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It was 20 years ago that LaLiga, and the Spanish Federation, decided that a win merited more than two points and started awarding victors three points for each success as global football aimed to reward attacking endeavour and promote a more offensive-minded style of football.
In this period, Barcelona have won ten of the twenty titles on offer, but their dominance is not so apparent on the cumulative 20-year League table, which goes to show just how many of those have been close rung affairs as you can see in an article I’d earlier done: Real Madrid vs Barcelona: Six times when La Liga's leader lost the title on the last day
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Real Madrid have won 6 trophies, while Valencia with two, Deportivo La Coruna with one, and Atletico Madrid with one round up the 20 year period.
There are some interesting pointers as to the evolution of the game in those two decades – between 1998 and 2007, the average point haul for a champion was 77.4, over the last decade that has skyrocketed to 93.6 – the whole thing kickstarted with Jose Mourinho leading Real Madrid to a record-setting 100 points in 2012.
Even more illuminating? In the first five seasons under the new format, Barcelona accumalated 344 points while in the most recent half-decade (2007-12) they collected a quite frankly ridiculous 462. Real Madrid’s same haul during those same periods? 339 points to 447 points.
In fact, if you got what Deportivo got to win their championship, just 69 points, this season – you’d end up fifth, just two points above Villarreal and a good three behind Sevilla.
La Liga has seen a lot of different variations – increasing from 10 to 12, then to 14, 16, 18 and finally 20 in the 1987/88 season (back when 2 points were still awarded for a win). Then, in 1995/96 and 1996/97, the Spanish Federation even experimented with 22 team model, before reverting to the model we know today (and making that conversion to 3 points a win).
In that twenty year period, over 40 clubs have competed in the league, with only Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia, Espanyol and Athletic Club Bilbao the only sides not be relegated in the period!
Here’s the full table, not just how close Barcelona and Real Madrid are even over such a vast period! The teams current positions are in brackets next to their rank on this table
| Rank | Team | Points | Seasons |
| 1. (2) | FC Barcelona | 1616 | 20 |
| 2. (1) | Real Madrid CF | 1611 | 20 |
| 3. (12) | Valencia | 1249 | 20 |
| 4. (3) | Atletico Madrid | 1110 | 18 |
| 5. (7) | Athletic Bilbao | 1068 | 20 |
| 6. (4) | Sevilla | 1003 | 17 |
| 7. (5) | Villarreal | 970 | 17 |
| 8. (16) | Deportivo la Coruna | 966 | 18 |
| 9. (8) | Espanyol | 963 | 18 |
| 10. (6) | Real Sociedad | 873 | 17 |
