Segunda División femenina · History

The first season of the second tier of Spanish women's football was played in 2001-02. The Superliga Femenina was created that same season, an eleven-team league won by Levante. The new division was called Primera Nacional and split into six regional groups. Its first group winners were SD Leioa, CD Amigos del Duero, FC Barcelona, Rayo Vallecano, Atlético Jiennense and CD Rayco. It kept that name until 2011, when it was renamed Segunda División Femenina. It remained the second level of the women's game in Spain until 2019, when the Royal Spanish Football Federation created a new league between it and the Primera División.

The Primera Nacional years (2001-2011)

For its first ten seasons, the competition was organised into six geographical groups, each played as a double round-robin. Group winners went into a promotion phase, which until 2011 was played as two three-team mini-leagues. CD Rayco won Group VI six seasons in a row, from 2001-02 to 2006-07. FC Barcelona topped Group III in 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2007-08. One rule applied throughout this period and stayed in force afterwards: reserve teams could not be promoted. When a second team won its group, its promotion place went to the runner-up.

Seven groups and a new name (2011-2013)

In 2011-12 the division took the name Segunda División. It also added a seventh group and reorganised its clubs by region. The promotion phase grew from six clubs to eight and was played over two single-match rounds. In the first round, on 13 May 2012, Femarguín, Sevilla, Tacuense and Levante Las Planas knocked out Oviedo Moderno, Oiartzun, Torrejón and Fundación Albacete. Two teams went up in the final round. Sevilla beat Femarguín 3-1 on 26 May. The next day, Levante Las Planas beat Tacuense 2-1 after extra time.

Granada CF and AD Torrejón went up in the 2013 promotion phase. Granada reached the top flight for the first time after knocking out Oviedo Moderno. Torrejón folded a few days after winning promotion, and Oviedo Moderno took its place in the 2013-14 Primera División.

Promotion from 2014 to 2017

In 2014 UDG Tenerife narrowly missed out on promotion; Fundación Albacete went up that year. The Tenerife club made it in 2015, winning its final tie against Real Betis in Seville. Betis went up in 2016 together with UD Tacuense, through an eight-team phase of two-legged ties. In the 2016-17 Primera División they replaced Oviedo Moderno and UD Collerense, who had been relegated. In 2017 the federation combined a group stage with a knockout tie. Madrid CFF won its first two group games in Alicante, 4-0 against SPA Alicante and 3-1 away to Seagull, and earned the first promotion in the club's history. Sevilla FC won the first leg of its tie 2-1 and sealed promotion in the return leg in the Canary Islands.

The last two promotions (2018 and 2019)

The draw for the 2018 promotion phase took place on 23 April. EDF Logroño had won their group with 63 goals scored and 23 conceded. In the promotion phase they knocked out CD Tacón, winning the second leg 2-1 on 2 June, and made their top-flight debut. The other place went to Málaga CF, who had won their group with 129 goals scored and only 6 conceded. In 2019 Deportivo, winners of Group 1, went up along with CD Tacón. Tacón had gone unbeaten in their group, with 70 points from 22 wins and 4 draws, and beat Santa Teresa in the deciding tie. Neither club had played in the Primera División before.

From second tier to third (2018-2019)

On 24 July 2018 the RFEF presented its General Assembly with a new category to sit between the Primera and the Segunda, made up of two groups of 16 teams: North and South. The reason was arithmetic. The top flight had 16 teams and the Segunda 112, and only two could go up each season. The new league was first planned as Primera División B, but in July 2019 it was named Segunda División Pro. Its first season, 2019-20, brought together the 30 highest-placed teams from the 2018-19 Segunda División and the two clubs relegated from the top flight. From 2019 the former second division was the third tier, under the name Primera Nacional.