2022 Liga Panameña de Fútbol explained

The 2022 Liga Panameña de Fútbol or 2022 Liga LPF (known as the Liga LPF Tigo for sponsorship reasons) was the 35th season of the Liga Panameña de Fútbol (LPF), the top-flight football league in Panama, and the third under the management of the Liga Panameña de Fútbol. The season began on 4 February 2022, when the Apertura tournament started, and ended on 12 November 2022 with the Clausura tournament Final.

The season was originally scheduled to start on 21 January 2022,^[1] but the date was pushed back due to the detection of several COVID-19 cases in the participating clubs.^[2]

A total of twelve teams competed throughout the entire season, which was divided into two championships: Torneo Apertura and Torneo Clausura, each of them being an independent championship and crowning its own champion.

Competition format

Same as previous years, the season was divided into two championships: Torneo Apertura and Torneo Clausura. Both Apertura and Clausura were played under the same format which consisted in a Classification stage, where the 12 teams were geographically divided into the Eastern and Western Conferences (6 teams per conference); Play-offs, Semifinals and Final.^[3]

Within each conference, teams played each other twice on a double round-robin format (home and away). In addition, each team played one game against all the 6 teams in the opposite conference for a total of 16 games per team in the classification stage. Winners of each conference qualified directly to the semi-finals, whilst the second and third placed teams advanced to the play-offs stage.

The Play-offs stage was played on a single-leg format between the second placed team of each conference against the third placed team of the opposite conference, with the second placed teams hosting the matches. Winners of play-offs advanced to semi-finals to play against the first placed team of each conference on a home-and-away two-legged basis. Winners of the semifinals played the final on a single-leg match at a venue and date determined by the LFP, with highest team ranked in the classification stage acting as the "home" team for "administrative purposes.

Teams

A total of 12 teams took part in this season; the same ones that played in the previous 2021 season, including San Francisco,^[3] which finished in the last place (12th) on the aggregate table of the 2021 season, which meant its relegation to the 2022 Liga Prom season. However, San Francisco was able to stay in the Liga LPF, subject to the payment of a financial penalty, since the champions and runners-up of the 2021 Liga Prom (Alianza FC II and Panamá Oeste) did not meet the requirements of the Liga Panameña de Fútbol to play in the 2022 Liga LPF.^[4]

Stadia and locations

Team	City	Stadium^[5]	Capacity
Eastern Conference
Alianza	Panama City	Javier Cruz	align=center	700
Árabe Unido	Colón	Armando Dely Valdés	align=center	4,000
Plaza Amador	Panama City	Rommel Fernandez	align=center	32,000
		Javier Cruz	align=center	700
Potros del Este	Panama City	Hacienda Country Club	align=center	100
Sporting San Miguelito	San Miguelito	Los Andes	align=center	1,450
Tauro	Panama City	Rommel Fernandez	align=center	32,000
Western Conference
Atlético Chiriquí	David	San Cristóbal	align=center	2,890
Independiente	La Chorrera	Agustín Sánchez	align=center	3,040
Herrera	Llano Bonito	Los Milagros	align=center	1,000
San Francisco	La Chorrera	Agustín Sánchez	align=center	3,040
Veraguas United	Atalaya	Atalaya	align=center	500
Universitario	Penonomé	Virgilio Tejeira	align=center	900

