Venezuelan Primera División

This article is about the association football league. For the baseball league, see Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. For the basketball league, see Liga Profesional de Baloncesto.

The Primera División (pronounced [pɾiˈmeɾa ðiβiˈsjon]; English: First Division), or Liga Venezolana (locally [ˈliɣa βenesoˈlana]; English: Venezuelan League) is the top-flight professional football league of Venezuela. It was created in 1921 and turned professional in 1957. It is organized by the Federación Venezolana de Fútbol.

Liga FUTVE

Founded	1921; 104 years ago (1921)
Country	Venezuela
Confederation	CONMEBOL
Number of clubs	14
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Segunda División
Domestic cup(s)	Copa Venezuela
International cup(s)	Copa Libertadores Copa Sudamericana
Current champions	Deportivo Táchira (11th title) (2024 season)
Most championships	Caracas (12 titles)
Top goalscorer	Juan García (271 goals)
TV partners	TVes, GolTV, Star+
Website	Liga FUTVE (in Spanish) Venezuelan Football Federation (in Spanish)
Current: 2025 season

Format

Starting in the 2020 season, 20 teams play in a home-and-away round-robin tournament, with the top eight teams advancing to the semi-final stage.

At the semi-final stage, the eight teams are divided into two groups of four teams each, facing the other teams in their group twice. The two group winners advance to the Serie Final to decide the league champions.

International qualification

• The champions and runners-up qualify to the group phase of the Copa Libertadores.
• The team with the most points in the entire season qualifies to the preliminary round of the Copa Libertadores as Venezuela 3.
• The second and third team with the most points in the entire season qualifies to the Copa Sudamericana as Venezuela 1 and Venezuela 2.
• If a team won both tournaments that team qualify to the Copa Libertadores as Venezuela 1, then the first and second team with the most points in the entire season qualify to the Copa Libertadores as Venezuela 2 and Venezuela 3 and the fourth and fifth team with the most points in the entire season qualify to the Copa Sudamericana as Venezuela 1 and Venezuela 2.
• If the winner of the Copa Venezuela does not qualify to the Copa Libertadores through the aforementioned manners or through the point total in the entire season, they take the Venezuela 2 spot in the Copa Sudamericana.

Relegation

• The two lowest placed teams in the entire season are automatically relegated to the Segunda División.

2024 teams

Pto. Cabello

Angostura

Barinas

Carabobo

Caracas

Deportivo Táchira

Est. Mérida

Portuguesa

Monagas

Rayo Zuliano

Barinas teams:
Inter de Barinas
Zamora
Caracas teams:
Caracas
Deportivo La Guaira
Metropolitanos
Universidad Central

Locations of the 2024 Primera División teams

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity
Academia Puerto Cabello	Puerto Cabello	La Bombonerita	7,500
Angostura	Ciudad Bolívar	Ricardo Tulio Maya	2,500
Carabobo	Valencia	Misael Delgado	10,400
Caracas	Caracas	Olímpico de la UCV	23,940
Deportivo La Guaira	Caracas	Olímpico de la UCV	23,940
Deportivo Táchira	San Cristóbal	Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo	38,755
Estudiantes de Mérida	Mérida	Metropolitano de Mérida	42,200
Inter de Barinas	Barinas	Agustín Tovar	29,800
Metropolitanos	Caracas	Olímpico de la UCV	23,940
Monagas	Maturín	Monumental de Maturín	51,796
Portuguesa	Acarigua	General José Antonio Páez	18,000
Rayo Zuliano	Maracaibo	José "Pachencho" Romero	40,800
Universidad Central	Caracas	Olímpico de la UCV	23,940
Zamora	Barinas	Agustín Tovar	29,800

List of champions

List of champions since the first championship held in 1920. The Primera División turned professional on 21 February 1957.^{[citation needed]}

