2021 Categoría Primera B Season
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The 2021 Categoría Primera B season (officially known as the 2021 Torneo BetPlay DIMAYOR season for sponsorship reasons) was the 32nd season of the
Categoría Primera B Categoría Primera B, commonly referred to as Torneo BetPlay Dimayor due to Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is the second-division association football, football league in Colombia. The tournament was inaugura ...
since its founding as
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
's second division football league. The tournament started on 15 January 2021 and ended on 10 March 2022.
Atlético Huila Atlético Huila is a professional Colombian association football, football team based in Neiva, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. The club was founded in 1990, making it one of the youngest professional football clubs in Colombia. ...
were the defending champions, having been unable to earn promotion to the
Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor due to Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a professional association football league in Colombia and the highest level of the Colombian ...
despite winning the previous tournament. Deportes Quindío won their second Primera B title in the Torneo I, defeating
Cortuluá Cortuluá, officially named Cortuluá Fútbol Club S. A. and previously known as Corporación Club Deportivo Tuluá for short, was a Colombian football club from Tuluá, Valle del Cauca Department. It was founded in 1967 and last played in Categ ...
in the final over two legs, whilst Unión Magdalena were the champions in the Torneo II, beating Cortuluá in the final on penalties after a 1–1 draw to claim their first title.


Format

The format for the 2021 Primera B season was decided at DIMAYOR's General Assembly session of 17 December 2020. For this season, two tournaments (Torneo I and Torneo II) with three stages each will be played. In the ''Torneo I'', the 16 teams played a single round-robin tournament under the same fixture as the previous season, but with reversed home-and-away order. The top eight teams at the end of the fifteen rounds advanced to the semi-finals, where teams were split into two groups of four where they played each one of their rivals twice. The top team of each group advanced to the finals, where they played a double-legged series with the winner advancing to the Grand Final against the 2020 Primera B winners
Atlético Huila Atlético Huila is a professional Colombian association football, football team based in Neiva, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. The club was founded in 1990, making it one of the youngest professional football clubs in Colombia. ...
. The Grand Final was also played over two legs, with the winner earning promotion to the Primera A for the 2021 Finalización tournament. The second promotion spot to the 2021 Primera A season would be decided in a promotion play-off between the Grand Final loser and the best team of the aggregate table of both the 2020 and 2021–I tournaments, other than the Grand Final winners. The ''Torneo II'' was only played by 15 teams, given that two teams were promoted and only one team was relegated from the Primera A. In the first stage, the 15 teams played a single round-robin tournament with the top eight teams advancing to the semi-finals, in which the eight qualified teams were split into two groups of four teams each, playing a double round-robin tournament. Both group winners were promoted to the Primera A for the 2022 season and also played a single-match final to decide the champions.


Teams

17 teams took part in the season, the 16 teams that competed in the previous season as well as Boyacá Chicó, who were relegated from the Primera A at the end of the 2021 Apertura tournament. Real San Andrés were rebranded back to ''Real Santander'' and returned to the
Santander Department Santander () is a department of Colombia. Santander inherited the name of one of the nine original states of the United States of Colombia. It is located in the central northern part of the country, borders the Magdalena River to the east, Bo ...
following the expiration of the agreement with the local authorities of the
Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina The Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (, ), or San Andrés and Providencia, is one of the departments of Colombia, and the only one located geographically in Central America. It consists of two island groups in the Caribb ...
. The following team was relegated from the Categoría Primera A at the end of the 2021 Apertura tournament and took part in the Torneo II:


Torneo I


First stage


Standings


Results


Semi-finals

The eight teams that advanced to the semi-finals were drawn into two groups of four teams, with the top two teams from the first stage being seeded in each group. The winners of each group advanced to the finals.


Group A


Group B


Finals

---- ''Deportes Quindío won 2–0 on aggregate.''


Top scorers

Source
Soccerway
/small>


Grand Final

The Torneo I winners Deportes Quindío played a double-legged series against the 2020 Primera B champions
Atlético Huila Atlético Huila is a professional Colombian association football, football team based in Neiva, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. The club was founded in 1990, making it one of the youngest professional football clubs in Colombia. ...
for the first promotion berth to the Categoría Primera A for the remainder of the 2021 season. The losing team qualified for the promotion play-off. ---- ''Atlético Huila won 3–1 on aggregate and were promoted to Categoría Primera A.''


