• Last time Sevilla led La Liga table after 8 matchdays in the 1940/41 season.
  • Then the team finished 5th two points above 6th place.
  • That is La Liga’s qualification.

During the Franco regime the players raised their arms in the air at the beginning of the matches. There were also big emblems Franco, Franco, Franco at the stadium.
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In the years of hunger La Liga reflected the shortages in the society, which was devastated by the Civil War. La Liga collected poor revenues and the participating teams had similar results to the current ones at the beginning of the 1940/41 season. Everyone was bewildered as Sevilla unexpectedly took the lead, even though the competition was very intense like in the old days of Jacinto Quincoces and Guillermo Gorostiza.

The similarities with that post-war tournament are astonishing. After the first 8 matches Sevilla was on top with 11 points, just as many as Real Madrid and Atletico Aviacion (today Atletico Madrid) had, but with a better goals difference: 41 in favor and 16 against. A big contrast with our days is that the Achilles' heel of the teams was defense. Landslides were common. Sevilla humiliated Barcelona (11:1), Valencia (10:3) and Hercules (8:3) on the first matchdays. Campanal I was its leader (he was the fourth scorer of the tournament with 17 goals).

La Liga consisted of 12 teams. At the beginning of the matches the players raised their arms in the air. There were also big walls with the emblem Franco, Franco, Franco at the stadium. Football provided some kind of relief to the population exhausted by famine and shortages 18 months after the end of the Civil War, but it was also used as a powerful propaganda weapon. There was an extensive list of great players in exile, such as Langara, Zubieta or Regueiro. It was a painful diaspora and irreplaceable losses for the clubs and the Spanish national team.

Some books tell that in that La Liga Real Madrid and Real Oviedo could restore monarchical hallmarks that weren’t allowed in the years of the Second Spanish Republic. The Ministry of Internal Affairs prohibited using foreign words in the teams’ names, thus Athletic Aviacion Club was renamed into Atletico Aviacion. Atletico Madrid’s precursor team was supported by the Franco regime, so they were trained by El Divino Ricardo Zamora and played in Vallecas, because the Metropolitano Stadium was damaged by the Civil War military offensives. Despite the exile, the team was proclaimed La Liga’s champion. Its striker Pruden with 23 goals became the best scorer. Sevilla finished 5th following Athletic Bilbao, Valencia and Barcelona, but ahead of Real Madrid.

Just as what is happening now, the first 6 teams were separated by only two points. By that moment Sevilla won five games, had one tie and lost two matches. It had 11 points in total, which would correspond 16 in our times when 3 points are awarded for a win.

The team that now is trained by Pablo Machin took advantage of the mistakes made during the match with Real Madrid and Barcelona to outrank other teams in this tournament with the leaders’ poor performance. After the victory against Celta on Sunday Sevilla has the same amount of points as a year ago, when they finished 5th, separated from Barcelona, the top team of the table, by 6 points. The team from Sanchez Pizjuan stadium has accumulated 4 consecutive victories and four matches ago it lagged behind Barcelona by eight points. La Liga is an uncontrollable roller coaster. And unpredictable. Espanyol (the 5th) is the only team to have won all their home games so far. Barca has conceded 9 goals, the same amount as in the first 20 days of the previous La Liga.

Such tensions of this autumn have rarely been seen before. Since the 1986/87 season, when the victories were rewarded with two points, this difference between the 1st and the 6th qualified teams wasn’t so tangible. Barcelona with 12 points was in the lead of the table, only one point more than Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have and two more than Espanyol, Sporting and Valladolid.

In this case La Liga has something in common the Premiership, considering that situation after 8 matches’ period, three teams (Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool) share the same amount of points and two others (Arsenal and Tottenham) are lagging behind by two points.

This season Sevilla has surprised everyone with its new coach and has generated illusions in some fans who are aware of their leadership being something temporary, but many of them remember the old days, such as the 1945/46 season and that time when their team took the lead of La Liga’s table after 8 matches’ period. The team won its only La Liga’s title in the 1945/46 season.

Source: El Mundo