1996–97 Categoría Primera A season explained

Competition:	Copa Mustang
Season:	1996–97
Winners:	América de Cali (9th title)
Relegated:	Cúcuta Deportivo (Torneo Finalización) Deportivo Pereira (Torneo Adecuación)
Continentalcup1:	1998 Copa Libertadores
Continentalcup1 Qualifiers:	América de Cali Atlético Bucaramanga
Continentalcup2:	1997 Copa CONMEBOL
Continentalcup2 Qualifiers:	América de Cali Deportes Tolima
Continentalcup3:	1998 Copa CONMEBOL
Continentalcup3 Qualifiers:	Deportes Quindío Once Caldas
League Topscorer:	Hámilton Ricard (36 goals)
Matches:	584
Total Goals:	1479
Prevseason:	1995–96
Nextseason:	1998

The 1996–97 Categoría Primera A season, known as Copa Mustang 1996–97 for sponsoring purposes, was the 50th season of the Categoría Primera A, Colombia's top-flight football league. The season started on 8 September 1996 and ended on 21 December 1997. América de Cali were the champions, winning their ninth domestic league title after beating the Torneo Adecuación winners Atlético Bucaramanga in the championship playoff.^[1]

Deportivo Cali were the defending champions, but placed last in both the final group stage and the Adecuación semi-finals and thus failed to qualify for the finals of the competition.

Format

The season, which was originally to last from September 1996 to June 1997, was initially split into three stages: the Apertura and Finalización tournaments, and the final group:

In the Apertura tournament, played from September to February, the 16 teams played each other under a double round-robin format with two additional rounds of regional derbies for a total of 32 matches. Bonus points were awarded to the top four teams, with the first-placed side being awarded 2 bonus points, the runner-up 1 point, the third-placed team 0.5 points, and the fourth-placed team receiving 0.25 points. In addition to this, the team topping the table at the end of the tournament would be assured of a berth in the 1997 Copa CONMEBOL.
The Finalización tournament, played from February to April, had 14 rounds with the teams being divided into two groups of eight, made up according to the placements of teams in the previous stage with odd-placed sides in one group and even-placed teams in the other one. An aggregate table considering the results of both tournaments was used to decide the four teams that would advance to the final stage, with no bonus points being awarded. The team with the lowest average would be relegated to Categoría Primera B.
The final group was played by the top four teams in the aggregate table, which played each other twice for a total of 6 rounds. All teams started this round at 0 points, except for the top team in the aggregate table, which started with 1 point.^[2]

However, in January 1997 the Assembly of DIMAYOR approved the return of the league to the calendar year format, while also deciding that the season's champion would be defined in December rather than June as originally expected. Because of this, an additional tournament known as Torneo Adecuación was played from July to December 1997:

In the first stage, the 16 teams were first split into two groups of eight where they played each one of their group rivals twice, and later into four groups of four where they played six additional matches. Bonus points were awarded to teams in both stages, and teams carried over their first stage performance to this second phase with the top eight teams advancing to the semi-final stage, whilst the bottom-placed side in the relegation table was relegated.
In the semi-finals, the qualified teams were split into two groups of four with the winners of each group playing a final series over two legs to decide the Adecuación tournament winners, whilst the two group runners-up played a play-off series to qualify for the Copa CONMEBOL along with the Adecuación runners-up.
Penalty shootouts were played in matches ending in draws, with the winning side earning an additional point.

The Adecuación winners would then play the winners of the final group (América de Cali) in another double-legged series to decide the season champions. In the event that both teams tied on points at the end of the second leg of the finals, a tiebreaker match on neutral ground would be played. Both season finalists qualified for the 1998 Copa Libertadores.^[3]

Teams

16 teams originally competed in the season, the top 15 teams of the 1995–96 season and Cúcuta Deportivo, who were promoted as champions of the 1995–96 Categoría Primera B tournament, replacing Atlético Huila who were relegated at the end of the previous season. Cúcuta Deportivo were relegated to the second tier at the end of the Finalización tournament, being replaced by the 1996–97 Primera B champions Deportivo Unicosta for the Adecuación tournament, which brought the number of clubs that took part in the season up to 17.

