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 sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay (formerly ''Torneo Águila''), is the second-division football league in Colombia.
Format
DIMAYOR has applied a new form ...
since its founding as
Colombia's second division football league. The tournament started on 15 January 2021 and ended on 10 March 2022.
Atlético Huila 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 (between 2015 and 2019 ''Liga Águila'') due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a Colombian professional league for association football clubs. It is th ...
despite winning the
previous tournament.
Deportes Quindío
Deportes Quindío is a professional Colombian football club based in Armenia that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. The club was founded on 8 January 1951, and its best achievement was winning the 1956 league tournament. They play ...
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, is a Colombian football club from the municipality of Tuluá in the Valle del Cauca. It was founded in 1967 and plays in the Cate ...
in the final over two legs, whilst
Unión Magdalena
Unión Magdalena () commonly known as El Unión, and nicknamed as El Ciclón Bananero (The Banana Cyclone) and also Los Samarios (The Samarios), is a Colombian football club from the city of Santa Marta, capital of the department of 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. 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 Boyacá is the name of a region in Colombia. It may refer to other connections to Colombia:
* Battle of Boyacá
* Boyacá Department (Gran Colombia)
* Boyacá Department
** Boyacá, Boyacá, a municipality
* Boyacá State, a former state
* Puert ...
, 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 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 ( es, Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, ), or San Andrés and Providencia, is one of the departments of Colombia, and the only one in North America. It consi ...
.
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
Deportes Quindío is a professional Colombian football club based in Armenia that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. The club was founded on 8 January 1951, and its best achievement was winning the 1956 league tournament. They play ...
played a double-legged series against the
2020 Primera B champions
Atlético Huila 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
Promotion may refer to:
Marketing
* Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...
.
----
''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
Deportes Quindío is a professional Colombian football club based in Armenia that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. The club was founded on 8 January 1951, and its best achievement was winning the 1956 league tournament. They play ...
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 (between 2015 and 2019 ''Liga Águila'') due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a Colombian professional league for association football clubs. It is th ...
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 (between 2015 and 2019 ''Liga Águila'') due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a Colombian professional league for association football clubs. It is th ...
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
Unión Magdalena () commonly known as El Unión, and nicknamed as El Ciclón Bananero (The Banana Cyclone) and also Los Samarios (The Samarios), is a Colombian football club from the city of Santa Marta, capital of the department of Magdalena, ...
sealed their promotion to
Categoría Primera A
The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor (between 2015 and 2019 ''Liga Águila'') due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a Colombian professional league for association football clubs. It is th ...
after coming back from a 1–0 deficit against
Llaneros
A (, ‘plainsman’) is a South American 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 both ar ...
in
Villavicencio
Villavicencio () is a city and municipality in Colombia. Capital of Meta Department, it was founded on April 6, 1840. The city had an urban population of approximately 531,275 inhabitants in 2018.https://www.dane.gov.co/files/varios/informacion ...
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 (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the ...
, 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 period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest ...
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
Juan Guillermo Cuadrado Bello (born 26 May 1988) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays for club Juventus and the Colombia national team. He is known for his direct style of play, including his pace (both on and off the ball) as wel ...
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
Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulga ...
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
The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia ( es, Fiscalía General de la Nación; literally "General Prosecutorial Office of the Nation") is the Colombian institution part of the Colombian judicial branch of Government with administrative a ...
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, is a Colombian football club from the municipality of Tuluá in the Valle del Cauca. It was founded in 1967 and plays in the Cate ...
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
The 2021 Categoría Primera A season (officially known as the 2021 Liga BetPlay Dimayor season for sponsorship reasons) was the 74th season of the Categoría Primera A, Colombia's top-flight football league. The season began on 16 January and en ...
*
2021 Copa Colombia
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:2021 Categoria Primera B season
Categoría Primera B seasons
2
Colombia