The new league will see a return to a single championship each year, putting an end to the two-tournament system that has run in the Argentine First Division since 1991.

Currently in the Primera División, the season is divided into two tournaments, the Inicial and Final, with the winners of each tournament playing a final match to determine the league champion.

The new top division will see just one tournament running from February to November next year with the competition "played on a league basis with teams playing each other once in 29 rounds with a 30th round for a repeat of the 'clasicos' (derbies)," according to an AFA statement.

This 30th round will see every team play rival, or derby, matches, such as Boca Juniors versus River Plate, for a second time.

The move has been long-term ambition of 82-year-old AFA President Julio Grondona who believes it will bring a "calmer and more even" competition.

"All the directors [on the AFA committee] raised their hands to approve the change," Grondona, who has for some time wanted to include more teams from the provinces in a top flight generally dominated by the Buenos Aires clubs, told local Radio 10.

The new league format has been an ambition of AFA President Julio Grondona as he looks to include more teams from other provinces in the top flight which is currently dominated by teams from Buenos Aires and Santa Fe ©LatinContent/Getty Images



The expansion from 20 to 30 teams will see 10 clubs ascend to the first division from Primera B Nacional, a 22-strong division with teams from across the country, which currently runs as the country's second tier of professional football leagues.

Relegation from the new league will be determined in the same way as the current system, by using a team's average points over three seasons, but under the new format only two will go down instead of the current three.

The three teams to be relegated at the end of the current campaign could now return to the top flight at the end of this year due to the emergence of 10 second-tier teams to the top division in this new league format.

The earliest they could have returned under the current system would have been June 2015.

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