2020 Categoría Primera B season

Torneo BetPlay Dimayor
Season2020
Dates31 January – 26 December 2020
ChampionsAtlético Huila (3rd title)
PromotedNone
Matches played162
Goals scored368 (2.27 per match)
Top goalscorerDiber Cambindo
(12 goals)
Biggest home winCortuluá 6–0 Atlético
(19 September)
Biggest away winBogotá 0–4 Atlético Huila
(12 February)
Highest scoringBarranquilla 2–5 U. Magdalena
(23 October)
← 2019
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.[2] 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.[3]

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.

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Locations of the 2020 Categoría Primera B teams
Club Home city Stadium Capacity
Atlético Cali Pascual Guerrero 33,130
Atlético Huila Neiva Guillermo Plazas Alcid 22,000
Barranquilla Barranquilla Romelio Martínez 20,000
Boca Juniors de Cali Cali Pascual Guerrero 33,130
Bogotá Bogotá Metropolitano de Techo 8,000
Cortuluá Tuluá Doce de Octubre 16,000
Deportes Quindío Armenia Centenario 20,716
Fortaleza Cota Municipal de Cota 4,000
Leones Itagüí
Envigado 		Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí
Polideportivo Sur[note 1] 		12,000
14,000
Llaneros Villavicencio
Tunja 		Manuel Calle Lombana
La Independencia[note 2] 		15,000
20,630
Orsomarso Palmira
Tuluá 		Francisco Rivera Escobar
Deportivo Cali[note 3]
Doce de Octubre[note 4] 		15,300
42,000
16,000
Real Cartagena Cartagena
Magangué 		Jaime Morón León
Diego de Carvajal[note 5] 		16,068
10,000
Real San Andrés San Andrés Erwin O'Neill 5,000
Tigres Bogotá Metropolitano de Techo 8,000
Unión Magdalena Santa Marta Sierra Nevada 16,000
Valledupar Valledupar Armando Maestre Pavajeau 11,000
  1. ^ Used by Leones as temporary home stadium while Estadio Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí was remodeled.
  2. ^ Used by Llaneros as temporary home stadium while Estadio Manuel Calle Lombana is remodeled.
  3. ^ Used by Orsomarso for their Torneo I home matches against Valledupar and Unión Magdalena.
  4. ^ Used by Orsomarso for their Torneo I home matches against Tigres and Boca Juniors de Cali.
  5. ^ Used by Real Cartagena as temporary home stadium while Estadio Jaime Morón León is cleared for use.

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.[4]

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.[5][6] On 25 July, it was announced that the competition would resume on 30 August with alterations in its format, and pending government approval.[2] 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

Standings

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Cortuluá 17 10 3 4 27 14 +13 33 Advance to the semifinals
2 Unión Magdalena 17 9 5 3 28 17 +11 32
3 Deportes Quindío 17 8 6 3 28 13 +15 30
4 Bogotá 17 9 3 5 26 20 +6 30
5 Valledupar 17 8 6 3 16 13 +3 30
6 Llaneros 17 7 7 3 22 15 +7 28
7 Atlético Huila 17 8 4 5 20 19 +1 28
8 Leones 17 7 6 4 26 16 +10 27
9 Fortaleza 17 6 6 5 23 21 +2 24
10 Real San Andrés 17 6 2 9 19 24 −5 20
11 Orsomarso 17 4 8 5 17 22 −5 20
12 Boca Juniors de Cali 17 5 4 8 15 21 −6 19
13 Atlético 17 3 4 10 12 27 −15 13
14 Tigres 17 2 6 9 12 20 −8 12
15 Real Cartagena 17 3 3 11 8 22 −14 12
16 Barranquilla 17 2 5 10 9 24 −15 11
Source: Dimayor, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) Goal difference, 3) Goals for, 4) Away goals for, 5) Away goals against, 6) Drawing of lots

Results

Matchdays 1–15

Home \ Away ATL HUI BAR BOC BOG COR QUI FOR LEO LLA ORS RCA RSA TIG MAG VAL
Atlético — 1–2 0–1 1–0 — — 0–0 0–0 — 1–1 — — 0–3 — — —
Atlético Huila — — 2–1 3–1 — 1–0 2–1 1–1 — 0–2 — — 1–1 — — —
Barranquilla — — — — 0–1 0–1 — — 2–3 — 0–0 0–0 — — 2–5 0–0
Boca Juniors de Cali — — 1–2 — 1–3 0–1 1–3 — 0–0 1–1 — 0–0 1–0 1–0 — —
Bogotá 1–2 0–4 — — — — — 1–1 — — 3–0 1–0 — 1–3 2–1 3–0
Cortuluá 6–0 — — — 2–0 — — — 3–3 — 2–1 2–0 — — 1–2 1–2
Deportes Quindío — — 4–0 — 2–2 1–2 — — 1–0 3–0 2–2 5–1 1–0 2–0 — —
Fortaleza — — 1–0 1–0 — 2–3 1–0 — 2–2 1–1 — — 3–1 — — —
Leones 1–0 4–0 — — 0–0 — — — — — 2–0 1–0 — — 1–1 1–2
Llaneros — — 2–0 — 0–2 0–0 — — 1–1 — 1–1 2–0 — 2–1 4–0 —
Orsomarso 2–1 0–0 — 1–3 — — — 3–2 — — — — 2–1 1–1 2–2 0–0
Real Cartagena 2–1 1–0 — — — — — 2–1 — — 0–1 — 2–3 0–0 0–2 0–1
Real San Andrés — — 2–0 — 2–1 2–1 — — 0–3 0–1 — — — 2–0 — —
Tigres 1–2 0–0 0–0 — — 0–0 — 1–2 1–3 — — — — — — 1–1
Unión Magdalena 1–1 2–0 — 2–0 — — 1–1 2–1 — — — — 5–1 1–0 — 0–1
Valledupar 1–0 1–2 — 2–2 — — 0–0 0–1 — 1–0 — — 2–1 — — —
Source: Dimayor, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