Personnel and kits

Team	Head Coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor(s)
Alianza	Jair Palacios	Kevin Melgar	Keuka	Clinilab Panamá
Árabe Unido	Julio Dely Valdés	Abdiel Macea	Kelme	BetCha.pa, AguAseo, Kendall Motor Oil
Atlético Chiriquí	Dayron Pérez	Miguel Saavedra	Kelme
Herrera	Alberto Valencia	Santiago Cedeño	Strik3r	Varela Hermanos S.A., Betcris, Gran Hotel Azuero, Hertz
Independiente	Franklin Narváez	César Samudio	Fila	Altos De La Pradera
Plaza Amador	Jorge Dely Valdés	Ricardo Buitrago	Puma	Sportium, SPARK
Potros del Este	Daniel Blanco	Edgar Góndola	Luanvi	UniWorld Air Cargo
San Francisco	Gary Stempel	Francisco Palacios	Strik3r	Betcha.pa
Sporting San Miguelito	Felipe Borowsky	Adolfo Machado	Spirits	Teletón 20-30
Tauro	Francisco Perlo	Edwin Aguilar	Patrick	Betcha.pa, Universidad del Istmo, KFC
Universitario	Julio Infante	Manuel Torres	FB Sports	Latin University of Panama
Veraguas United	Villi Trebino	Rolando Algandona	Strik3r	Betcris, Super Carnes, La Parmigiana

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Torneo Apertura
San Francisco	Jorge Santos	End of caretaker spell	20 November 2021	Pre-season	Gonzalo Soto	19 January 2022^[6] ^[7]
Sporting San Miguelito	Saúl Maldonado	Mutual agreement	22 November 2021^[8] ^[9]		Felipe Borowsky	26 November 2021^[10]
Veraguas United	Isaac Jové	End of contract	4 December 2021^[11]		José Anthony Torres	January 2022^[12] ^[13]
Independiente	Francisco Perlo	Signed by Academia Puerto Cabello	8 December 2021^[14] ^[15]		Iván Guerra	15 December 2021^[16] ^[17]
Árabe Unido	Sergio Angulo	End of contract	22 December 2021^[18] ^[19] ^[20]		Julio Dely Valdés	22 December 2021^[21]
Tauro	Kike García	Mutual agreement	29 December 2021^[22]		Rolando Palma	30 December 2021^[23]
Universitario	Gary Stempel	Resigned	16 February 2022^[24] ^[25]	6th,	Alberto Blanco	17 February 2022
Veraguas United	José Anthony Torres	End of caretaker spell	21 March 2022^[26]	5th,	Daniel Lanata	22 March 2022^[27]
Torneo Clausura
Veraguas United	Daniel Lanata	End of contract	7 May 2022	Pre-season	Héctor Blanco	July 2022^[28] ^[29]
Independiente	Iván Guerra	End of contract	18 May 2022^[30] ^[31]		Franklin Narváez	23 May 2022^[32] ^[33]
Herrera	Julio Infante	Sacked	20 May 2022^[34] ^[35]		Emmanuel Calleja	23 May 2022^[36]
Universitario	Alberto Blanco	End of contract	20 May 2022		Julio Infante	23 June 2022^[37]
Atlético Chiriquí	Alberto Valencia	End of contract	21 May 2022		Dayron Pérez	July 2022^[38] ^[39]
Tauro	Rolando Palma	Sacked	11 August 2022^[40]	6th,	Francisco Perlo	13 August 2022^[41]
San Francisco	Gonzalo Soto	Mutual agreement	28 August 2022^[42]	5th,	Gary Stempel	29 August 2022^[43]
Veraguas United	Héctor Blanco	Resigned	20 September 2022^[44]	5th,	Villi Trebino	20 September 2022
Herrera	Emmanuel Calleja	Sacked	21 September 2022^[45]	6th,	Alberto Valencia	30 September 2022^[46] ^[47]

Notes

Torneo Apertura

The Torneo Apertura began on 4 February and ended on 28 May with the final.

Classification stage

Results

Play-offs

----

Semi-finals

Alianza won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the final.----Sporting San Miguelito won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the final.