Ed.	Season	Champion	Runner-up
Amateur era
1	1921	América (1)	Centro Atlético
2	1922	Centro Atlético (1)	América
3	1923	América (2)	Centro Atlético
4	1924	Centro Atlético (2)	Vargas
5	1925	Loyola (1)	Venzóleo
6	1926	Centro Atlético (3)	Venzóleo
7	1927	Venzóleo (1)	Centro Atlético
8	1928	Deportivo Venezuela (1)	Centro Atlético
9	1929	Deportivo Venezuela (2)	Unión
10	1930	Centro Atlético (4)	Unión
11	1931	Deportivo Venezuela (3)	Centro Atlético
12	1932	Unión (1)	Dos Caminos
13	1933	Deportivo Venezuela (4)	Dos Caminos
14	1934	Unión (2)	Dos Caminos
15	1935	Unión (3)	Dos Caminos
16	1936	Dos Caminos (1)	Centro Atlético
17	1937	Dos Caminos (2)	Litoral
18	1938	Dos Caminos (3)	Litoral
19	1939	Unión (4)	Litoral
20	1940	Unión (5)	Dos Caminos
21	1941	Litoral (1)	Dos Caminos
22	1942	Dos Caminos (4)	Loyola
23	1943	Loyola (2)	Litoral
24	1944	Loyola (3)	Dos Caminos
25	1945	Dos Caminos (5)	Loyola
26	1946	Deportivo Español (1)	Centro Atlético
27	1947	Unión (6)	Universidad Central
28	1948	Loyola (4)	Unión
29	1949	Dos Caminos (6)	Universidad Central
30	1950	Unión (7)	La Salle
31	1951	Universidad Central (1)	Loyola
32	1952	La Salle (1)	Loyola
33	1953	Universidad Central (2)	La Salle
34	1954	Deportivo Vasco (1)	Loyola
35	1955	La Salle (2)	Deportivo Español
36	1956	Banco Obrero (1)	La Salle

