2016–17 Liga Panameña de Fútbol season

The 2016–17 Liga Panameña de Fútbol season (also known as the Liga Cable Onda) was the 27th season of top-flight football in Panama. The season began on 2016 and was scheduled to end in May 2017. Ten teams competed throughout the entire season.

Liga Panameña de Fútbol

Season	2016–17
Champions	Apertura: Árabe Unido (15th Title) Clausura: Tauro (13th Title)
Relegated	Atlético Nacional
Champions League	Tauro
CONCACAF League	Árabe Unido Plaza Amador Chorrillo
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

Teams

Atlético Chiriquí finished in 10th place in the overall table last season and were relegated to the Liga Nacional de Ascenso. Taking their place for this season are the overall champions of last season's Liga Nacional de Ascenso Santa Gema.

Chepo suffered financial trouble and sold their spot to Atletico Veraguense.

Club	Home city	Stadium
Alianza	Panama City	Cancha de Entrenamiento Luis Tapia
Árabe Unido	Colón	Cancha de Entrenamiento Luis Tapia (in Panama City)
Atlético Nacional	Panama City	Estadio Agustín "Muquita" Sánchez
Atletico Veraguense	Santiago de Veraguas	Cancha de Entrenamiento Luis Tapia (in Panama City)
Chorrillo	Panama City	Estadio Javier Cruz
Plaza Amador	Panama City	Estadio Javier Cruz
San Francisco	La Chorrera	Estadio Agustín Sánchez
Santa Gema	Arraiján	Cancha del Mystic
Sporting San Miguelito	San Miguelito	Cancha de Entrenamiento Luis Tapia
Tauro	Panama City	Cancha de Entrenamiento Luis Tapia

2016 Apertura

Personnel and sponsoring (2016 Apertura)

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
Alianza	TBD	José Anthony Torres	Lotto	Balboa
Árabe Unido	TBD	Juan Sergio Guzmán	Puma	Pizza Hut
Atletico Nacional		José Chiari	Adidas	Nikos
Atletico Veraguense	TBD	Marcos Pimentel	GEMS	EGS, NCO
Chorrillo		Jair Medina	Lotto	McDonald's, Cremoso
Plaza Amador	TBD	Jair Palacios	Diadora	Páguela Facil, Frosquito, Mercana
Santa Gema		Leopoldo Lee	Mitre	ShowPro
San Francisco	Julio Quijano	Mike Stump	Lotto	KFC, Canon, Banco General
Sporting San Miguelito	TBD	Juan Pablo Lopera	Joma	Kenwood, Hyundai
Tauro	TBD	Rolando Palma	Patrick	Publica Amarias, Dominos, Estrella Azul, Argos, Capital Bank

Managerial changes

During the season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Atletico Veraguense	Marcos Pimentel	Mutual agreement	August 2016	Andrés Felipe Domínguez	August 2016	th (Apertura 2016)
Chorrillo	Jair Medina	Sacked	September 2016	Óscar Upegui	September 2016	th (Apertura 2016)
Sporting San Miguelito	Juan Pablo Lopera	Sacked	October 2016	José Alfredo Poyatos	October 2016	th (Apertura 2016)

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tauro	18	11	5	2	30	9	+21	38	Qualified to the Final Round
2	Plaza Amador	18	9	9	0	21	8	+13	36
3	Chorrillo	18	10	3	5	20	14	+6	33
4	Árabe Unido	18	8	5	5	26	17	+9	29
5	Santa Gema	18	6	5	7	15	13	+2	23
6	San Francisco	18	7	4	7	15	17	−2	25
7	Alianza	18	7	1	10	18	25	−7	22
8	Sporting San Miguelito	18	3	5	10	12	23	−11	14
9	Atletico Veraguense	18	3	5	10	7	23	−16	14
10	Atlético Nacional	18	2	4	12	11	26	−15	10

Updated to match(es) played on 13 November 2016. Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Results

