| Competition: | Liga Águila |
| Season: | 2016 |
| Winners: | Apertura: Independiente Medellín (6th title) Finalización: Santa Fe (9th title) |
| Relegated: | Boyacá Chicó Fortaleza |
| Continentalcup1: | Copa Libertadores |
| Continentalcup1 Qualifiers: | Atlético Nacional (Copa Libertadores winner) Independiente Medellín Santa Fe Millonarios Junior |
| Continentalcup2: | Copa Sudamericana |
| Continentalcup2 Qualifiers: | Deportes Tolima (cup best team not yet qualified) Deportivo Cali Patriotas Rionegro Águilas |
| Matches: | 428 |
| Total Goals: | 1031 |
| League Topscorer: | Apertura: Miguel Borja (19 goals) Finalización: Ayron del Valle (12 goals) |
| Biggest Home Win: | Atlético Nacional 7–0 Atlético Bucaramanga (3 April 2016) [1] |
| Biggest Away Win: | Boyacá Chicó 0–4 Deportes Tolima (30 July 2016) Rionegro Águilas 0–4 Santa Fe (17 October 2016) |
| Highest Scoring: | Alianza Petrolera 3–6 Atlético Bucaramanga (21 March 2016) |
| Prevseason: | 2015 |
| Nextseason: | 2017 |
The 2016 Categoría Primera A season (officially known as the 2016 Liga Águila season for sponsorship reasons) was the 69th season of Colombia's top-flight football league. Atlético Nacional came in as the defending champions having won the title in the 2015 season's Finalización tournament.
20 teams competed against one another, eighteen returning from last season plus Atlético Bucaramanga and Fortaleza, who were promoted from the 2015 Primera B and will be returning to the top tier after 7 years and 1 year, respectively, replacing Uniautónoma and Cúcuta Deportivo who were relegated at the end of the last season.
Independiente Medellín won its sixth title in the Torneo Apertura after beating Junior in the finals, while in the Torneo Finalización Santa Fe won its ninth title after beating Deportes Tolima in the finals.
The league retained the format used in the most recent season.[2] The Apertura and Finalización tournaments were divided into three stages: a First Stage which was contested on a single round-robin basis, with each team playing the other teams once and playing a regional rival once more for a total of 20 matches. The top eight teams after the twenty rounds advanced to a knockout round, where they were pitted into four ties to be played on a home-and-away basis, with the four winners advancing to the semifinals and the winner of each semifinal advancing to the final of the tournament, which was played on a home-and-away basis as well. The winner of the final in each tournament was declared the tournament champion and will participate in the 2017 Copa Libertadores.
The First Stage began on 29 January and consisted of twenty rounds including a series of regional rivalries in the tenth round. It ended on 29 May with the top eight teams at the end of this stage advancing to the knockout stage.
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| Rank | Name | Club | Goals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center | 1 |  Miguel Borja | Cortuluá | 19 | |
| align=center | 2 | Vladimir Hernández | Junior | 13 | |
| 3 | Luis Páez | Rionegro Águilas | 12 | ||
| Sergio Romero | Alianza Petrolera | 12 | |||
| align=center | 5 | Leonardo Castro | Independiente Medellín | 10 |
Source: DIMAYOR
The First Stage began on 1 July and featured the same format used in the Torneo Apertura, with reversed fixtures. It ended on 20 November with the top eight teams at the end of this stage advancing to the knockout stage.
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| Rank | Name | Club | Goals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center | 1 | Ayron del Valle | Millonarios | 12 |
| align=center | 2 | Diego Álvarez | Patriotas | 11 |
| align=center | 3 | Darío Rodríguez | Atlético Bucaramanga | 10 |
| 4 | Luis Páez | Rionegro Águilas | 9 | |
| Ángelo Rodríguez | Deportes Tolima | 9 |
Source: DIMAYOR
A separate table is kept to determine the teams that get relegated to the Categoría Primera B for the next season. The table includes an average of all first stage games played for the current season and the previous two seasons. For purposes of elaborating the table, the promoted teams are given the same point and goal tallies as the team in the 18th position at the start of the season.
| width=28 | width=185 | Team | width=50 | width=50 | width=50 | width=50 | width=50 | width=50 | Relegation | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Atlético Nacional | 63 | 79 | 76 | 218 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 2 | Independiente Medellín | 51 | 70 | 73 | 194 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Santa Fe | 61 | 62 | 70 | 193 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Junior | 55 | 69 | 65 | 189 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Millonarios | 53 | 62 | 70 | 185 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Deportivo Cali | 47 | 67 | 66 | 180 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Rionegro Águilas | 57 | 54 | 60 | 171 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Deportes Tolima | 45 | 68 | 57 | 170 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Once Caldas | 57 | 57 | 51 | 165 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Patriotas | 45 | 58 | 61 | 164 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Envigado | 48 | 61 | 51 | 160 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 12 | 54 | 53 | 47 | 154 | 116 | |||||||||||
| 13 | Atlético Huila | 46 | 57 | 42 | 145 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 14 | La Equidad | 41 | 54 | 42 | 137 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 15 | Atlético Bucaramanga | 45 | 31 | 55 | 131 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 16 | Cortuluá | 35 | 45 | 45 | 125 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 17 | Jaguares | 45 | 31 | 46 | 122 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 18 | Deportivo Pasto | 38 | 39 | 44 | 121 | 116 | ||||||||||
| 19 | Boyacá Chicó (R) | 47 | 34 | 31 | 112 | 116 | Relegation to Categoría Primera B | |||||||||
| 20 | Fortaleza (R) | 45 | 31 | 35 | 111 | 116 |