Top goalscorers

Players sorted first by goals scored, then by last name.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
align=center rowspan=3	1	Edgar Aparicio	Atlético Chiriquí	align=center rowspan=3	7
Víctor Ávila	Independiente
Ricardo Buitrago	Plaza Amador
align=center rowspan=3	4	Luis Zúñiga	Sporting San Miguelito	align=center rowspan=3	6
José Florez	Atlético Chiriquí
Sergio Cunningham	Herrera
align=center rowspan=5	7	Ricardo Clarke	Plaza Amador	align=center rowspan=5	5
Alexis Corpas	Sporting San Miguelito
César Medina	Alianza
Ángel Orelien	Plaza Amador
Omar Valencia	Tauro

Torneo Clausura

The Torneo Clausura began on 22 July and ended on 12 November with the final.

Classification stage

Results

Play-offs

----

Semi-finals

Independiente won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the final.----Universitario won 1–0 on aggregate and advanced to the final.

Top goalscorers

Players sorted first by goals scored, then by last name.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Joseph Cox	Universitario	13
2	Jorlian Sánchez	Sporting San Miguelito	9
3	Yoameth Murillo	Potros del Este	7
align=center rowspan=2	4	Dwann Oliveira	Sporting San Miguelito	align=center rowspan=2	6
César Yanis	Potros del Este
align=center rowspan=2	6	Víctor Ávila	Árabe Unido	align=center rowspan=2	5
Alexis Cundumi	Veraguas United
align=center rowspan=5	8	Gabriel Brown	Árabe Unido	align=center rowspan=5	4
Mario Carmona	Universitario
Gilberto Hernández	Independiente
Jhamal Rodríguez	San Francisco
Ángel Sánchez	Herrera