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
América de Cali	Cali	Pascual Guerrero	45,625
Atlético Bucaramanga	Bucaramanga	Alfonso López	28,000
Atlético Nacional	Medellín	Atanasio Girardot	52,000
Cortuluá	Tuluá	Doce de Octubre	16,000
Cúcuta Deportivo	Cúcuta	General Santander	22,000
Deportes Quindío	Armenia	Centenario	29,000
Deportes Tolima	Ibagué	Manuel Murillo Toro	28,100
Deportivo Cali	Cali	Pascual Guerrero	45,625
Deportivo Pereira	Pereira		30,000
Deportivo Unicosta	Barranquilla	Romelio Martínez	20,000
Envigado	Envigado	Polideportivo Sur	11,000
Independiente Medellín	Medellín	Atanasio Girardot	52,000
Junior	Barranquilla	Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez	60,000
Millonarios	Bogotá	Nemesio Camacho El Campín	48,300
Once Caldas	Manizales	Palogrande	36,553
Santa Fe	Bogotá	Nemesio Camacho El Campín	48,300
Unión Magdalena	Santa Marta	Eduardo Santos	23,000

Torneo Apertura

The Torneo Apertura (also known as Copa Mustang I) began on 8 September 1996 and ended on 23 February 1997.

Standings

Torneo Finalización

The Torneo Finalización (also known as Copa Mustang II) began on 26 February 1997 and ended on 20 April 1997. An aggregate table known as Reclasificación including the games of both tournaments (Apertura and Finalización) was used to determine the teams that would advance to the Copa Mustang final stage, as well as the first team to be relegated to Categoría Primera B for the following season.

Aggregate table

Final group

In the third stage of the tournament, the four qualified teams played each other under a double round-robin system with the team with the most points at the end of this stage advancing to the championship playoff and qualifying for the 1998 Copa Libertadores. The final group's runner-up qualified for the 1997 Copa CONMEBOL.

Torneo Adecuación

The Torneo Adecuación began on 10 July 1997 and ended on 13 December 1997.

First group stage

Group B

Second group stage

Group D

Semi-finals

In the third stage of the tournament, the eight qualified teams were split into two groups, and played each one of the other teams in their group under a double round-robin system with the teams with the most points in each group at the end of this stage advancing to the final. The group runners-up advanced to the third place play-off.

Group B

Third place play-off

Tied 3–3 on points, Millonarios won on bonus points and qualified for the 1998 Copa CONMEBOL. Millonarios eventually declined to take part in the Copa CONMEBOL upon being invited to compete in the 1998 Copa Merconorte, thus yielding the berth to Once Caldas.^[4]

Finals

Atlético Bucaramanga won 4–1 on points, advanced to the championship playoff and qualified for the 1998 Copa Libertadores. Deportes Quindío qualified for the 1998 Copa CONMEBOL.

Championship playoff

América de Cali won 6–0 on points.

Top goalscorers

Rank	Name	Club	Goals
align=center	1	Hámilton Ricard	Deportivo Cali	align=center	36
align=center	2	Arnulfo Valentierra	Once Caldas	align=center	33
align=center	3	Jorge Ramírez Quesada	Deportes Tolima	align=center	27
align=center	4	Carlos Rodas	Deportivo Pereira	align=center	26
align=center	5	Edison Mafla	Deportivo Cali	align=center	25
align=center	6	Sergio Galván Rey	Once Caldas	align=center	23
align=center	7	Luis Zuleta	Unión Magdalena	align=center	20
8	Bernardo Redín	Deportes Quindío	18
Jorge Villar	Unión Magdalena
align=center	10	Juan Pablo Ángel	Atlético Nacional	align=center	17

Source: Historia del Fútbol Profesional Colombiano 70 Años^[5]

External links

Notes and References

Web site: De aquel 19 al 7 de diciembre: recorrido por las catorce estrellas del América de Cali. From that 19th to December 7th: a tour of the fourteen stars of América de Cali. Spanish. El País. 7 December 2019. 25 November 2022.
Web site: Colombia 1996/97 . 25 November 1999 . . 25 November 2022.
Web site: EL MANUAL PARA SEGUIR EL TORNEO DE FÚTBOL 1996-97 . THE HANDBOOK TO FOLLOW THE 1996–97 FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT . El Tiempo . es . 21 March 1997 . 25 November 2022.
Web site: Nuestra HISTORIA. Our HISTORY. Once Caldas DAF. es. 25 November 2022.
Book: Ruiz Bonilla . Guillermo . Historia del Fútbol Profesional Colombiano 70 Años . 2018 . Mundo Fútbol SAS . Bogotá, Colombia . 9-789584-852731 . 337 . First.