Colombian Women's Football League

The Liga Femenina Profesional de Fútbol Colombiano (Colombian Professional Women's Football League) or Liga Betplay Femenina (sponsored name) is the top level women's football league in Colombia. The first season was held in 2017, with 18 teams taking part. The champion qualifies to the Copa Libertadores Femenina.^[1]

History[]

Colombia women's football had only regional leagues until 2016. The entrant to the Copa Libertadores Femenina was decided in a tournament called Copa Pre-Libertadores, in which non-professional clubs took part. The winning team in all editions was Formas Íntimas. In 2016 a tournament called Campeonato Nacional Interclubes was held, organized by the División Aficionada del Fútbol Colombiano (Difútbol). About 40 teams played in four stages for the championship. won the final 6–5 on aggregate over Molino Viejo and qualified to the 2016 Copa Libertadores Femenina.^[2]

With the approval of Dimayor, the first professional women's football league was organized and played starting from 2017, with 18 out of Dimayor's 36 affiliate clubs, which were split into 3 groups of 6. It was planned to create a second level league to which new clubs would have entered starting from 2018, but this did not happen. A national women's league is a requirement to host the FIFA Women's World Cup, in which Colombia has shown interest for the 2023 edition.^[3]

In spite of being a league in consolidation, the tournament is of a short type that takes place over a period of four or five months, however it has the largest number of teams in competition if you consider the existing professional leagues such as; Liga MX Femenil (18 teams), Primera División (women) (16 teams), D1F (12 teams), Frauen-Bundesliga (12 teams), Damallsvenskan (12 teams), FA WSL (11 teams), Nadeshiko League (12 teams), NWSL (9 teams), CWSL (8 teams), Nationalliga A (women's football) (8 teams). In addition, in the league of 2018, 487 players participated in the 23 teams, of which 81 were foreigners from 12 nationalities, where the largest group was the Venezuelan with 52 players.^{[citation needed]}

Format[]

In 2017 the 18 teams were divided into three groups of six. After playing each other twice, the top two in each group and the best two third-placed teams advanced to the quarter-finals, with the winners going on to play the semi-finals and finals. All matches in the knockout stages were played as double-legged series. The tournament lasted five months between February and June.

In 2018 the 23 teams were divided into three groups of six and one group of five. After playing each other twice, the top two in each group advanced to the quarter-finals, with the winners going on to play the semi-finals and finals. All matches in the knockout stages were played as double-legged series. The tournament lasted four months between February and May.

2021 teams[]

Notably absent from the list of clubs is Formas Íntimas, who joined an alliance with Envigado from 2017 to 2018, and with Independiente Medellín starting from 2019 since participation in the league is restricted to professional clubs (Dimayor affiliates) only.^[4] In the 2021 season, the league had 11 clubs participating.

List of finals[]

See also[]

• Football in Colombia

References[]

External links[]

• DIMAYOR
• Colombian Football Federation