The 2018 Liga Profesional de Primera División season, also known as the Campeonato Uruguayo 2018, was the 115th season of

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

's top-flight football league, and the 88th in which it is professional. The season was named as "Ing. Julio César Franzini" and began on 3 February, ending on 11 November.

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neigh ...

were the defending champions, and successfully defended the title with a 2–1 win over

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

in the championship playoff.

Format

The format in this season was the same as the most recent season, with the ''Torneo Apertura'' in the first half of the year and the ''Torneo Clausura'' in the second half, and a ''Torneo Intermedio'' played between both tournaments.

Teams

The two bottom-placed teams in the relegation table of the 2017 season, Juventud and

Plaza Colonia Club Plaza Colonia de Deportes, or simply Plaza Colonia, is a Uruguayan professional football club from Colonia del Sacramento, that competes in the Uruguayan Primera Division. Founded in 1917, the club plays its home games at the 3,000 seater ...

, as well as

Sud América Institución Atlética Sud América, usually known as Sud América or just IASA, is a football club from Montevideo. They currently play in the Uruguayan Segunda Division. History Sud América has won the Uruguayan 2nd Division on 7 occasion ...

, who lost a tiebreaker to

El Tanque Sisley El Tanque Sisley is a football club from Montevideo in Uruguay. They currently play in the Uruguayan 3rd Division. The club were founded in 1955 with the name ''Club Atlético El Tanque'', on December 15, 1981 the club were amalgamated with '' ...

, were relegated to the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

for the 2018 season. They were replaced by

Torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...

Atenas Atenas () is a district of the Atenas canton, in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. Its urban area is referred as Atenas city. Toponymy Its name means Athens ''(Αθήνα)'', the capital of Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', offici ...

, and Progreso, who were promoted from the Segunda División. On 2 February 2018, the Uruguayan Football Association confirmed that

would not take part in the league due to an outstanding debt. As a result, El Tanque Sisley were administratively relegated to the second tier for the 2019 season and the season was played by 15 teams. a: Boston River is based in Montevideo but plays its home games at

Estadio Parque Artigas Estadio Parque Artigas is a multi-use stadium in Paysandú, Uruguay. It is currently used mostly for football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word '' ...

in Las Piedras.
b: El Tanque Sisley is based in Montevideo but plays its home games at

Estadio Campeones Olímpicos A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

.
c: Torque is based in Montevideo but plays its home games at

Estadio Municipal Casto Martínez Laguarda Estadio Municipal Casto Martínez Laguarda is a multi-sports stadium in San José de Mayo, Uruguay. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches, and also for track and field competitions and rugby union events. The stadium ...

San José de Mayo San José de Mayo () is the capital city of the San José Department in southern Uruguay. Location and geography The city is located at the centre of the state, on the intersection of Route 3 with Route 11, from the centre of Montevideo. The r ...

. They played their first five home games at

Estadio José Nasazzi Estadio José Nasazzi is a multi-use stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay. It is currently used primarily for football matches. The stadium holds 10,000 people. It is the home stadium of C.A. Bella Vista Club Atlético Bella Vista, usually known si ...

in Montevideo.

Managerial changes

Torneo Apertura

The Torneo Apertura, named "Sr.

Abdón Porte Abdón Porte (1893 – 5 March 1918) was a Uruguayan footballer who played as defensive midfielder. Nicknamed ''El Indio'' he won many titles with his club Nacional, and also a Copa América with the Uruguay national team. He committed suicide ...

", was the first tournament of the 2018 season. It began on 3 February and ended on 6 May. With

being unable to take part in the season, all teams were awarded three points in their matches against El Tanque Sisley, with no goals for being counted.

Standings

Results

Top goalscorers

Source
Soccerway
/small>

Torneo Intermedio

The Torneo Intermedio, named "Sr. Juan Carlos Bugallo" was the second tournament of the 2018 season, played between the Apertura and Clausura tournaments. It consisted of two groups whose composition depended on the final standings of the Torneo Apertura: teams in odd-numbered positions played in Serie A, and teams in even-numbered positions played in Serie B. Given the absence of

for this season, Serie A had the usual eight teams while Serie B was contested by seven teams. It started on 9 May and ended on 10 June, with the winners being granted a berth into the

2019 Copa Sudamericana The 2019 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana was the 18th edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the ''Copa Sudamericana'', or pt, Copa Sul-Americana), South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Ecuadori ...

and the 2019 Supercopa Uruguaya.

Serie A

Serie B

Torneo Intermedio Final

Top goalscorers

Source
Soccerway
/small>

Torneo Clausura

The Torneo Clausura, named "Cr. Hugo Sebastiani", was the third tournament of the 2018 season. It began on 21 July and ended on 4 November. As happened in the Torneo Apertura, all teams were awarded three points in their matches against El Tanque Sisley, with no goals for being counted.

Standings

Results

Top goalscorers

Source
Soccerway
/small>

Aggregate table

The aggregate table includes the results of the three stages played throughout the season (Torneo Apertura, Torneo Intermedio, and Torneo Clausura). Since

did not compete (which caused the Torneo Intermedio to have groups of different size), the points earned by the teams in the smaller group of the Torneo Intermedio were weighted for the purposes of elaborating the aggregate table: teams in Serie B had their points divided between the number of games they played (6) and then multiplied by the number of games played by teams in Serie A (7), in order to get the points earned in the Torneo Intermedio to the effects of the aggregate table.

Championship playoff

Semi-final

Final

Since

, who had the best record in the aggregate table, won the semifinal, they became champions automatically and the final was not played.

became runners-up as the second-placed team in the aggregate table. Both teams qualified for the 2019 Copa Libertadores group stage.

Relegation

Relegation was determined at the end of the season by computing an average of the number of points earned per game over the two most recent seasons:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and 2018.

was one of the teams relegated to the

for the following season, as well as the two teams with the lowest average.

References

External links

Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol - Campeonato Uruguayo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uruguayan Primera Division 2018

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

1 2018 in South American football leagues