The 2022 Categoría Primera A season (officially known as the 2022 Liga BetPlay Dimayor season for sponsorship reasons) was the 75th season of 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 ...
,
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 top-flight football league. The season began on 20 January and ended on 7 December 2022.
Deportivo Cali
Asociación Deportivo Cali, best known as Deportivo Cali, is a Colombian sports club based in Cali, most notable for its football team, which currently competes in the Categoría Primera A.
Deportivo Cali is one of the most successful football t ...
were the defending champions, having won the
2021 Finalización tournament.
Two tournaments (Apertura and Finalización) were played in the season, each one of them being an independent championship. In the Torneo Apertura
Atlético Nacional
Atlético Nacional S. A., best known as Atlético Nacional, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the country's history, the other ...
won their seventeenth league title, beating
Deportes Tolima
Club Deportes Tolima S.A., commonly known as Deportes Tolima, or simply as Tolima, is a Colombian professional football club based in Ibagué, Tolima Department, that competes in the Categoría Primera A.
Founded in 1954, the club has won the C ...
in the finals by a 4–3 aggregate score after winning the first leg in
Medellín
Medellín ( ; or ), officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellín (), is the List of cities in Colombia, second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia Departme ...
by a 3–1 score and losing the return leg in
Ibagué
Ibagué () (referred to as San Bonifacio de Ibagué del Valle de las Lanzas during the New Kingdom of Granada, Spanish period) is the capital of Tolima Department, Tolima, one of the 32 departments that make up the Republic of Colombia. The city ...
by two goals to one, and in the Torneo Finalización
Deportivo Pereira
Deportivo Pereira is a professional Colombian football team based in Pereira, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium.
History Early years
While there are several am ...
were the champions, winning their first league title after beating
Independiente Medellín
Deportivo Independiente Medellín, also known as Independiente Medellín or DIM, is a Colombian professional football club (association football), football club based in Medellín that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their ...
on penalties following a 1–1 draw on aggregate in the finals.
Format
The competition format for this season was approved by the General Assembly of
DIMAYOR on 17 December 2021:
[
* Two tournaments (Apertura and Finalización) with three stages each were played in the season.
* The first stage of both tournaments was contested on a single round-robin basis, with each team playing the other teams once plus an additional match against a regional rival for a total of 20 games. The top eight teams advanced to the next stage.
* In the second stage, the eight qualified teams were drawn into two groups of four teams each where they played each other team in their group twice for a total of 6 games. Both group winners advanced to the finals.
* The finals in both tournaments were contested by the winners of each semi-final group, playing a double-legged series for the championship.
* Two teams were relegated to ]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 ...
at the end of the season. The relegation table continued considering the performance of teams over three seasons but starting from this season, the teams promoted from Primera B were not given any records from other teams, meaning that relegation would be based on averages.
Teams
20 teams took part in the season, the top 18 teams from the relegation table of the previous tournament (2021 Finalización) as well as 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
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 De ...
, who were promoted from the second tournament of the 2021 Primera B season. The promoted teams replaced Deportes Quindío
Deportes Quindío is a Colombian professional 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 thei ...
and 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 bottom two teams in the relegation table of the 2021 Finalización tournament.
Stadia and locations
Managerial changes
;Notes
Torneo Apertura
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 two group winners advanced to the finals.
Group A
Group B
Finals
----
''Atlético Nacional won 4–3 on aggregate.''
Top scorers
Source
Soccerway
/small>
Torneo Finalización
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 two group winners advanced to the finals.
Group A
Group B
Finals
----
''Tied 1–1 on aggregate, Deportivo Pereira won on penalties.''
Top scorers
Source
Soccerway
/small>
Aggregate table
Relegation
A separate table was kept to determine the teams that are relegated to 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 ...
for the next season. This table was elaborated from a sum of all first stage games played in the three most recent seasons (including the 2020, 2021–I, 2021–II, 2022–I, and 2022–II tournaments), with the points earned being averaged per match played. The bottom two teams of the relegation table at the end of the season were relegated to Categoría Primera B.
Source
Dimayor
br />Rules for classification: 1) average, 2) 2022 points, 3) goal difference, 4) goals scored, 5) away goals scored, 6) away goals against, 7) wins, 8) yellow cards, 9) red cards, 10) drawing of lots.
See also
* 2022 Categoría Primera B season
* 2022 Copa Colombia
References
External links
Dimayor's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2022 Categoria Primera A season
Categoría Primera A seasons
1
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 ...