2020 Categoría Primera B season explained

Competition:Torneo BetPlay Dimayor
Season:2020
Winners:Atlético Huila (3rd title)
Promoted:None
Matches:162
Total Goals:368
League Topscorer:Diber Cambindo
(12 goals)
Biggest Home Win:Cortuluá 6–0 Atlético
(19 September)
Biggest Away Win:Bogotá 0–4 Atlético Huila
(12 February)
Highest Scoring:
(23 October)
Prevseason:2019
Nextseason:2021

The 2020 Categoría Primera B season (officially known as the 2020 Torneo BetPlay Dimayor season for sponsorship reasons) was the 31st season of the Categoría Primera B since its founding as Colombia's second division football league. The tournament started on 31 January and ended on 26 December 2020, with Atlético Huila winning their third title in the competition after defeating Cortuluá in the finals.

The competition was suspended from 13 March to 17 September due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Format

For this season, and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the format was originally planned to be the same as the previous season: two tournaments (Torneo I and Torneo II) with three stages each. In the first stage of both tournaments, the 16 clubs would play each other once, for a total of 15 games. The top eight teams after the first stage would advance to the semifinal round where they would be sorted into two groups of four to play a double round-robin tournament group stage, with the top team of each group qualifying for the finals. The winners of both tournaments would play a final series on a home-and-away basis, with the winner being crowned as season champions and also earning promotion to the Categoría Primera A for the 2021 season. The season runners-up would then play the best team in the aggregate table (other than the champions) in another double-legged series for the second promotion berth. In case the season runner-up also ended up as the best team in the aggregate table, it would also be promoted and the promotion play-off would not be played.[1]

On 25 July 2020, DIMAYOR's General Assembly decided to continue playing the Torneo I as the only tournament to be held in the season, with the winners of that tournament being crowned as champions and earning automatic promotion to the top flight. The promotion play-off, if needed, would still be played by the runners-up and the best team in the aggregate table other than the champions. On 13 August 2020, DIMAYOR decided that there would not be any teams relegated from Primera A at the end of the season, meaning that this tournament would not award its champion a berth into the next year's Primera A tournament and that the promotion play-off would also be cancelled.[2]

Teams

16 teams took part, fourteen of them returning from last season plus Unión Magdalena and Atlético Huila, who were relegated from the Primera A the previous season. Both teams replaced Deportivo Pereira and Boyacá Chicó who earned promotion at the end of the last season.

ClubHome cityStadiumCapacity
AtléticoCaliPascual Guerrero33,130
Atlético HuilaNeivaGuillermo Plazas Alcid22,000
BarranquillaBarranquillaRomelio Martínez20,000
Boca Juniors de CaliCaliPascual Guerrero33,130
BogotáBogotáMetropolitano de Techo8,000
CortuluáTuluáDoce de Octubre16,000
Deportes QuindíoArmeniaCentenario20,716
FortalezaCotaMunicipal de Cota4,000
LeonesItagüí
Envigado
Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí
Polideportivo Sur
12,000
14,000
LlanerosVillavicencio
Tunja
Manuel Calle Lombana
La Independencia
15,000
20,630
OrsomarsoPalmira
Tuluá
Francisco Rivera Escobar
Deportivo Cali
Doce de Octubre
15,300
42,000
16,000
Real CartagenaCartagena
Magangué
Jaime Morón León
Diego de Carvajal
16,068
10,000
Real San AndrésSan AndrésErwin O'Neill5,000
TigresMetropolitano de Techo8,000
Unión MagdalenaSanta MartaSierra Nevada16,000
ValleduparValleduparArmando Maestre Pavajeau11,000

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

On 13 March 2020, after a meeting with its member clubs, DIMAYOR announced the temporary suspension of the tournament, along with the Primera A and Copa Colombia ones, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]

