In 1967, European champions Real Madrid pipped Barcelona to the league title.
Nothing unusual there, but this was a unique season in Spanish football history for one reason – the teams who came up went straight back down.
Deportivo la Coruna and Hercules – having won their respective regional second divisions – and Granada – promoted via the play-offs – were the teams in question.
It has never happened since, though it is worth noting this year’s crop of promoted teams came close.
Real Valladolid, where some fans have grown unhappy with owner Ronaldo, have won just four games since promotion and sit rock bottom of La Liga.
With Las Palmas – promoted two seasons ago – already down, one of Leganes or Espanyol, the other two who came up last summer, will also be relegated on the final day.
“The trend is similar,” says BBC Sport columnist Guillem Balague. “In the last few years, 15 teams more or less stay in the division and five go up and down, including a team like Espanyol that could go down for the third time in five years.
“It is all down to money. FFP doesn’t allow you to give you an injection of capital that allows a team to either go from small to very big or to survive much more clearly.
“And the other thing is the parachute money in the Premier League is massive. In Spain there is a little bit and it depends on how many years you have been in La Liga – 2.5% of TV rights is dedicated to be shared between three teams that go down, which allows you to sort out your budget, but not much more.
“It is going to happen more and more.”