External links

• Liga Panameña de Fútbol LPF 2022

Notes and References

1. Web site: ¡Oficial! El Torneo Apertura 2022 LPF TIGO arranca el 21 de enero. RPC. www.rpctv.com. 7 January 2022. es.
2. Web site: La Liga Panameña de Fútbol decide aplazar el inicio del Torneo Apertura 2022. TVN. www.tvn-2.com. 12 January 2022. es.
3. Web site: REGLAMENTO COMPETENCIA LPF TEMPORADA - 2022. Liga Panameña de Fútbol. lpf.com.pa. 14 January 2022. 5 March 2023. es.
4. Web site: Existen los milagros. El Siglo. elsiglo.com.pa/. Ortega. Isaac Abel. 7 December 2021. es.
5. LPFpanama. 1488964467870339078. ¡SEDES OFICIALES!. Liga Panameña de Fútbol. 2 February 2022. es.
6. sanfrafc_pa. San Francisco F.C.. 1483848998754701314. Comunicado Oficial. 19 January 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
7. Web site: LPF: Gonzalo Soto regresa al San Francisco FC. LPF: Gonzalo Soto returns to San Francisco FC. TVN. www.tvn-2.com. 17 February 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
8. sportingsmfc. Sporting San Miguelito. 1462908715250728960. Cambio en la Dirección Técnica. 22 November 2021. 8 March 2023. es.
9. Web site: Saúl Maldonado no continuará en Sporting San Miguelito para la próxima temporada. Saúl Maldonado will not continue with Sporting San Miguelito for next season. Balonazos.com. Cárdenas. Luis. 23 November 2021. 8 March 2023. es.
10. Web site: OFICIAL. Felipe Borowsky es el nuevo entrenador del Sporting. OFFICIAL. Felipe Borowsky is Sporting's new coach. RPC. www.rpctv.com. 26 November 2021. 8 March 2023. es.
11. Web site: EL VERAGUAS CD SE DESINTEGRA LUEGO DE SER PROTAGONISTA EN LA LPF. Veraguas CD disintegrates after being a protagonist in the LPF. JM Deportes. 29 December 2021. 8 March 2023. es.
12. Web site: Historia de Veraguas United. History of Veraguas United. Veraguas United FC. 8 March 2023. es.
13. Web site: Veraguas United FC, el nuevo equipo de la provincia de Urracá en la LPF. Veraguas United FC, the new team from the province of Urracá in the LPF. La Gaceta de Panamá. 7 February 2022. 7 March 2023. es.
14. Web site: OFICIAL. Francisco Perlo deja de ser entrenador del CAI. OFFICIAL. Francisco Perlo steps down as coach of CAI. RPC. 9 December 2021. 8 March 2023. es.
15. Web site: Francisco Perlo se despide del Club Atlético Independiente. Francisco Perlo bids farewell to Club Atlético Independiente. El Siglo. Ortega. Isaac Abel. 10 December 2021. 8 March 2023. es.
16. Web site: LPF: CAI anuncia a Iván Guerra como nuevo entrenador. LPF: CAI announces Iván Guerra as new coach. RPC. 15 December 2021. 8 March 2023. es.
17. Web site: El entrenador venezolano Ivan Guerra será el nuevo Director Técnico del CAI en Panamá. Venezuelan coach Iván Guerra will be the new head coach of CAI in Panama. Balonazos.com. Cárdenas. Luis. 18 December 2021. 8 March 2023. es.
18. ArabeUnido_. Club Deportivo Árabe Unido. 1473729025218596869. Nuestro equipo anuncia oficialmente las salidas del DT Sergio "Checho" Angulo y del PF Andrés Mosquera. 22 December 2021. 7 March 2023. es.
19. Web site: Sergio Angulo no dirigirá a Árabe Unido en la última fecha. Sergio Angulo will not coach Árabe Unido on the last day of the season. Cable Onda Sports. Martínez. Álvaro. 19 November 2021. 7 March 2023. es.
20. Web site: Nos despedimos de la mejor manera.. We say goodbye in the best way.. Club Deportivo Árabe Unido. Martínez. Álvaro. 21 November 2021. 7 March 2023. es.
21. Web site: Christmas bombshell. Julio Dely Valdés to coach Árabe Unido de Colón. Christmas bombshell. Julio Dely Valdés to coach Árabe Unido from Colón. Mi Diario. Edgardo. Vidal. 22 December 2021. 7 March 2023. es.
22. Web site: Tauro FC de Panamá anunció que el DT venezolano Enrique García no los seguirá dirigiendo. Tauro FC from Panama announced that Venezuelan coach Enrique García will not continue to coach them. Balonazos.com. 29 December 2021. 11 March 2023. es.
23. Web site: LPF: Rolando Palma regresa al Tauro FC como entrenador. LPF: Rolando Palma returns to Tauro FC as head coach. RPC. www.rpctv.com. 30 December 2021. 11 March 2023. es.
24. Web site: Stempel no aguantó más: no le pagaban. Stempel couldn't take it anymore: he wasn't getting paid. Metro Libre. 17 February 2022. 11 March 2023. es.
25. Web site: Gary Stempel habla de su salida por falta de pagos en Universitario. Gary Stempel talks about his departure due to lack of payments at Universitario. RPC. www.rpctv.com. 17 February 2022. 11 March 2023. es.
