2015–16 La Liga

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La Liga 2015–16
Season information
Continental cup qualifiers
UEFA Champions League
UEFA Europa League
Season statistics
← 2014–15	2016–17 →

The 2015–16 La Liga season (known as the Liga BBVA for sponsorship reasons) was the 85th since its establishment. Barcelona are the defending champions. The season is scheduled to start on 22 August 2015, and will conclude on 15 May 2016.

Teams

Promotion and relegation (pre-season)

A total of 20 teams will contest the league, including 17 sides from the 2014–15 season and three promoted from the 2014–15 Segunda División. This will include the two top teams from the Segunda División (Real Betis and Sporting de Gijón), and the winners of the play-offs (Las Palmas).

Almería and Córdoba were relegated to 2015–16 Segunda División last season, after being two and one years, respectively in La Liga. Elche was administratively relegated despite finishing in the 13th position. Following the competition rules, Eibar, who finished in the 18th position, will remain in the league.

Real Betis was the first team from Segunda to achieve promotion after a one-year absence from La Liga on May 24, 2015 after winning 3–0 over Alcorcón.

Sporting Gijón promoted as second qualified on June 7, 2015, after winning 3–0 over Real Betis and taking advantage of the draw of Girona, who could not retain the promotion spot in the last match day. Sporting returned to the top level after 3 years.

Las Palmas achieved promotion on June 21, 2015 after defeating Real Zaragoza in the promotion playoff final on away goals after winning the second leg at home 2–0, after losing the first leg away 3–1. Las Palmas returned to the top level after 13 years. They also became the first island team to play in La Liga since Mallorca's relegation to Segunda Division in 2012–13 season.

Stadia and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity.
Athletic Bilbao	Bilbao	San Mamés	53,289
Atlético Madrid	Madrid	Vicente Calderón	54,907
Barcelona	Barcelona	Camp Nou	99,354
Celta Vigo	Vigo	Balaídos	31,800
Deportivo La Coruña	A Coruña	Riazor	34,600
Eibar	Eibar	Ipurua	6,267
Espanyol	Cornellà	Power8 Stadium	40,500
Getafe	Getafe	Coliseum Alfonso Pérez	17,393
Granada	Granada	Nuevo Los Cármenes	23,156
Las Palmas	Las Palmas	Gran Canaria	32,150
Levante	Valencia	Ciutat de València	26,354
Málaga	Málaga	La Rosaleda	30,044
Rayo Vallecano	Madrid	Vallecas	14,708
Real Betis	Seville	Benito Villamarín	52,500
Real Madrid	Madrid	Santiago Bernabéu	85,454
Real Sociedad	San Sebastián	Anoeta	32,076
Sevilla	Seville	Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán	45,500
Sporting Gijón	Gijón	El Molinón	29,029
Valencia	Valencia	Mestalla	55,000
Villarreal	Villarreal	El Madrigal	24,890

Personnel and sponsorship

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Athletic Bilbao	Josu Urrutia	Ernesto Valverde	Carlos Gurpegui	Nike	Kutxabank
Atlético Madrid	Enrique Cerezo	Diego Simeone	Gabi	Nike	Plus500
Barcelona	Josep Maria Bartomeu	Luis Enrique	Andrés Iniesta	Nike	Qatar Airways, UNICEF, Beko
Celta Vigo	Carlos Mouriño	Eduardo Berizzo	Augusto Fernández	Adidas	Citroën, Abanca, Estrella Galicia
Deportivo La Coruña	Constantino Fernández Pico	Víctor Fernández	Manuel Pablo	Lotto	Estrella Galicia, Abanca
Eibar	Alex Aranzabal	José Luis Mendilibar	Mikel Arruabarrena	Puma	AVIA, Wiko
Espanyol	Ramón Condal	Sergio González Soriano	Javi López	Joma	Power8
Getafe	Ángel Torres	Fran Escribá	Pedro León	Joma	Tecnocasa Group
Granada	Quique Pina	José Ramón Sandoval	Diego Mainz	Joma	Solver Sports Capital
Las Palmas	Miguel Ángel Ramírez	Paco Herrera	David García	Acerbis	Gran Canaria
Levante	Quico Catalán	Lucas Alcaraz	Juanfran García	Nike	East United
Málaga	Sheikh Abdullah Al Thani	Javi Gracia	Duda	Nike	UNESCO
Rayo Vallecano	Raúl Martín Presa	Paco Jémez	David Cobeño	Kelme	QBAO.com, Nevir
Real Betis	Manuel Domínguez	Pepe Mel	Jorge Molina	Adidas
Real Madrid	Florentino Pérez	Rafael Benítez	Sergio Ramos	Adidas	Fly Emirates
Real Sociedad	Jokin Aperribay	David Moyes	Xabi Prieto	Adidas	QBAO.com, Kutxabank
Sevilla	José Castro Carmona	Unai Emery	José Antonio Reyes	New Balance	Visit Malaysia
Sporting Gijón	Antonio Veiga	Abelardo Fernández	Alberto Lora	Kappa	Gijón, Telecable, Ternera Asturiana
Valencia	Lay Hoon Chan	Nuno Espírito Santo	Dani Parejo	Adidas
Villarreal	Fernando Roig Alfonso	Marcelino García Toral	Bruno Soriano	Xtep	Pamesa Cerámica

1. ^On the back of shirt.

