularity, as happened with many others? But no one takes away the trophy from Racing and the medals from its players.

From the balance of the 10 leaders in this table there are a couple of conclusions. River dominates globally and individually for each type of competition, League, national cups and international cups. While Boca is always second least in the total table of national cupswhich is the one with the most changes in positions with respect to the general. Independent is third and Saint Lawrence fourth in the total table but if only League tournaments are taken into account, the Ciclón is on the podium.

Central Rosary It does not appear in the general top ten, nor in the League. In both cases he is eleventh. But in national cups he is eighth, moving from the top 10 to Newell’s. While the two from Rosario get into international cups and relegate Hurricane y Gym

In all cases, the points achieved in each era are respected, that is, two points for victories from the beginning to Clausura 95, three points from Apertura 95, and the exceptional 1988/89 tournament in which three points were awarded. for victories, one for ties but there was a penalty shootout and whoever won got an extra point. Like a game, in the total table there is one list taking into account everything by two points and another considering everything by three. The only alteration is the sixth place: Students surpasses the Velez.

However, beyond the total points, it is important to look at the percentage of points achieved. Let’s go to River’s case to understand the rest. The millionaire He achieved 3869 points in 2914 games in which 2 points were added for a victory (66%), another 1649 in 936 games (59%) for three points and 67 units in the 1988/89 tournament (59%). In total he accumulates 5585 real points out of 8750 possible, which is equivalent to 64% obtained of the points at stake. Boca, meanwhile, achieved 62%. Independiente is third in the total of points but by percentage it drops to fifth (56%), behind Racing and San Lorenzo (58%). Vélez (53%), Estudiantes (53%) and Huracán (50%) remain in sixth, seventh and eighth place respectively. Ninth place is altered, Newell’s rises with 49%, Gimnasia drops to eleventh with 47%, while Rosario Central has achieved 48% of the points at stake. In all tables you can see the percentage of points achieved although they are ordered by the sum of points.

River, Boca, Independiente, San Lorenzo, Racing, Vélez, Estudiantes, Huracán, Gimnasia and Newell’s, in that order, make up the top ten historical points in Argentine soccer. In the following 10 places they appear Central, Lanús, Argentinos, Ferro, Banfield, Platense, Chacarita, Colón, Atlanta and Quilmes. The historical table is a sample of the Buenos Aires AFA, since the Rosario team only joined in 1939, the Santa Fe team from 1940 and the national tournaments in 1967. Talleres, the best from Córdoba, just started playing the First Division tournament ( known as Metropolitano) in 1980.

Originally it was called the First League, then the First Division. It was always the main championship. When there were splits, in Buenos Aires football there were two First Division tournaments. After the mergers (1915, 1926 and 1934), the actions of the dissident associations were recognized. The clearest example was in 1942 when the AFA awarded medals to the players of Porteño (1912 and 1914) and Estudiantes de la Plata (1913), champions of the Argentine Football Federation, created by Ricardo Aldao.

With professionalism and the new AFA (November 3, 1934) there was only one tournament until 1966 and several cups. In 1967 the National tournament was incorporated as a First Division competition. Thus, the original regulations speak of the Metropolitan First Division Tournament and the National First Division Tournament. Every year the regulations were modified and more teams from the country were added. Until 1985. Then the Primera B Nacional was created as the main promotion category.

This last decade has been dominated by confusion. There was a League and an Argentine Cup, whose champions played in the Argentine Super Cup. But when the Argentine Football Super League (SAF) was created, the Super League Cup was added (in its second edition, frustrated by the coronavirus pandemic, the points began to be considered for the relegation average table) and the Trophy of Champions.

Once the Super League was extinguished, the Professional Football League took over, now within the AFA, which maintained the format, League Tournament, League Cup and Champions Trophy. An annual table for the international cups and this last year for the relegation and the relegation averages adding both competitions. Everything mixed together, ideal for confusion. That is why Colón (2021 League Cup champion) and Rosario Central (2023 League Cup champion) requested that they be considered League champions and not Cup champions. “But of course and also the previous ones from Tigre to here,” he stated. Claudio Chiqui Tapia, president of the AFA, at a mid-December AFA Executive Committee meeting. Officially, in the Executive Committee bulletins, there is nothing. What is written in the regulations applies.

Should the current League Cup be taken as a First Division tournament, like the old national ones? It is another discussion and in the AFA they must improve the regulatory semantics. For now, there remains a single League championship and many national Cup competitions.

So, in these tables, Professional League Tournaments are counted in the League tables. And those of the League Cup, in the national cups. In the League, there are two changes in the table. As said, San Lorenzo moves to third place and Independiente to fourth. While Gimnasia rises to eighth place, relegating Huracán to ninth, by 35 points. The fight for sixth place is more even between Vélez and Estudiantes, with just 23 points difference, although Fortín maintains a 1% difference in the points achieved.

Since January 27, each win and each draw of the 28 teams that will participate in the tournament will modify this table, which has many variations with respect to the general one. River maintains first place but Racing is second, relegating Boca to third place. Independiente and San Lorenzo complete the top five places, coinciding with the historical nickname of “the big five.” As a curiosity, Boca and River have the same number of games played.

From fifth to tenth place the order changes radically. Huracán moves from eighth to sixth place, Estudiantes maintains seventh, Central (current champion) is placed eighth, Vélez drops to ninth place and Gimnasia is tenth. Newell’s falls to eleventh place and is out of the top-ten. However, in % of points, Vélez moves to fifth place with 57%, two more than San Lorenzo (55%) and four more than Huracán (53%).

Before the South American Football Confederation began organizing the Copa Libertadores (1960), the competitions for Argentine teams were held in the River Plate. First it was the Tie Cup Competition, then the Cousinier Honor Cup, later the Ricardo Aldao Rioplatense Cup and finally the Escobar-Gerona Cup. Although Uruguayan teams also participated in the 1933 Beccar Varela Cup, the organization was in charge of the Professional Football League and that is why the points from that tournament won by Central Córdoba de Rosario appear in the national cups.

Here River maintains the hegemony, then Boca appears and the podium is completed by Independiente. Meanwhile, in fourth place is Vélez, which this year will not play international cups, with 15 points more than San Lorenzo, which will play the Libertadores. In fifth place is Estudiantes (they will play the Sudamericana, 24 points behind the Liniers team. Racing drops to seventh place and in eighth place Lanús appears for the first time, with a lot of participation in recent years. Then, the Rosario team, relegating Huracán and Gymnastics.

This historical points table does not determine the greatness of our clubs. It is a variable that triggers discussions, football folklore, of veterans still in the coffee bars in between, of young people on social networks. Just a numbers game.