Argentina's 136th top-flight football season faces unexpected legal delays
In short: The 2026 Torneo Mercado Libre is more than just a battle for glory. Amidst a high-stakes competition featuring thirty teams, the league has already faced administrative hurdles, including a postponed round due to a legal investigation into social security contributions.
The 2026 AFA Liga Profesional de Fútbol, officially known as the Torneo Mercado Libre 2026, marks the 136th season of Argentina's top-flight professional football. The season began on 22 January 2026 and is scheduled to conclude on 12 December 2026. The competition features thirty teams: twenty-eight returning from the 2025 season and two promoted sides, Gimnasia y Esgrima (M) and Estudiantes (RC), the latter returning after a 40-year absence.
The tournament structure is complex, divided into two main tournaments: the Torneo Apertura and the Torneo Clausura. Each tournament consists of five stages. In the first stage, the thirty teams are split into two groups of fifteen. Each team plays 16 rounds in total: a single round-robin within their group plus two inter-zone matches. The top eight teams from each group advance to a single-leg knockout phase, starting from the round of 16.
The season has already encountered friction. On 23 February 2026, the Liga Profesional de Fútbol executive committee unanimously decided to postpone the ninth round of the tournament. Following an ARCA (Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero) legal probe into unpaid 2024 and 2025 social security dues, the fixtures moved from 5–8 March 2026 to 2–4 May 2026.
Beyond the tournament winners, the league has introduced the 'Campeón de Liga' title for the team with the most aggregate points. While established at the end of 2025, the title was awarded retroactively to Rosario Central. At the season's end, two teams face relegation to the Primera Nacional: the team finishing last in the aggregate table and one team determined by a coefficient based on performance over three seasons.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: 2026 AFA Liga Profesional de Fútbol
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