Which are the 10 Argentine football teams that have scored the most points in history?

A new tournament in Argentine football will begin on Friday 26 January. It will be the Professional League Cup 2024, a competition in which Central rosary It was consecrated last December. However, Canalla is not among the 10 teams that have scored the most points in history. He is eleventh. Who makes up the top ten? Which tournaments are counted? Do names and positions change depending on the type of competition? What gets counted and what doesn’t? Do the positions change the actual percentage of points obtained? This is what this note talks about, the table of points accumulated in First Division tournaments and cups. With one clarification, participation in the promotion is not taken into consideration.

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

Everything is counted, beyond the rating given to each skill. It’s true, today a Libertadores is not the same thing as a Suruga Bank, nor is a world final in which the Europe-South America Cup was awarded the same thing as a River Plate cup like the Ricardo Aldao. But every era has its value. What will happen in 2023 cannot be measured by the same yardstick as what happened 50 or 100 years ago.

In January 2023, the players of 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 judgment on these events in half a century, of a cup that in a few years will no longer have regularity, as has happened for many others? But no one takes away the trophy from Racing and the medals from its players.

From the balance sheet of the 10 leaders in this table there are a couple of conclusions. The river dominates globally and individually for each type of competition, championship, national cups and international cups. While Boca is always second to last in the overall ranking of national cupswhich is the one with more variations in positions compared to the general. Independent is third and Saint Lawrence fourth in the general ranking but if we only consider the championship tournaments, Ciclón gets on the podium.

Central rosary He does not appear in the overall top ten, nor in that of the championship. In both cases he is eleventh. But in the national cups he is eighth, moving from the top 10 to Newell’s. While the two from Rosario enter the international cups and are relegated Hurricane AND Gym

In all cases the points obtained in each era are respected, i.e. two points for victories from the beginning to the Clausura 95, three points from the Apertura 95, and the exceptional 1988/89 tournament in which three points were awarded for victories , one for draws but there were penalties and whoever won got an extra point. As in a game, in the totals table there is a list that takes everything into account by two points and another that takes everything into account by three. The only change is sixth place: Students surpasses Velez.

However, in addition to the total points, it is important to look at the percentage of points obtained. Let’s go to River’s case to understand the rest. The millionaire He scored 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 5,585 real points out of 8,750 possible, which is equivalent to 64% obtained from the points up for grabs. Boca, meanwhile, achieved 62%. Independiente is third in total points but drops to fifth in percentage (56%), behind Racing and San Lorenzo (58%). Vélez (53%), Estudiantes (53%) and Huracán (50%) remain in sixth, seventh and eighth place respectively. Ninth place changes, Newell’s rises with 49%, Gimnasia drops to eleventh with 47%, while Rosario Central has reached 48% of the points up for grabs. In all the tables you can see the percentage of points obtained even if they are sorted by sum of points.

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

First Division (League)

Originally it was called First League, then First Division. It has always been the main championship. When there were divisions, in Buenos Aires football there were two First Division tournaments. After the mergers (1915, 1926 and 1934), the action of the dissident associations was recognised. The clearest example occurred 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 (3 November 1934) there was only one tournament until 1966 and several cups. In 1967 the National tournament was incorporated as a First Division competition. Therefore, the original regulation talks about the Metropolitan First Division Tournament and the National First Division Tournament. Every year the regulations were changed and more teams from the country were added. Until 1985. Then Primera B Nacional was created as the main promotion category.

This last decade has been dominated by confusion. There was a championship 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, points began to be considered for the average relegation ranking) and the Champions Trophy.

Once the Super League died out, the Professional Football League took over, now within the AFA, which retained the format, League Tournament, League Cup and Champions Trophy. An annual table for international cups and this last year for relegation and relegation averages adding both competitions. All mixed together, ideal for confusion. For this reason Colón (2021 League Cup champion) and Rosario Central (2023 League Cup champion) asked to be considered League champions and not Cup champions. “But obviously also the precedents from Tigre to here,” he specified. Claudio Chiqui Wall, AFA president, at a mid-December AFA executive committee meeting. Officially, there is nothing in the Executive Committee bulletins. What is written in the regulation applies.

Should the current League Cup be considered a First Division tournament, like the old National Teams? It’s another matter and in the AFA they need to improve the regulatory semantics. For now there remains a single championship and many national cup competitions.

So, in these tables, professional league tournaments are counted in the league rankings. And those of the League Cup, in the national cups. In the League there are two changes in the standings. As mentioned, San Lorenzo moves to third place and Independiente to fourth. While Gimnasia climbs up to eighth place, relegating Huracán to ninth, 35 points behind. The fight for sixth place between Vélez and Estudiantes is more balanced, with only 23 points difference, even if Fortín maintains a 1% gap in points obtained.

National cups

From January 27th, every victory and every draw of the 28 teams participating in the tournament will modify this table, which has many variations compared 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 historic nickname of “the big five”. Out of curiosity, Boca and River have the same number of games played.

From fifth to tenth place the order changes radically. Huracán goes from eighth to sixth place, Estudiantes maintains seventh place, Central (reigning champions) places eighth, Vélez drops to ninth place and Gimnasia is tenth. Newell’s drops 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%).

International Cups

Before the South American Football Confederation began organizing the Copa Libertadores (1960), competitions for Argentine teams took place in River Plate. First it was the Tie Cup, then the Cousinier Cup of Honor, then 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 responsible for 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 hegemony, then Boca emerges and the podium is completed by Independiente. Meanwhile, in fourth place is Vélez, who will not play in international cups this year, with 15 points more than San Lorenzo, who will face Libertadores. In fifth place is Estudiantes (they will meet Sudamericano, 24 points behind Liniers’ team. Racing drops to seventh place and Lanús appears for the first time in eighth, having been very popular in recent years. Then, the Rosario, relegating Huracán and Gymnastics.

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