2. ^Barcelona makes a donation to UNICEF in order to display the charity's logo on the back of the club's kit.

3. ^On the sleeves.

4. ^On the shorts.

5. ^Málaga makes a donation to UNESCO in order to display the charity's logo on the club's kit.

6. Additionally, referee kits are now being made by Adidas, sponsored by Würth, and Nike has a new match ball, the Ordem LFP.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Real Madrid	Carlo Ancelotti	Sacked	25 May 2015	Pre-season	Rafael Benítez	3 June 2015
Getafe	Pablo Franco	Sacked	1 June 2015		Fran Escribá	26 June 2015
Eibar	Gaizka Garitano	Mutual consent	30 June 2015		José Luis Mendilibar	30 June 2015

League table

Standings

2015–16 La Liga Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
1	Barcelona  (C) (Q)	38	29	4	5	112	29	+83	91	2016–17 UEFA Champions League group stage
2	Real Madrid  (Q)	38	28	6	4	110	34	+76	90
3	Atlético Madrid  (Q)	38	28	4	6	63	18	+45	88
4	Villarreal  (Q)	38	18	10	10	44	35	+9	64	2016–17 UEFA Champions League play-off round
5	Athletic Bilbao	38	18	8	12	58	45	+13	62	2016–17 UEFA Europa League group stage
6	Celta Vigo	38	17	9	12	51	59	−8	60	2016–17 UEFA Europa League Third qualifying round
7	Sevilla  (Q)	38	14	10	14	51	50	+1	52
8	Málaga	38	12	12	14	38	35	+3	48
9	Real Sociedad	38	13	9	16	45	48	−3	48
10	Real Betis	38	11	12	15	33	51	−18	45
11	Las Palmas	38	12	8	18	45	53	−8	44
12	Valencia	38	11	11	16	46	48	−2	44
13	Espanyol	38	12	7	19	40	74	−34	43
14	Eibar	38	11	10	17	49	61	−12	43
15	Deportivo La Coruña	38	8	18	12	45	61	−16	42
16	Granada	38	10	9	19	46	69	−23	39
17	Sporting de Gijón	38	10	9	19	40	62	−22	39
18	Rayo Vallecano  (R)	38	9	11	18	52	73	−21	38	Relegation to the 2016–17 Segunda División
19	Getafe  (R)	38	9	9	20	37	67	−30	36
20	Levante  (R)	38	8	8	22	37	70	−33	32

Source: https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/la-liga/table/
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included in the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards. For example, if a match is scheduled for matchday 13, but then postponed and played between days 16 and 17, it will be added to the standings for day 16.

Team \ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38
Athletic Bilbao
Atlético Madrid
Barcelona
Celta Vigo
Deportivo La Coruña
Eibar
Espanyol
Getafe
Granada
Las Palmas
Levante
Málaga
Rayo Vallecano
Real Betis
Real Madrid
Real Sociedad
Sevilla
Sporting de Gijón
Valencia
Villarreal

Source: Liga BBVA

	Leader
	2016–17 UEFA Champions League group stage
	2016–17 UEFA Champions League Play-off round
	2016–17 UEFA Europa League group stage
	2016–17 UEFA Europa League Third qualifying round
	Relegation to 2016–17 Segunda División

Results

Home \ Away

ATH

ATM

BAR

CEL

DEP

EIB

ESP

GET

GRA

LPA

LEV

MLG

RVA

BET

RMA

RSO

SEV

SPG

VAL

VIL

Athletic Bilbao

a

Atlético Madrid

a

Barcelona

a

a

Celta Vigo

a

Deportivo La Coruña

a

Eibar

Espanyol

a

Getafe

Granada

a

Las Palmas

Levante

Málaga

a

Rayo Vallecano

Real Betis

a

Real Madrid

a

a

Real Sociedad

a

Sevilla

a

Sporting de Gijón

Valencia

Villarreal

Source: La Liga
¹The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Broadcasting rights

Telefónica purchased the exclusive television broadcasting rights to telecast the 2015–16 season in Spain. While Sky Sports have exclusive rights in the United Kingdom and beIN Sports have exclusive rights to air the season in various countries, including the United States and France.