Home \ Away	ALI	ATL	DÁU	ATV	CHO	PA	SAN	SF	SSM	TAU
Alianza		2–1	0–2	2–0	0–4	1–1	0–1	1–2	2–1	0–2
Atlético Nacional	1–2		1–1	1–0	1–2	1–3	1–1	0–1	0–0	0–2
Árabe Unido	3–1	0–1		4–1	1–1	0–0	2–3	0–2	2–0	2–1
Atletico Veraguense	1–0	0–0	0–1		1–1	0–1	0–0	1–1	0–0	0–2
Chorrillo	0–3	1–0	1–0	1–0		0–2	0–0	2–0	0–1	1–0
Plaza Amador	2–0	2–1	2–2	1–0	2–0		1–0	0–0	2–1	1–1
Santa Gema	0–1	2–1	1–0	0–1	1–2	0–0		0–0	4–2	0–0
San Francisco	0–1	1–0	1–3	3–0	1–2	1–1	0–1		1–0	0–3
Sporting San Miguelito	1–0	2–1	1–3	1–2	0–2	0–0	0–0	0–1		2–2
Tauro	3–2	4–0	0–0	4–0	1–0	0–0	2–1	2–0	1–0

Updated to match(es) played on 13 November 2016. Source:^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second stage

	Semifinals							Final
	1	Tauro	0	0	3
	4	Árabe Unido	3	2	5
								4	Árabe Unido	2
								2	Plaza Amador	0
	2	Plaza Amador	0	1	1
	3	Chorrillo	0	0	0

Semifinals

First legs

19 November 2016

Árabe Unido	3 – 0	Tauro
F. Caesar   33' E. Small   44' J. González   90+1'

Estadio Armando Dely Valdés

Referee: Ameth Sánchez

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19 November 2016

Chorrillo	0 – 0	Plaza Amador

Estadio Maracaná de Panamá

Referee: John Pitty

Second legs

26 November 2016

Tauro	3 – 2	Árabe Unido
J. Muñoz   1' E. Aguilar   5', 35' (pen)		A. Macea   47' E. Small   54'

Estadio Rommel Fernández

Referee: Victor Rios

Arabe Unido won 5–3 on aggregate.

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26 November 2016

Plaza Amador	1 – 0	Chorrillo
F. Piedrahita   77'

Estadio Maracaná de Panamá

Referee: Jafeth Perea

Plaza Amador won 1–0 on aggregate.

Finals

Grand Final

December 3, 2016

Plaza Amador	0 – 2	Árabe Unido
		A. Macea   45' E. Small   69'

Estadio Rommel Fernández

Referee: Ameth Sánchez

Apertura 2016 champions
Arabe Unido 15th title

2017 Clausura

Personnel and sponsoring (2017 Clausura)

Team	Chairman	Head Coach	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
Alianza	Rubén Cárdenas	Ángel Monares	Lotto	Balboa
Árabe Unido	Pedro Gordon	Juan Sergio Guzmán	Puma	Pizza Hut
Atletico Nacional	Eduardo Serracin	Daniel Valencia	Lotto	Subway
Atletico Veraguense	Rafael Sanjur	Jorge Santos	GEMS	EGS, NCO
Chorrillo	Manuel E. Arias	Mike Stump	Lotto	McDonald's, Cremoso
Plaza Amador	Gian Castillero	Jair Palacios	Diadora	Páguela Facil, Frosquito, Mercana
Santa Gema		Leopoldo Lee	Mitre	ShowPro
San Francisco	Jose Luis Dejuane	Andrés Dominguez	Lotto	KFC, Canon, Banco General
Sporting San Miguelito	Lucas Aleman	Mario Anthony Torres	Joma	Kenwood, Hyundai
Tauro	Robert Zauner	Rolando Palma	Patrick	Publicar Páginas Amarillas

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Plaza Amador	18	12	4	2	26	10	+16	40	Qualified to the Final Round
2	Tauro	18	8	7	3	25	16	+9	31
3	Atletico Veraguense	18	7	7	4	23	14	+9	28
4	Árabe Unido	18	8	4	6	25	20	+5	28
5	San Francisco	18	7	5	6	22	24	−2	26
6	Chorrillo	18	5	7	6	18	21	−3	22
7	Sporting San Miguelito	18	4	7	7	20	22	−2	19
8	Alianza	18	5	4	9	14	19	−5	19
9	Santa Gema	18	4	6	8	14	18	−4	18
10	Atlético Nacional	18	3	3	12	13	36	−23	12

Updated to match(es) played on 6 May 2017. Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Results