2020 and 2021–I aggregate table


Promotion play-off

Since the Grand Final losers Deportes Quindío also ended up as the best team in the 2020 and 2021–I aggregate table, they earned automatic promotion to the
Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor due to Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a professional association football league in Colombia and the highest level of the Colombian ...
and the promotion play-off was not played.


Torneo II


First stage


Standings


Results


Semi-finals

The eight teams that advanced to the semi-finals were drawn into two groups of four teams, with the top two teams from the first stage being seeded in each group. The winners of each group advanced to the final and were also promoted to
Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor due to Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a professional association football league in Colombia and the highest level of the Colombian ...
for 2022.


Group A


Group B


Final


Top scorers

Source
Soccerway
/small>


Llaneros v Unión Magdalena controversy

On 4 December 2021, the last matchday of the Torneo II semi-final Group B, Unión Magdalena sealed their promotion to
Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor due to Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a professional association football league in Colombia and the highest level of the Colombian ...
after coming back from a 1–0 deficit against
Llaneros A (, 'plainsman') is a Venezuelan and Colombian herder. The name is taken from the Llanos grasslands occupying eastern Colombia and western-central Venezuela. During the Spanish American wars of independence, lancers and cavalry served in b ...
in
Villavicencio Villavicencio () is a city and municipality in Colombia. The capital of Meta Department, it was founded on April 6, 1840. The municipality had a population of 531,275 in 2018. The city is located at 4°08'N, 73°40'W, 75 km (about 45  ...
with a couple of goals in quick succession in stoppage time to win the game by a 2–1 score and get promoted at the expense of
Fortaleza Fortaleza ( ; ; ) is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeastern Brazil. It is Brazil's 4th largest city—Fortaleza surpassed Salvador, Bahia, Salvador in 2022 census with a population of slightly over 2.4 mi ...
, who were clinching promotion with the score in Villavicencio despite losing their final match to
Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
at the same time. However, video footage of Unión Magdalena's winning goal appeared to show the Llaneros players backing off and failing to make an effort to prevent their rivals from scoring. The events sparked outrage both within the country and abroad, with Colombian internationals Juan Cuadrado and Mateus Uribe expressing their displeasure, calling them "a lack of respect" and "an embarrassment for Colombian football", whilst President of Colombia Iván Duque Márquez stated it was a "national disgrace". In response to the growing backlash, as well as calls from Fortaleza to get the match annulled and Unión Magdalena's promotion reversed, DIMAYOR chairman Fernando Jaramillo ordered the opening of an inquiry on the match events while also requesting the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia to investigate whether any criminal offenses had been committed, but on 7 December 2021, Jaramillo stated that the tournament would not be paused and Unión Magdalena's promotion would not be overturned while due process was completed. However, amid the ongoing inquiries, the Torneo II's final match between
Cortuluá Cortuluá, officially named Cortuluá Fútbol Club S. A. and previously known as Corporación Club Deportivo Tuluá for short, was a Colombian football club from Tuluá, Valle del Cauca Department. It was founded in 1967 and last played in Categ ...
and Unión Magdalena, which was originally scheduled to be played on 11 December 2021 at Cortuluá's home stadium Estadio Doce de Octubre was postponed until further notice. On 30 December 2021 DIMAYOR's Disciplinary Commission closed the investigation on Unión Magdalena as it found no evidence implying that members of the aforementioned club had been responsible for the events that occurred in the match against Llaneros, thus confirming their promotion to Primera A. However, sources within the governing body of Colombian professional football stated that the investigation on Llaneros would remain open. Five months later, it was announced that four Llaneros players who were involved in that match had been fined and suspended from all sporting and administrative activities for "committing acts against sporting dignity and decorum".


See also

* 2021 Categoría Primera A season * 2021 Copa Colombia


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2021 Categoria Primera B season Categoría Primera B seasons 2
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...