The Liga Dominicana de Fútbol is the first professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

league in

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

, it was launched in March 2015. For sponsorship reasons it is known as ''LDF Banco Popular''.

History

Prior to the league's establishment, football in the Dominican Republic was only played in a semi-pro level. To address the issue and to raise the status of football in the country, the Dominican Football Federation has decided to implement the idea of a new professional league in the country, to attract more people into the sport. Thus, the Liga Dominicana de Fútbol was approved, as an attempt to raise the country's football profile. The first season began in 2014.

Jarabacoa FC gets Relegated for the 2024 Season

On 2 February 2024, the Official Jarabacoa FC account on X announced they will not participate in the 2024 season in desire to maintain and improve their turf along with general improvements to their Stadiu

The 2024 season will feature the previous 8 teams from the 2023 season.

Competition format

In the first three installments, each team played 18 matches in the regular season with the 4 teams with most points qualifying for the playoffs. The champion was decided in a single-legged final. The 2018 season grew from 10 to 12 teams with the arrival of San Francisco de Macoris (Atlético) and Bayaguana (Inter). Since Delfines from the Eastern part of the country joined, the LDF now had a team in each of the seven provinces and the National District, and the only professional league with a team in the South region San Cristóbal Province, San Cristóbal. The tournament featured 132 regular series matches. Each team played 22 games in the regular phase (instead of the 18 of the first three editions), and the six highest scoring advanced to the second phase, where they played one against all in a round. The best four then advanced to a semi-final with round-trip matches. The winners had a championship in a single match, which extends the league calendar to 152 matches from 95 in 2017. As a novelty, the LDF 2018 season had a national and international television transmission chain that brought the small screen 60 matches at the local level and a number of meetings to be defined that will be taken to at least five nations of the region, including the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The 2019 tournament of the Liga Dominicana de Futbol started with 12 teams. The event brought up a new format in which each of the twelve clubs can have up to 6 foreign players on their payroll. The new format includes an " Apertura" and a " Clausura" tournament, both will be played one round and have been agreed with the twelve clubs and also with

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

. The "Apertura" will have a semifinal with the four best teams and then a final, as well as the "Clausura". The champion of each tournament will then compete to win the qualification to the

championship tournament. Another club will qualify for the

tournament, accumulating the most points in both tournaments.

Teams

Former Teams

Champions

Most goals

Stadiums and locations

Current LDF stadiums

References

External links

LDF official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liga Dominicana de Futbol Football competitions in the Dominican Republic Dom Sports leagues established in 2015 2015 establishments in the Dominican Republic