Ed.	Season	Champion	Runner-up	Winning manager	Top scorer
Professional era
37	1957	Universidad Central (3)	La Salle	Orlando Fantoni	Tonho (Universidad Central, 12 goals)
38	1958	Deportivo Portugués (1)	Deportivo Español	Orlando Fantoni	René Irazque (Portugués, 6 goals)
39	1959	Deportivo Español (2)	Deportivo Portugués	Delfín Benítez Cáceres	Abel Benítez (Deportivo Español, 15 goals)
40	1960	Deportivo Portugués (2)	Deportivo Español	Javier Ferreira	José Luis Iglesias (Deportivo Portugués, 9 goals)
41	1961	Deportivo Italia (1)	Banco Agrícola y Pecuario	Orlando Fantoni	Antonio Ravelo (Banco Agrícola y Pecuario, 11 goals)
42	1962	Deportivo Portugués (3)	Universidad Central	Emilio Huguet	Jaime da Silva (Universidad Central, 16)
43	1963	Deportivo Italia (2)	Deportivo Portugués	Orlando Fantoni	Nino (Deportivo Portugués, 15 goals)
44	1964	Deportivo Galicia (1)	Tiquire Flores	Julio César Britos	Helio Rodrigues (Tiquire Flores, 12 goals)
45	1965	Lara (1)	Deportivo Italia	Gaetano Pintón	Mario Mateo (Lara, 16 goals)
46	1966	Deportivo Italia (3)	Deportivo Portugués	Orlando Fantoni	Ratto (Deportivo Portugués, 20 goals)
47	1967	Deportivo Portugués (4)	Deportivo Galicia	José Julián Hernández	Joao Ramos (Deportivo Portugués, 28 goals)
48	1968	Unión Deportiva Canarias (1)	Deportivo Italia	Manuel Arias	Raimundinho (Deportivo Portugués, 21 goals)
49	1969	Deportivo Galicia (2)	Valencia	Julio César Britos	Eustaquio Batista (Deportivo Italia, 19 goals) Lelo (Valencia, 19 goals)
50	1970	Deportivo Galicia (3)	Deportivo Italia	Silvio Leite	Roland Langon (Deportivo Galicia, 13 goals)
51	1971	Valencia (1)	Deportivo Italia	Walter Roque	Agostinho Sabara (Tiquire Aragua, 20 goals)
52	1972	Deportivo Italia (4)	Deportivo Galicia	Elmo Correa	Francisco Rodriguez (Anzoátegui FC, 18 goals)
53	1973	Portuguesa (1)	Valencia	Walter Roque	Jose Chiazzaro (Estudiantes de Mérida, 14 goals)
54	1974	Deportivo Galicia (4)	Portuguesa	Walter Roque	Jose Chiazzaro (Estudiantes de Mérida, 15 goals) Sergio Hugo Castillo (Anzoátegui FC, 15 goals)
55	1975	Portuguesa (2)	Estudiantes de Mérida	Vladica Popović	Pedro Pascual Peralta (Portuguesa, 20 goals)
56	1976	Portuguesa (3)	Estudiantes de Mérida	Benjamín Fernández	Pedro Pascual Peralta (Portuguesa, 25 goals)
57	1977	Portuguesa (4)	Estudiantes de Mérida	Vladica Popović	Jairzinho (Portuguesa, 20 goals) Juan Cesar Silva (Portuguesa, 20 goals)
58	1978	Portuguesa (5)	Deportivo Galicia	Celino Mora	Andrade (ULA Mérida, 23 goals)
59	1979	Deportivo Táchira (1)	Deportivo Galicia	Esteban Beracochea	Omar Ferrari (Deportivo Táchira, 15 goals)
60	1980	Estudiantes de Mérida (1)	Portuguesa	Ramón Rodríguez	Wilfrido Campos (Portuguesa, 12 goals)
61	1981	Deportivo Táchira (2)	Estudiantes de Mérida	Esteban Beracochea	Rafael Angulo (Deportivo Táchira, 14 goals)
62	1982	San Cristóbal (1)	Deportivo Táchira	Walter Roque	German Montero (Estudiantes, 21 goals)
63	1983	Universidad de Los Andes (1)	Portuguesa	Iván García	Johnny Castellanos (Atlético Zamora, 13 goals)
64	1984	Deportivo Táchira (3)	Deportivo Italia	Carlos Horacio Moreno	Sergio Meckler (Zamora, 15 goals)
65	1985	Estudiantes de Mérida (2)	Deportivo Táchira	Iván García	Sergio Meckler (Deportivo Táchira, 17 goals)
66	1986	Unión Atlético Táchira (4)	Estudiantes de Mérida	Carlos Horacio Moreno	Wilton Arreaza (Caracas, 8 goals)
67	1986–87	Marítimo (1)	Unión Atlético Táchira	Rafael Santana	Johnny Castellanos (Portuguesa, 16 goals)
68	1987–88	Marítimo (2)	Unión Atlético Táchira	Alfredo López	Miguel González (Unión Atlético Táchira, 22 goals)
69	1988–89	Mineros de Guayana (1)	Pepeganga Margarita	Alfredo López	Johnny Castellanos (Mineros, 24 goals)
70	1989–90	Marítimo (3)	Unión Atlético Táchira	Rafael Santana	Herbert Márquez (Marítimo, 19 goals)
71	1990–91	Universidad de Los Andes (2)	Marítimo	Carlos Diéz	Alexander Bottini (Monagas, 15 goals)
72	1991–92	Caracas (1)	Minervén	Manuel Plasencia	Andreas Vogler (Caracas, 25 goals)
73	1992–93	Marítimo (4)	Minervén	Miguel Sabina	Herbert Márquez (Marítimo, 21 goals)
74	1993–94	Caracas (2)	Trujillanos	Manuel Plasencia	Rodrigo Soto (Trujillanos, 20 goals)
75	1994–95	Caracas (3)	Minervén	Pedro Febles	Rogeiro da Silva (Mineros, 30 goals)
76	1995–96	Minervén (1)	Mineros de Guayana	Raúl Cavalleri	Jose Luis Dolgetta (Caracas, 24 goals)
77	1996–97	Caracas (4)	Atlético Zulia	Manuel Plasencia	Rafael Castellín (Caracas, 19 goals)
78	1997–98	Atlético Zulia (1)	Estudiantes de Mérida	Ratomir Dujkovic	Jose Luis Dolgetta (Estudiantes de Mérida/Carabobo, 22 goals)
79	1998–99	Deportivo Italchacao (5)	Unión Atlético Táchira	Raúl Cavalleri	Gustavo Fonseca (Internacional Lara, 24 goals)
80	1999–00	Deportivo Táchira (5)	Deportivo Italchacao	Walter Roque	Juan Enrique García (Caracas, 24 goals)
81	2000–01	Caracas (5)	Trujillanos	Carlos Horacio Moreno	Martín Brignani (Estudiantes de Mérida, 12 goals)
82	2001–02	Nacional Táchira	Estudiantes de Mérida	Carlos Maldonado	Juan Enrique García (Nacional Táchira, 34 goals)
83	2002–03	Caracas (6)	Unión Atlético Maracaibo	Noel Sanvicente	Juan Enrique García (Monagas/Mineros, 19 goals)
84	2003–04	Caracas (7)	Deportivo Táchira	Noel Sanvicente	Juan Enrique García (Mineros, 18 goals)
85	2004–05	Unión Atlético Maracaibo (1)	Caracas	Carlos Maldonado	Daniel Delfino (Carabobo, 19 goals)
86	2005–06	Caracas (8)	Unión Atlético Maracaibo	Noel Sanvicente	Juan Enrique García (Deportivo Táchira, 21 goals)
87	2006–07	Caracas (9)	Unión Atlético Maracaibo	Noel Sanvicente	Robinson Rentería (Trujillanos, 19 goals)
88	2007–08	Deportivo Táchira (6)	Caracas	Carlos Maldonado	Alexander Rondon (Deportivo Anzoátegui, 19 goals)
89	2008–09	Caracas (10)	Deportivo Italia	Noel Sanvicente	Daniel Arismendi (Maracaibo/Deportivo Táchira, 17 goals) Heatklif Castillo (Aragua, 17 goals)
90	2009–10	Caracas (11)	Deportivo Táchira	Ceferino Bencomo	Norman Cabrera (Atlético El Vigía, 20 goals)
91	2010–11	Deportivo Táchira (7)	Zamora	Jorge Luis Pinto	Daniel Arismendi (Deportivo Anzoátegui, 20 goals)
92	2011–12	Deportivo Lara (1)	Caracas	Eduardo Saragó	Rafael Castellín (Deportivo Lara, 21 goals)
93	2012–13	Zamora (1)	Deportivo Anzoátegui	Noel Sanvicente	Gabriel Torres (Zamora, 19 goals)
94	2013–14	Zamora (2)	Mineros de Guayana	Noel Sanvicente	Juan Falcón (Zamora, 19 goals)
95	2014–15	Deportivo Táchira (8)	Trujillanos	Daniel Farías	Edwin Aguilar (Deportivo Anzoategui, 23 goals)
96	2016	Zamora (3)	Zulia	Francesco Stifano	Gabriel Torres (Zamora, 22 goals)
97	2017	Monagas (1)	Deportivo Lara	Jhonny Ferreira	Anthony Blondell (Monagas, 24 goals)
98	2018	Zamora (4)	Deportivo Lara	Alí Cañas	Anthony Uribe (Zamora, 16 goals)
99	2019	Caracas (12)	Estudiantes de Mérida	Noel Sanvicente	Edder Farías (Atlético Venezuela, 18 goals)
100	2020	Deportivo La Guaira (1)	Deportivo Táchira	Daniel Farías	Richard Blanco (Mineros, 8 goals) Edder Farías (Atlético Venezuela, 8 goals)
101	2021	Deportivo Táchira (9)	Caracas	Juan Domingo Tolisano	Samson Akinyoola (Caracas, 18 goals)
102	2022	Metropolitanos (1)	Monagas	José María Morr	Kevin Viveros (Carabobo, 21 goals)
103	2023	Deportivo Táchira (10)	Caracas	Eduardo Saragó	Luifer Hernández (Academia Puerto Cabello, 18 goals)
104	2024	Deportivo Táchira (11)	Carabobo	Edgar Pérez Greco	Juan Camilo Zapata (Inter de Barinas/Universidad Central, 16 goals)

