2021 Paraguayan División Intermedia Explained

Competition:	División Intermedia
Season:	2021
Dates:	9 April – 26 October 2021
Winners:	General Caballero (JLM) (1st title)
Promoted:	General Caballero (JLM) Resistencia Tacuary Sportivo Ameliano
Relegated:	Deportivo Capiatá Fulgencio Yegros General Díaz
Continentalcup1:	Copa Sudamericana
Continentalcup1 Qualifiers:	General Caballero (JLM)
League Topscorer:	Alex Arce (24 goals)
Matches:	306
Total Goals:	752
Biggest Home Win:	2 de Mayo 4–0 Sportivo Trinidense (6 June) (22 July) (15 August) Guaraní (T) 4–0 Dep. Capiatá (22 August) Tacuary 5–1 2 de Mayo (28 August) (18 October) Tacuary 4–0 Rubio Ñu (26 October)
Biggest Away Win:	2 de Mayo 1–8 San Lorenzo (26 October)
Highest Scoring:	2 de Mayo 1–8 San Lorenzo (26 October)
Prevseason:	2019
Nextseason:	2022

The 2021 División Intermedia season, named "Cincuentenario del Club Atlético 3 de Febrero y Homenaje al Lic. Miguel Ángel Cañete Alderete",^[1] was the 103rd season of the second-tier league of Paraguayan football and 24th under the Paraguayan División Intermedia name. The season began on 9 April and ended on 26 October 2021. The fixtures for the season were announced on 15 January 2021.^[2]

The competition returned after a one-year hiatus as the 2020 seasons of the lower-tier club tournaments of Paraguayan football were cancelled by the Paraguayan Football Association due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3]

General Caballero (JLM) won their first División Intermedia title with four matches to spare, following a 4–1 victory over Rubio Ñu on 27 September 2021.^[4]

Format

18 teams took part in the competition, which was played under a double round-robin system with teams playing each other twice, once at home and once away for a total of 34 matches. The top three teams at the end of the season were promoted to the Paraguayan Primera División for the 2022 season, with the champions also qualifying for the 2022 Copa Sudamericana, while the fourth-placed team will play a play-off against the ninth-placed team of the Primera División relegation table for promotion to the top flight.^[5]

The bottom three teams in the relegation table at the end of the season were relegated: teams located within 50 kilometres of Asunción were relegated to Primera División B, while teams from outside Greater Asunción and the Central Department were relegated to Primera División B Nacional.

Teams

18 teams competed in the season: 11 teams from the previous División Intermedia season plus the four teams relegated from Primera División in its 2019 and 2020 seasons (Deportivo Capiatá, Deportivo Santaní, General Díaz and San Lorenzo), the top two teams from the 2019 Primera División B (Sportivo Ameliano and Tacuary) and the 2019 Primera División B Nacional champions Guaraní from Trinidad.

Pastoreo F.C., who were entitled to enter this year's competition as 2019–20 Campeonato Nacional de Interligas champions, had their debut postponed to 2022 per decision by the APF's Executive Committee, since Guaraní de Trinidad already held the berth reserved to the Unión del Fútbol del Interior (UFI) for this season.^[6]

Stadia and locations

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity
			25,000
			23,500
			10,000
			15,000
			8,000
			6,000
			1,000
			3,000
			4,000
			1,000
			4,000
			3,500
			8,000
			5,000
			800
			4,500
			3,000
			3,000

Top scorers

Rank	Name	Club	Goals
align=center	1	Alex Arce	Sportivo Ameliano	align=center	24
align=center	2	Digno González	3 de Febrero	align=center	22
align=center	3	Gustavo Aguilar	Tacuary	align=center	20
4	Jorge Sanguina	Atyrá	14
Marcelo Ferreira	Independiente (CG)
Santiago Salcedo	San Lorenzo
7	Teodoro Arce	General Caballero (JLM)	11
Antonio Oviedo	Rubio Ñu
9	Ronald Roa	Deportivo Capiatá	10
Édgar Villalba	Deportivo Santaní
Adrián Alcaraz	Fernando de la Mora
Sergio Dietze	Guaraní (T)
Gustavo Legal	Sportivo Trinidense

Source: APF

Promotion play-off

The fourth-placed team in the División Intermedia, Sportivo Ameliano, played a double-legged promotion play-off against Sportivo Luqueño, the ninth-placed team of the relegation table of the 2021 Primera División season. The winner was promoted to the 2022 Primera División.

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Sportivo Ameliano won 4–3 on aggregate and were promoted to Primera División.

Relegation

Relegation is determined at the end of the season by computing an average of the number of points earned per game over the past three seasons. The three teams with the lowest average were relegated to the Primera División B or Primera División B Nacional for the following season, depending on their geographical location.

width=28	Pos !	width=185	Team !	width=50	2018 Pts !	width=50	2019 Pts !	width=50	2021 Pts !	width=50	Total Pts !	width=50	Total Pld !	width=50	Avg !	Relegation
1		—	41	73	114	64
2	Tacuary	—	—	57	57	34
3	Sportivo Ameliano	—	—	56	56	34
4	San Lorenzo	—	—	53	53	34
5	Resistencia	40	45	61	146	94
6	Fernando de la Mora	51	43	45	139	94
7	2 de Mayo	46	55	36	137	94
8	Independiente (CG)	—	41	51	92	64
9	Atyrá	—	49	43	92	64
10	Sportivo Trinidense	38	40	52	130	94
11	3 de Febrero	—	39	48	87	64
12	Rubio Ñu	44	35	39	118	94
13	Guaraní (T)	—	—	41	41	34
14	Deportivo Santaní	—	—	41	41	34
15	Sportivo Iteño	34	36	39	109	94
16	Deportivo Capiatá (R)	—	—	39	39	34		Relegation to Primera División B
17	Fulgencio Yegros (R)	41	24	21	86	94
18	General Díaz (R)	—	—	24	24	34