2015–16 Guatemalan Liga Nacional Explained

Competition:	Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala
Season:	2015–16
Winners:	Apertura: Antigua (1st title) Clausura: Suchitepéquez (2nd title)
League Topscorer:	Carlos Kamiani Félix (19) (Apertura) Carlos Kamiani Félix (15) (Clausura)
Continentalcup1:	Champions League
Longest Wins:	TBD (4)
Longest Unbeaten:	TBD (7)
Longest Winless:	TBD (10)
Longest Losses:	TBD (3)
Prevseason:	2014–15
Nextseason:	2016–17

The 2015–16 Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala season was the 17th season in which the Apertura and Clausura season was used. The season began in 2015 and ended in 2016.

Format

The format for both championships are identical. Each championship will have two stages: a first stage and a playoff stage. The first stage of each championship is a double round-robin format. The teams that finish first and second in the standings will advance to the playoffs semifinals, while the teams that finish 3–6 will enter in the quarterfinals. The winner of each quarterfinal will advance to the semifinals. The winners of the semifinals will advance to the finals, which will determine the tournament champion.

Teams

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
Antigua GFC	Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepequez	Pensativo	9,000
Cobán Imperial	Cobán, Guatemala		15, 000
Comunicaciones	Guatemala, Guatemala	Cementos Progreso	16,000
Guastatoya	Guastatoya, El Progreso	David Cordón Hichos	3,000
Malacateco	Malacatán, San Marcos	Santa Lucía	7,000
Marquense	San Marcos, Guatemala	Marquesa de la Ensenada	10,000
Mictlan	Mita, Jutiapa	Estadio La Asunción	3,000
Municipal	Guatemala, Guatemala	Manuel Felipe Carrera	7,500
Petapa	San Miguel Petapa, Guatemala	Julio Armando Cobar	7,000
Suchitepéquez	Mazatenango, Suchitepéquez	Carlos Salazar Hijo	12,000
Universidad SC	Guatemala, Guatemala	Revolución	5,000
Xelajú MC	Quetzaltenango	Mario Camposeco	11,000

Apertura

The 2015 Torneo Apertura began on 13 August 2015 and ended on 21 December 2015.

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
	Rafael Arreaga	Mauricio Tapia	TBD	Pegamex
	Irasema Melendez	Fabricio Chapa Benitez	Puma	TBD
	Pedro Portilla	William Coito Olivera	TBD	TBD
		Ariel Sena	TBD	TBD
Malacateco	TBD	Nelson Mauricio Ancheta	TBD	TBD
	TBD		TBD	TBD
	TBD	Sergio Guevara	TBD	TBD
	Gerardo Villa	Gustavo Machaín	TBD	DemosPro
	TBD	Pablo Centrone	TBD	TBD
	TBD	Walter Claverí	TBD	TBD
	TBD	Roberto Gamarra	TBD	TBD
	TBD	Hernán Medford	RetoSports	TBD

Managerial changes

Beginning of the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment
	Enzo Trossero	Sacked	2015	Mauricio Wright	2015
	Emilio Umanzor	Sacked	2015	Nelson Mauricio Ancheta	2015
Marquense	Carlos Washington Blanco	resigned	2015		June 2015
Xelajú	Nahúm Espinoza		2015	Hernán Medford	June 2015

During the season

Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Roberto Gamarra	Resigned	September 2015	Ramiro Cepeda	September 2015	12th (Apertura 2015)
Nelson Mauricio Ancheta	Resigned	November 2015	Ronald Gomez	November 2015	12th (Apertura 2015)
Mauricio Wright	Sacked	November 2015	Gustavo Machain	November 2015	7th (Apertura 2015)

Results

Playoffs

Quarterfinals

First leg

----

Second leg

Comunicaciones won 3–0 on aggregate.----1–1 on aggregate. Guastatoya advanced on the away goal rule.

Semifinals

First leg

----

Second leg

Guastatoya won 5–2 on aggregate.----Antigua GFC won 4-3 on aggregate.

Finals

Second leg

Antigua GFC won 3-2 on aggregate.