Home \ Away	ALI	ATL	DÁU	ATV	CHO	PA	SAN	SF	SSM	TAU
Alianza		0–1	1–2	0–2	1–0	0–0	1–0	1–2	1–0	1–0
Atlético Nacional	2–0		0–2	0–6	0–1	0–4	0–0	0–1	1–1	0–1
Árabe Unido	1–0	4–0		0–1	3–2	0–1	2–1	2–1	1–1	3–5
Atletico Veraguense	1–0	3–0	1–0		1–1	0–1	2–1	0–2	1–3	1–1
Chorrillo	1–3	2–2	1–0	1–1		1–1	1–1	1–2	1–0	1–3
Plaza Amador	2–1	1–0	2–1	0–0	1–2		2–0	3–1	1–2	1–1
Santa Gema	2–2	3–1	0–1	0–0	2–1	0–1		1–0	2–1	1–2
San Francisco	2–1	3–2	2–2	1–1	0–0	0–2	0–0		2–0	1–2
Sporting San Miguelito	0–0	2–3	1–1	1–1	0–0	1–2	1–0	5–1		0–3
Tauro	1–1	2–1	0–0	2–1	0–1	0–1	0–0	1–1	1–1

Updated to match(es) played on 6 May 2017. Source:^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second stage

	Semifinals							Final
	1	Plaza Amador	1	0	1
	4	Árabe Unido	1	1	2
								4	Árabe Unido	0
								2	Tauro	1
	2	Tauro	1	2	3
	3	Atletico Veraguense	1	1	2

Semifinals

First legs

12 May 2017

Árabe Unido	1 – 1	Plaza Amador
E. Small   81'		R. Barsallo   80'

Estadio Armando Dely Valdés

Referee: Victor Rios

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14 May 2017

Atletico Veraguense	1 – 1	Tauro
H. Ward   55'		F. Baloy   64'

Estadio Omar Torrijos

Referee: Oliver Vergara

Second legs

20 May 2017

Plaza Amador	0 – 1	Árabe Unido
E. Small   78'

Estadio Maracaná de Panamá

Referee: Jafeth Perea

Arabe Unido won 2–1 on aggregate.

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20 May 2017

Tauro	2 – 1	Atletico Veraguense
A. Polo   19' A. Corpas   90+1'		C. Gallego   81'

Estadio Rommel Fernández

Referee: Ameth Sánchez

Tauro won 3–2 on aggregate.

Finals

Grand Final

May 27, 2017

Tauro	1 – 0	Árabe Unido
A. Polo   90+1'

Estadio Rommel Fernández

Referee: Victor Rios

Clausura 2017 champions
Tauro 13th title

List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players for the 2016-2017. The following players:

1. have played at least one game for the respective club.
2. have not been capped for the Panama national football team on any level, independently from the birthplace

Alianza   Facundo Kroeck   Robyn Pertuz   Gerardo Negrete   Mauricio Castaño Arabe Unido   Miguel Lloyd Atletico Nacional   Manuel Murillo   Andrés Santamaría Atlético Veraguense   Damaso Pichón   Alexis Mendoza   Walter Franco   Arlinto Murillo Chorillo   Fabio Da Silva   David Agudelo

Jorge Henriquez   Justin Arboleda Plaza Amador   Frank Piedrahita   Daniel Blanco Santa Gema   Miguel Duque San Francisco FC   Wanegre Delgado de Armas   Varcan Sterling Sporting San Miguelito None Tauro FC   Jose Peraza   Carlos Sierra   Ariel Bonilla

  (player released mid season)

Aggregate table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Plaza Amador	36	21	13	2	47	18	+29	76	2017 CONCACAF League
2	Tauro	36	19	12	5	55	25	+30	69	2018 CONCACAF Champions League
3	Árabe Unido	36	16	9	11	51	37	+14	57	2017 CONCACAF League
4	Chorrillo	36	15	10	11	38	35	+3	55	2017 CONCACAF League^[a]
5	San Francisco	36	14	9	13	37	41	−4	51
6	Atletico Veraguense	36	10	12	14	30	37	−7	42
7	Santa Gema	36	10	11	15	29	31	−2	41
8	Alianza	36	12	5	19	32	44	−12	41
9	Sporting San Miguelito	36	7	12	17	32	45	−13	33
10	Atlético Nacional (R)	36	5	7	24	24	62	−38	22	Relegation to 2017–18 Liga de Ascenso

Source:^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Due to Guatemala's suspension from FIFA, its teams will not participate in the 2017-18 CONCACAF club competitions. Due to this, Panama gained an additional qualifier for the 2017 CONCACAF League.

External links

• http://lpf.com.pa/w/category/noticas/
• https://int.soccerway.com/national/panama/lpf/20152016/apertura/r31790/
• http://www.rpctv.com/deportes/futbolnacional/