On 29 June, and after an Assembly of its member clubs, DIMAYOR presented a timetable for the implementation of the biosecurity protocol to resume its competitions, with COVID-19 testing for players and staff members of every club scheduled to be held from 10 to 15 July, and individual training resuming the following day. The resumption of collective training sessions, scheduled for 20 August, would be subject to government approval. According to said timetable, the league was scheduled to resume on 27 August, pending the fulfillment of the previous stages as well as final approval by the Colombian government.[4] [5] On 25 July, it was announced that the competition would resume on 30 August with alterations in its format, and pending government approval.[6] With the Ministry of Health authorizing stages 4 and 5 of the biosecurity protocol (collective trainings and competition, respectively) on 20 August, and due to some adjustments to the protocol requested by DIMAYOR, that date of resumption had to be pushed back for at least two weeks, to mid-September.[7] [8]

On 31 August, the Ministry of Health issued the resolution that approved the adjusted protocol and greenlit the start of collective training sessions for 1 September, while President of DIMAYOR Fernando Jaramillo confirmed that the tournament would resume on 19 September.[9] On 3 September, DIMAYOR notified its associate clubs that the eighth round of the competition would be played in the weekend of 19–20 September, with a meeting to confirm the competition format to be held on 9 September.[10]

First stage

Results

Matchdays 16–17

Upon the conclusion of the first fifteen matchdays of the first stage, teams played two additional games in double-legged ties, with the teams ranked from first to eighth place after the fifteenth round being seeded and paired against a rival ranked in the bottom half of the table at that point, which were decided by a draw held on 2 November 2020. The seeded teams played at home on Matchday 17.[11] [12]

Semifinals

The eight teams that advanced to the semifinals were drawn into two groups of four teams. The winners of each group advanced to the finals.

Group B

Finals

Atlético Huila won 4–1 on aggregate.

Top goalscorers

RankNameClubGoals
align=center 1 Diber CambindoDeportes Quindíoalign=center 12
2 Ruyery BlancoUnión Magdalena11
Eder MuniveLeones
4 Sebastián AcostaFortaleza9
Omar VásquezLlaneros
align=center 6 César CaicedoBogotáalign=center 8
align=center 7 Arlex HurtadoBogotáalign=center 7
8 Luis MinaBoca Juniors de Cali6
Brayan MorenoAtlético Huila
Luis NarváezUnión Magdalena
Harold RiveraAtlético Huila

Source: Soccerway

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Síntesis del primer día de la Asamblea Extraordinaria de la DIMAYOR. Dimayor.com.co. Spanish. 30 October 2019. 23 January 2020.
  2. Web site: Dimayor define que no habrá ascensos y descensos en la Liga BetPlay 2020. Deportes RCN. Spanish. 13 August 2020.
  3. Web site: Suspendido el fútbol profesional colombiano por coronavirus. El Tiempo. Spanish. 13 March 2020.
  4. Web site: DIMAYOR envió comunicación a los clubes del FPC para la implementación del Protocolo de Bioseguridad. DIMAYOR. Spanish. 29 June 2020. 5 July 2020.
  5. Web site: Ya hay una fecha para un posible inicio del fútbol colombiano. Futbolred. Spanish. 3 July 2020. 5 July 2020.
  6. Web site: ¡Aceptado! Así será el retorno del fútbol colombiano. El Tiempo. Spanish. 25 July 2020.
  7. Web site: Regreso del FPC: Minsalud autoriza entrenamientos colectivos y competencia. Deportes RCN. Spanish. 20 August 2020. 31 August 2020.
  8. Web site: Ya no sería el 12: el Gobierno contempla otra fecha para el fútbol. El Tiempo. Spanish. 27 August 2020. 31 August 2020.
  9. Web site: ¡Humo blanco! Así será el regreso del fútbol profesional. El Tiempo. Spanish. 31 August 2020.
  10. Web site: DIMAYOR comunicó a los clubes, fechas y opciones de sistemas de juego para la reactivación de las competencias. DIMAYOR. Spanish. 3 September 2020. 9 September 2020.
  11. Web site: REGLAMENTO TORNEO BetPlay DIMAYOR 2020. Dimayor.com.co. Spanish. 1 November 2020.
  12. Web site: SORTEO OCTAVOS DE FINAL COPA BETPLAY DIMAYOR 2020 – FECHA 16 Y 17 TORNEO BETPLAY DIMAYOR 2020. Dimayor.com.co. Spanish. 30 October 2020. 1 November 2020.