List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players in Apertura 2015. The following players:

have played at least one apertura game for the respective club.
have not been capped for the Guatemala national football team on any level, independently from the birthplace

A new rule was introduced a few season ago, that clubs can only have five foreign players per club and can only add a new player if there is an injury or player/s is released.

Antigua GFC

Mandred Russell
Alexander Robinson
Mekeil Williams
Akeem Priestley
Justin Arboleda

Cobán Imperial

Victor Guay
Argenis Fernandez
Mario Piñeyro
Jesus Darwin Ramirez

CSD Comunicaciones

Joel Benítez
Rolando Blackburn
Agustín Herrera
Jesús Jonathan Lozano
Emiliano Lopez

Guastatoya

Victor Solalinde
Agustín Arigon
Álvaro García

Deportivo Mictlan

Juan Aguirre
Marlon Negrete
William Negrete
Ricardo Romero

Deportivo Malacateco

Martin Edwin Garcia
Nestor Asprilla
Juan Carlos Meza
Juan Carlos Silva
Ricardo Rocha
Jerrel Britto

(player released during the season)

Deportivo Marquense

None

CSD Municipal

Johnny Woodly Lambert
Carlos Hernández
Keilor Soto
Jaime Alas

Deportivo Petapa

Minor Alvarez
Lucas Trecarichi
Juan Lovato
Adrian Apellaniz
Ignacio Flores

CD Suchitepéquez

Ángel Prudencio
Shane Orio
Jhon Cardona
Jhon Jairo Córdoba
Luis Lobo

Universidad SC

Paulo Centurion
Jonathan Rodríguez Cuenu
Michel Rivera
Carlos Kamiani Félix
Alexis Egea

Club Xelajú MC

Juliano Rangel de Andrade
Juan Baena
Brunet Hay

Clausura

The 2016 Torneo Clausura began on 2016 and will end in 2016.

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
	Rafael Arreaga	Mauricio Tapia	TBD	Pegamex
		Fabricio Chapa Benitez	Puma	TBD
	Pedro Portilla		TBD	TBD
		Francisco Melgar	TBD	TBD
Malacateco	TBD	Rónald Gómez	TBD	TBD
	TBD	Néstor Emilio Soria	TBD	TBD
	TBD	Sergio Guevara	TBD	TBD
	Gerardo Villa	Gustavo Machain	TBD	TBD
	TBD	Pablo Centrone	TBD	TBD
	TBD	Walter Claverí	TBD	TBD
	TBD	Ramiro Cepeda	TBD	TBD
	TBD	Hernán Medford	RetoSports	TBD

Managerial changes

Beginning of the season

Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
William Coito Olivera	Sacked	December 2015	Ivan Sopengo	December 2015	th (Apertura 2015)
Ariel Sena	Resigned	December 2015	Francisco Melgar	2015	th (Apertura 2015)
Francisco Melgar	Resigned due to personal reason	December 2015	Néstor Emilio Soria	December 2015	th (Apertura 2015)
Walter Claverí	Resigned due to become head of the national team	January 2016	Douglas Zamora	January 2016	th (Apertura 2015)

During the season

Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Fabricio Chapa Benitez	Sacked	2016	Héctor Julián Trujillo	2016	th (Clausura 2016)
Francisco Melgar	Sacked	2016	Roque Alfaro	2016	th (Apertura 2016)
Hernán Medford	Resigned	2016	Carlos Jurado	2016	th (Apertura 2016)

Results

Playoffs

Quarterfinals

First leg

----

Second leg

Comunicaciones won 4–3 on aggregate.----Malacateco won 3–2 on aggregate.

Semifinals

First leg

----

Second leg

Suchitepéquez won 4–1 on aggregate.----Comunicaciones won 2-2 on aggregate.

Finals

Second leg

won – on aggregate.

List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players in Clausura 2016. The following players:

have played at least one apertura game for the respective club.
have not been capped for the Guatemala national football team on any level, independently from the birthplace

A new rule was introduced a few season ago, that clubs can only have five foreign players per club and can only add a new player if there is an injury or player/s is released.

Antigua GFC