Liga Panameña De Fútbol
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Liga Panameña de Fútbol (LPF; ) is the top division
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
Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
. Until 2009, the league was named ''Asociación Nacional Pro Fútbol (ANAPROF)''.


Competition format

The league's season is divided into two tournaments called 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 ...
. Teams are divided into two Conferences (Eastern and Western). The Eastern Conference is composed by: Tauro, Plaza Amador, Alianza, Club Deportivo del Este, Arabe Unido, and Sporting San Miguelito, while the Western Conference is composed by: Herrera FC, Club Atletico Independiente, Veraguas, Club Universitario, Chiriqui, and San Francisco. Both tournaments have an identical format. Each tournament has two stages: the first stage is a one and a half round-robin round where each team plays every other team twice in the same conference, once at home and once away, and one time against each team from the other conference. The top three teams advance to a final stage, a single-elimination culminating with a final match. Final Stage is composed by 3 rounds. First Round teams placed at 2nd will play teams placed at 3rd (2nd placed Eastern Conference vs 3rd place Western Conference and 2nd place Western Conference vs 3rd Place Eastern Conference) . The winners will go through to semifinals where they meet the 1st teams ranked on each conference (1st in Western Conference vs Winner of 2ECvs3WC and 1st in Eastern Conference vs 2WCvs3EC). Semifinals are two legged matches. Then, the championship final is a one-off match in a neutral venue (similar to
American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
's
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
championship matches). Each Apertura & Clausura tournament has 16 matches of regular season (twice (2) against each team (5) of same conference + once (1) against each team (6) in the opposite conference). Final stage has a total of: 2 matches in First Round Playoffs + 4 matches in Semifinals + 1 match in Final. First Round of Playoff are 1 leg matches (2nd place team in each conference plays at Home). Semifinals are 2 leg matches (home & away). Finals are 1 leg match in a neutral venue. Regarding schedule in regular season: The schedule for each tournament (Apertura & Clausura) is set up into 16 match days. 10 matches against teams within same conference and 6 matches against opposing conference. In the Apertura, teams of the Eastern Conference will face only one time teams of the Western Conference. The team that plays home at the Apertura will have to play away when facing same team at the Clausura. This way the League can assure that Eastern Conference and Western Conference will face each other at Home & Away at the end of both tournaments. When playing against teams within the same conference, each team will face home & away matches in both Apertura and Clausura. The first stage of both tournaments is combined into an aggregate table to determine relegation. The team with the fewest points is relegated to the Primera A for the following season. The champions of both tournaments + the next best ranked team qualify to the
CONCACAF Central American Cup The CONCACAF Central American Cup () is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top regional tournament for clubs from Central America. It serves as a qualification method for the CONCACAF Champions Cup. ...
. Beforehand, via the CONCACAF League, 3 teams used to qualify as well. As well, starting from 2023, the winners of both the Apertura & Clausura tournaments will qualify for
Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...
, while the runners-up qualify for
Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...
.


History

120px, Former logo used by Liga Panameña de Fútbol In 1987, a group of men, composed of Giancarlo Gronchi, Jan Domburg, Edgar Plazas, Jorge Zelasny, Ángel Valero and Juan Carlos Delgado, met and founded the Asociación Nacional Pro-Fútbol (ANAPROF for short), which was inaugurated on February 26, 1988. Their objective was to organize professional football in
Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
, in order to help the Panama national team in the long term.


Founding teams

* Chirilanco ( Bocas del Toro) * Deportivo la Previsora ( La Chorrera) * Deportivo Perú (
Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...
) * Euro Kickers (
Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...
) * Plaza Amador (
Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...
) * Tauro (
Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...
)


Timeline

*The league was founded as ANAPROF in 1988 after years of turmoil in Panamanian football. The first season, which featured six teams, began on February 26, 1988. Six teams participated. From that year until 2001, the league used a "long tournament" format in which every team played every other team in a home and away set. Since 2001, the league has used the Apertura/Clausura split season that is common to Latin America. *From 1994 to 1996, Panamanian football was rent by a schism between ANAPROF and a rival league, LINFUNA. The split was resolved in 1996–97 when the leagues merged into a single twelve-team tournament. *The next few seasons of league football were a bit confusing as the governing body tried to sort out its formats. In 1997–98, the league was split into two groups for the regular season, followed by an eight-team playoff. In 1998–99, the league shrunk to ten teams, with six of them advancing to a post-season tournament. The top four advanced further to a playoff to determine the champion. A similar format was used in 1999-2000 and 2000–2001. *''In 2001'', the Apertura/Clausura format was adopted, and with modifications has been used ever since. The most significant involved the idea of the Grand Championship playoff. From 2001 to 2007, the winner of the Apertura faced the winner of the Clausura to determine a season champion. After 2007, this idea was abandoned. *''In 2009'' ANAPROF changes its name to Liga Panameña de Fútbol. * In 2021, LPF made changes to the Panamanian football structure, top-tier teams now will be considered as franchises and expanded the league from 10 to 12 teams with no relegation. The second-tier league will increase from 8 to 24 teams by combining top-tier teams U-20 teams, second-tier teams, and invitational teams.


LINFUNA Era

In 1994 Panamanian soccer suffered a great division, when the LINFUNA league was created, the league had
Panamanian Football Federation The Panamanian Football Federation (), known as FEPAFUT, is the official governing body of football in Panama and is in charge of the Panama national football team. FEPAFUT was a founding member of CONCACAF in 1961. Association staff See a ...
approval and
FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...
recognition. It was presided by Rolando Marco Hermoso, then succeeded by Ariel Alvarado.
ANAPROF teams Projusa FC and Alianza FC, were brought into the organization.
The league organized two championships (1994 and 1995), both won by C.D. Árabe Unido from Colón.
Following mediation by
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 ...
, on January 6, 1996, the leagues were unified under the ANAPROF name.


1994 Participating teams

Árabe Unido, Projusa (Veraguas), Chorrillo, Alianza FC, Internacional Puerto Armuelles, Tulihueca de La Chorrera, Corporación Deportiva Independiente Municipal Panamá (DIM), Vista Alegre, Cruz Azul (David, Chiriquí) y el Altamira - Cosmos,


1995 Participating teams

Árabe Unido, Projusa, Internacional Puerto Armuelles, Tulihueca de La Chorrera, Cosmos, Chorrillo, Alianza, Corporación Deportiva Independiente Municipal Panamá (DIM), Tigres de Vista Alegre y Cruz Azul.


2023 teams


Results by year

The following table shows past results for ANAPROF (1988-09) and the Liga Panameña de Fútbol (2009–present)


Championships by team

1 Including 2 Winners in LINFUNA.
2 Including 2 Runners-up under the name Deportivo La Previsora.
Teams dissolved.


Top-scorers by season


See also

* Panamanian football clubs in CONCACAF competitions


References


External links


Liga Panameña de Fútbol

LPF Website
(unofficial)
Panama – List of Champions
(archived 20 May 2006)

(archived 30 April 2001)
Federaciòn Panameña de Fùtbol
(fepafut.com)

on
RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...
.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Liga Panamena de Futbol 1
Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
1988 establishments in Panama Sports leagues established in 1988