Titles by club

Clubs in bold compete in Primera División as of the current season. Clubs in italic no longer exist.

Rank	Club	Winners	Runners-Up	Winning years	Runners-Up years
1	Caracas	12	5	1991–92, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1996–97, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2019	2004–05, 2007–08, 2011–12, 2021, 2023
2	Deportivo Táchira	11	9	1979, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1999–00, 2007–08, 2010–11, 2014–15, 2021, 2023, 2024	1982, 1985, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1998–99, 2003–04, 2009–10, 2020
3	Unión	7	3	1932, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1947, 1950	1929, 1930, 1948
4	Dos Caminos	6	7	1936, 1937, 1938, 1942, 1945, 1949	1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1944
5	Deportivo Petare	5	7	1961, 1963, 1966, 1972, 1998–99	1965, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1984, 1999–00, 2008–09
	Portuguesa	5	3	1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978	1974, 1980, 1983
7	Centro Atlético	4	7	1922, 1924, 1926, 1930	1921, 1923, 1927, 1928, 1931, 1936, 1946
	Deportivo Galicia	4	5	1964, 1969, 1970, 1974	1967, 1972, 1978, 1979
	Deportivo Portugués	4	3	1958, 1960, 1962, 1967	1959, 1963, 1966
	Marítimo	4	1	1986–87, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1992–93	1990–91
	Zamora	4[note 1]	1	2012–13, 2013–14, 2016, 2018	2010–11
	Deportivo Venezuela	4	—	1928, 1929, 1931, 1933	—
13	Loyola	3	5	1925, 1943, 1944	1942, 1945, 1951, 1952, 1954
	Universidad Central	3	3	1951, 1953, 1957	1947, 1949, 1962
15	Estudiantes de Mérida	2	8	1980, 1985	1975, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1986, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2019
	Deportivo Español	2	3	1946, 1959	1955, 1958, 1960
	La Salle	2	3	1952, 1955	1950, 1953, 1956
	América	2	1	1921, 1923	1922
	Universidad de Los Andes	2	—	1983, 1990–91	—
20	Litoral	1	4	1941	1937, 1938, 1939, 1943
	Carabobo	1	3	1971	1969, 1973, 2024
	Unión Atlético Maracaibo	1	3	2004–05	2002–03, 2005–06, 2006–07
	Minervén	1	3	1995–96	1991–92, 1992–93, 1994–95
	Deportivo Lara	1	2	2011–12	2017, 2018
	Mineros de Guayana	1	2	1988–89	1995–96, 2013–14
	Venzóleo	1	2	1927	1925, 1926
	Atlético Zulia	1	1	1997–98	1996–97
	Monagas	1	1	2017	2022
	Banco Obrero	1	—	1956	—
	Deportivo La Guaira	1	—	2020	—
	Deportivo Vasco	1	—	1954	—
	Lara	1	—	1965	—
	Metropolitanos	1	—	2022	—
	Nacional Táchira	1	—	2001–02	—
	San Cristóbal	1	—	1982	—
	Unión Deportiva Canarias	1	—	1968	—