26. Web site: 'Chalate' Anthony Torres sale de la dirección técnica del Veraguas United. 'Chalate' Anthony Torres leaves the technical direction of Veraguas United. TVN. 21 March 2022. 7 March 2023. es.
27. Web site: Daniel Lanata, de Tacuary al fútbol panameño. Daniel Lanata, from Tacuary to Panamanian football. La Nación. versus.lanacion.com.py. 22 March 2022. 7 March 2023. es.
28. Veraguas_United. Veraguas United F.C.. 1546275991949025280. ¡NUESTRA PLANTILLA OFICIAL CLAUSURA 2022!. 10 July 2022. 7 March 2023. es.
29. Web site: La particular liga donde Héctor Blanco continuará su carrera como DT. The particular league where Héctor Blanco will continue his career as manager. La Nación. versus.lanacion.com.py. 14 July 2022. 7 March 2023. es.
30. Web site: El entrenador Iván Guerra no continuará al mando del CAI en la Liga de Panamá. Coach Iván Guerra will not continue at the helm of CAI in the Panamanian League. Balonazos.com. Vera. Ángel. 19 May 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
31. Web site: Infante, Blanco y Guerra son agentes libres. Infante, Blanco and Guerra are free agents. Cable Onda Sports. Álvaro. Martínez. 21 May 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
32. CAIPanama. Independiente de La Chorrera. 1528790739819319296. El técnico chorrerano Franklin Narváez será el encargado de dirigir nuestro equipo profesional.. 23 May 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
33. Web site: LPF: Herrera FC y CAI anuncian nuevos entrenadores. LPF: Herrera FC and CAI announce new coaches. RPC. www.rpctv.com. 23 May 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
34. herrerafc_. Herrera F.C.. 1527672496396410880. ¡Gracias Julio Infante! Queremos anunciar a todos nuestros fanáticos y prensa en general, la salida del D.T. Julio Infante.. 20 May 2022. 7 March 2023. es.
35. Web site: LPF: Julio Infante deja de ser entrenador de Herrera FC. LPF: Julio Infante steps down as coach of Herrera FC. RPC. www.rpctv.com. 20 May 2022. 7 March 2023. es.
36. Web site: Herrera FC anuncia a su nuevo entrenador, el español Emmanuel Calleja. Herrera FC announces its new coach, Spaniard Emmanuel Calleja. Día a Día. www.diaadia.com.pa. 23 May 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
37. Web site: JULIO INFANTE TIENE NUEVO EQUIPO EN LA LPF. Julio Infante has a new team in the LPF. JM Deportes. jmdeportes.com. 23 June 2022. 11 March 2023. es.
38. Atl_chiriqui. Atlético Chiriquí. 1549020199491452928. Queremos darle la bienvenida a nuestro nuevo Director Técnico: Dayron Perez. 18 July 2022. 7 March 2023. es.
39. Web site: LPF: Dayron Pérez se apunta como nuevo entrenador del Atlético Chiriquí. LPF: Dayron Perez signs on as new coach of Atletico Chiriqui. RPC. www.rpctv.com. 18 July 2022. 7 March 2023. es.
40. Web site: Tauro FC destituye al técnico Rolando Palma. Tauro FC dismisses coach Rolando Palma. TVN. www.tvn-2.com. 11 August 2022. 11 March 2023. es.
41. Web site: Francisco Perlo vuelve a Panamá para dirigir al Tauro FC. Francisco Perlo returns to Panama to coach Tauro FC. TVN. www.tvn-2.com. 13 August 2022. 11 March 2023. es.
42. Web site: San Francisco pierde ante Alianza FC y despide al técnico Gonzalo Soto en cierre de la J7. San Francisco loses to Alianza FC and fires coach Gonzalo Soto at the end of MD7. Mi Diario. Edgardo. Vidal. 29 August 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
43. Web site: LPF: Gary Stempel regresa como DT del San Francisco FC. LPF: Gary Stempel returns as San Francisco FC Head Coach. RPC. www.rpctv.com. 29 August 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
44. Web site: LPF: Veraguas United anunció la salida de miembros de su cuerpo técnico. LPF: Veraguas United announced the departure of its technical staff. TVN. 20 September 2022. 7 March 2023. es.
45. Web site: LPF: Herrera FC destituye a Emmanuel Calleja. LPF: Herrera FC dismisses Emmanuel Calleja. RPC. www.rpctv.com. 21 September 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
46. Web site: Herrera FC hace oficial la llegada de su nuevo director técnico tras la salida de Calleja. Herrera FC makes official the arrival of its new head coach following the departure of Calleja. Fútbol Centroamérica. Gonzalez Pereira. Jean Carlos. 30 September 2022. 8 March 2023. es.
47. Web site: El entrenador Alberto Nino Valencia vuelve a dirigir en Panamá con Herrera FC. Coach Alberto Nino Valencia returns to coaching in Panama with Herrera FC. Balonazos.com. Cárdenas. Luis. 1 October 2022. 8 March 2023. es.