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]

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Real San Andrés 1 Unión Magdalena 0–0 0–1
Boca Juniors de Cali 2 Leones 1–0 2–1
Real Cartagena 3 Cortuluá 0–1 0–1
Orsomarso 4 Deportes Quindío 1–1 0–1
Barranquilla 5 Valledupar 0–0 1–2
Tigres 6 Atlético Huila 2–0 1–2
Fortaleza 7 Llaneros 2–3 1–1
Atlético 8 Bogotá 0–1 2–4

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 A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification COR VAL BOG LEO
1 Cortuluá 6 4 1 1 15 8 +7 13 Advance to the Finals — 5–0 3–2 2–1
2 Valledupar 6 2 3 1 3 6 −3 9 0–0 — 1–0 0–0
3 Bogotá 6 2 1 3 9 10 −1 7 3–2 1–2 — 2–2
4 Leones 6 0 3 3 5 8 −3 3 2–3 0–0 0–1 —
Source: Dimayor
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) Goal difference, 3) Goals for, 4) Away goals for, 5) Away goals against, 6) Yellow cards, 7) Red cards, 8) Drawing of lots.

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification HUI QUI MAG LLA
1 Atlético Huila 6 4 1 1 7 4 +3 13 Advance to the Finals — 1–0 2–1 0–0
2 Deportes Quindío 6 3 2 1 6 3 +3 11 1–0 — 2–2 2–0
3 Unión Magdalena 6 2 1 3 9 9 0 7 2–3 0–1 — 2–0
4 Llaneros 6 0 2 4 1 7 −6 2 0–1 0–0 1–2 —
Source: Dimayor
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) Goal difference, 3) Goals for, 4) Away goals for, 5) Away goals against, 6) Yellow cards, 7) Red cards, 8) Drawing of lots.

Finals

Atlético Huila1–0Cortuluá
  • Moreno 59'
 Report
Attendance: 0
Referee: Yahir Cárdenas
Cortuluá1–3Atlético Huila
 Report
Attendance: 0
Referee: Héctor Rivera

Atlético Huila won 4–1 on aggregate.


 Torneo Betplay Dimayor
2020 champions 
Atlético Huila
3rd title

Top goalscorers

Rank Name Club Goals
1 Colombia Diber Cambindo Deportes Quindío 12
2 Colombia Ruyery Blanco Unión Magdalena 11
Colombia Eder Munive Leones
4 Colombia Sebastián Acosta Fortaleza 9
Colombia Omar Vásquez Llaneros
6 Colombia César Caicedo Bogotá 8
7 Colombia Arlex Hurtado Bogotá 7
8 Colombia Luis Mina Boca Juniors de Cali 6
Colombia Brayan Moreno Atlético Huila
Colombia Luis Narváez Unión Magdalena
Colombia Harold Rivera Atlético Huila

Source: Soccerway

Aggregate table

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Atlético Huila (C) 25 14 5 6 31 24 +7 47 Qualification for 2021 Grand Final
2 Cortuluá 25 14 4 7 43 26 +17 46
3 Deportes Quindío 23 11 8 4 34 16 +18 41
4 Unión Magdalena 23 11 6 6 37 26 +11 39
5 Valledupar 23 10 9 4 19 19 0 39
6 Bogotá 23 11 4 8 35 30 +5 37
7 Leones 23 7 9 7 31 24 +7 30
8 Llaneros 23 7 9 7 23 22 +1 30
9 Fortaleza 17 6 6 5 23 21 +2 24
10 Real San Andrés 17 6 2 9 19 24 −5 20
11 Orsomarso 17 4 8 5 17 22 −5 20
12 Boca Juniors de Cali 17 5 4 8 15 21 −6 19
13 Atlético 17 3 4 10 12 27 −15 13
14 Tigres 17 2 6 9 12 20 −8 12
15 Real Cartagena 17 3 3 11 8 22 −14 12
16 Barranquilla 17 2 5 10 9 24 −15 11
Source: Dimayor
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) Goal difference, 3) Goals for, 4) Away goals for, 5) Away goals against, 6) Drawing of lots.
(C) Champions

See also

References

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