1. Zamora won the Torneo de Adecuación in 2015, but this title is not counted as it was not a full season.

Half-year / Short tournaments

Apertura and Clausura seasons

Season		Champion	Runner-up
1996–97	Apertura	Atlético Zulia	Minervén
	Clausura	Caracas	Unión Atlético Táchira
1997–98	Apertura	Atlético Zulia	Deportivo Italia
	Clausura	Estudiantes de Mérida	Trujillanos
1998–99	Apertura	Unión Atlético Táchira	Estudiantes de Mérida
	Clausura	Deportivo Italchacao	Estudiantes de Mérida
1999–00	Apertura	Deportivo Táchira	Estudiantes de Mérida
	Clausura	Deportivo Táchira	Deportivo Italchacao
2001–02	Apertura	Estudiantes de Mérida	Monagas
	Clausura	Nacional Táchira	Monagas
2002–03	Apertura	Caracas	Deportivo Italchacao
	Clausura	Unión Atlético Maracaibo	Deportivo Italchacao
2003–04	Apertura	Caracas	Deportivo Táchira
	Clausura	Caracas	Deportivo Táchira
2004–05	Apertura	Unión Atlético Maracaibo	Caracas
	Clausura	Unión Atlético Maracaibo	Caracas
2005–06	Apertura	Unión Atlético Maracaibo	Deportivo Táchira
	Clausura	Caracas	Deportivo Táchira
2006–07	Apertura	Caracas	Unión Atlético Maracaibo
	Clausura	Unión Atlético Maracaibo	Caracas
2007–08	Apertura	Caracas	Deportivo Anzoátegui
	Clausura	Deportivo Táchira	Caracas
2008–09	Apertura	Deportivo Italia	Monagas
	Clausura	Caracas	Deportivo Táchira
2009–10	Apertura	Deportivo Táchira	Deportivo Italia
	Clausura	Caracas	Deportivo Táchira
2010–11	Apertura	Deportivo Táchira	Real Esppor
	Clausura	Zamora	Caracas
2011–12	Apertura	Deportivo Lara	Caracas
	Clausura	Deportivo Lara	Mineros de Guayana
2012–13	Apertura	Deportivo Anzoátegui	Caracas
	Clausura	Zamora	Deportivo Anzoátegui
2013–14	Apertura	Mineros de Guayana	Caracas
	Clausura	Zamora	Mineros de Guayana
2014–15	Apertura	Trujillanos	Deportivo La Guaira
	Clausura	Deportivo Táchira	Caracas
2015	Adecuación	Zamora	Deportivo La Guaira
2016	Apertura	Zamora	Deportivo Anzoátegui
	Clausura	Zulia	Deportivo Táchira
2017	Apertura	Monagas	Caracas
	Clausura	Deportivo Lara	Mineros de Guayana
2018	Apertura	Zamora	Mineros de Guayana
	Clausura	Deportivo Lara	Deportivo La Guaira
2019	Apertura	Estudiantes de Mérida	Mineros de Guayana
	Clausura	Caracas	Deportivo Táchira
2024	Apertura	Carabobo	Metropolitanos
	Clausura	Deportivo Táchira	Carabobo

See also

• Venezuelan football league system

References

External links

• Official website (in Spanish)
• News in Spanish about the First Division of the Venezuelan Football/Soccer
• News and pictures (in Spanish)
• League statistics at RSSSF
• FuriaVinotinto – Unofficial Forum Archived 2008-02-14 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)