The 1996–97 Honduran Liga Nacional season was the 31st edition of the Honduran Liga Nacional. The format of the tournament remained the same as the previous season.

Club Deportivo Olimpia Club Deportivo Olimpia is a professional association football in Honduras, Honduran football club based in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazán Department, Francisco Morazán. The club is the nation's most successful team both ...

won the title after defeating C.D. Platense in the finals. Both teams qualified to the

1998 CONCACAF Champions' Cup The 1998 CONCACAF Champions' Cup was the 34th edition of the annual international club football competition held in the CONCACAF region (North America, Central America and the Caribbean), the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. It determined that year's clu ...

. This was the last long-season tournament before the introduction of the

Apertura and Clausura The ' () and ' () tournaments is a split Season (sports), season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American soccer, football sports league, leagues in which the traditional association ...

format.

1996–97 teams

* Independiente Villela * Marathón * Motagua * Olimpia * Platense *

Real España Real may refer to: Currencies * Argentine real * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Nature and science * Reality, the state of things as they exist, rath ...

Real Maya Real Maya was a Honduran football club. History The club was founded on 7 April 1985. They played in first division many season with many different names, Real Maya being the most used. In the 2002/2003 season they took the place of Real Com ...

* Universidad (''promoted'') * Victoria * Vida

Regular season

Standings

Results (Rounds 1–18)

* ''Marathón–Olimpia abandoned at '70 (1–2). Result stood.''

Results (Rounds 19–27)

Final round

Hexagonal

* ''Real España won 3–2 on aggregated.'' * ''Victoria 2–2 Marathón on aggregated. Victoria advanced on better Regular season record.'' * ''Platense won 4–3 on aggregated.''

Triangular

Final

* ''Olimpia won 4–1 on aggregated.''

Top scorer

Denilson Costa Denilson Costa (born 10 June 1968) is a Brazilian and naturalized Honduran football coach and former player. He is currently the second all-time top scorer in the Honduran Liga Nacional and was also the first to reach 150 goals. Now he is a t ...

( Motagua) with 13 goals

Squads

Controversies

* On 12 October 1996, during a week 7 match between C.D. Marathón and

, then Marathón's president José Yacamán ordered his team to quit the game as he claimed that they were being targeted by referee Arturo Tábora with controversial calls. The game was not resumed and the result stood 1–2 to Olimpia.RadioHouse.hn – CASOS INSÓLITOS DEL FÚTBOL HONDUREÑO
– 13 October 2016 * In the last round, C.D. Motagua defeated Independiente Villela at

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa ( )—formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz''—is the capital and largest city of Honduras along with its sister city, Comaya ...

with a 7–2 score. This game sentenced Independiente to certain relegation. However, the ''Chorizeros'' protested that Motagua had included defender

Júnior Izaguirre Junior Gustavo Izaguirre Puerto (born 12 August 1979) is a Honduran retired football defender, who most recently played for F.C. Motagua in the Honduran Liga Nacional. Club career Izaguirre started his professional career at Honduran giants ...

in its lineup. Izaguirre, who was on the bench that day, saw a red card in a reserves game a week prior. In order to avoid further conflicts, the league decided to abolish relegation and invited Independiente to play in the 1997–98 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1996-97 Honduran Liga Nacional Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras seasons 1996–97 in Honduran football

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...