2019–20 Liga FPD

The 2019–20 Liga FPD season, also known as Liga Promérica^[1] for sponsorship reasons, is the 99th season since its establishment. The tournament is divided into two championships, the Apertura and Clausura, each in an identical format and each contested by 12 teams.

Liga FPD

Season	2019–20
Champions	Apertura: Herediano Clausura: Saprissa
Relegated	La U Universitarios
CONCACAF League	Alajuelense Herediano Saprissa
Top goalscorer	Álvaro Saborío Chacón (13 goals as of Dec. 15, 2019)
Biggest home win	Saprissa 6-0 Limon FC (21 October 2019)
Biggest away win	Grecia 0-6 Saprissa (8 September 2019)
← 2018–19 2020–21 →

The Voit Loxus is the official match ball of the tournament.^[2] San Carlos are the defending champions, after defeating Saprissa in the Clausura 2019 tournament.

Teams and Structure Changes

A total of 12 teams will contest the league, including 11 sides from the 2018–19 season, one team promoted from the Liga de Ascenso.

Jicaral were promoted for the first time to the Liga FPD after defeating Guanacasteca in the Liga de Ascenso final, thus replacing Carmelita in the Liga FPD.

Like the previous season, the league has the following playoff format. The top 4 teams in the regular season will progress to a two-legged knockout tournament. If the same team that wins the regular season wins the playoff, that team wins the season championship immediately. Should a different team win the playoff than won the regular season, those two teams will meet in a two-legged Grand Final for the season championship.

Personnel, kits and Stadia

 

 

Alajuelense

 

Cartaginés

 

Grecia

 

Guadalupe

 

Herediano

 

Limón

 

Pérez Zeledón

 

San Carlos

 

Santos

 

Saprissa

 

UCR

 

Jicaral

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Locations of the 2019-20 Costa Rican FPD teams

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor(s)	Stadium	Capacity
Alajuelense	Andrés Carevic	Kelme	kölbi	Alejandro Morera Soto	18,000
Cartaginés	Hernán Medford	Joma	Premium Carroceria y Pintura	"Fello" Meza	13,500
Municipal Grecia	Fernando Palomeque	Living Sports	Super Rosvil	Estadio Allen Riggioni	4,000
Guadalupe F.C.	Géiner Segura	ProSport	Yustin Suministros	Estadio José Joaquín "Coyella" Fonseca	4,500
Herediano	José Giacone	Umbro	Tigo	Eladio Rosabal Cordero	15,000
Jicaral	Jeaustin Campos	ProSport	Sardimar	Estadio de la Asociación Cívica Jicaraleña	1,000
Limón	Ricardo Allen Thomas	Sportek	APM Terminals	Estadio Juan Gobán	2,600
Pérez Zeledón	Omar Royero	Textiles JB	kölbi	Municipal de Pérez Zeledón	6,100
San Carlos	Luis Marín	ARN	Dos Pinos	Estadio Carlos Ugalde Álvarez	5,600
Santos	Johnny Chaves	Capelli Sport	Grupo Colono	Ebal Rodríguez	4,500
Saprissa	Walter Centeno	Kappa	kölbi	Ricardo Saprissa	24,000
UCR	Luis Diego Arnáez	Saeta	TBD	Estadio Jorge Hernán "Cuty" Monge	5,500

Apertura

The Apertura tournament will be played in the second half of 2019, starting on 20 July.

Regular season

The regular season began on 20 July 2019 and ended on 20 November 2019.

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Alajuelense	22	16	4	2	49	21	+28	52	Advance to Playoffs and (if necessary) Grand final
2	Saprissa	22	12	4	6	50	30	+20	40	Advance to Playoffs
3	Herediano	22	10	5	7	40	23	+17	35
4	San Carlos	22	9	6	7	40	37	+3	33
5	Cartaginés	22	9	6	7	31	28	+3	33
6	Pérez Zeledón	22	7	7	8	24	32	−8	28
7	Jicaral	22	7	6	9	23	30	−7	27
8	Guadalupe	22	7	5	10	29	37	−8	26
9	Limón	22	7	4	11	24	40	−16	25
10	Santos de Guápiles	22	5	9	8	33	39	−6	24
11	Grecia	22	5	6	11	26	39	−13	21
12	UCR	22	4	6	12	23	36	−13	18

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) head-to-head points; 5) head-to-head goal difference; 6) head-to-head goals scored; 7) draw

Results

Home \ Away	ALA	CART	GRE	GUA	HER	JIC	LIM	PER	SCA	SNT	SAP	UCR
Alajuelense	—	1–1	1–0	2–1	3–2	3–1	3–1	1–1	1–0	2–2	1–2	4–1
Cartaginés	0–4	—	4–1	2–1	1–1	0–1	3–0	2–2	1–0	0–0	1–2	4–3
Grecia	1–3	0–1	—	2–1	2–2	1–0	4–0	0–0	1–1	3–1	0–6	3–3
Guadalupe	1–1	1–0	2–1	—	1–1	1–1	4–3	1–2	2–2	2–4	2–1	1–0
Herediano	0–1	3–0	3–0	2–0	—	1–3	3–2	4–1	3–1	6–2	4–0	0–0
Jicaral	0–2	1–1	2–0	2–0	1–2	—	0–2	1–0	1–1	1–1	2–5	2–0
Limón	1–2	0–2	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–0	—	1–1	3–4	1–0	1–1	1–0
Pérez Zeledón	1–4	1–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–1	2–0	—	3–0	2–1	0–1	1–0
San Carlos	3–1	2–4	4–2	3–1	1–0	2–1	2–2	5–2	—	2–2	1–0	1–2
Santos de Guápiles	0–2	2–1	1–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	4–1	1–3	—	4–0	1–4
Saprissa	2–5	2–2	0–2	4–1	2–1	4–0	6–0	3–0	3–1	2–2	—	4–0
UCR	0–3	0–1	2–1	2–2	0–1	1–2	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	0–0	—

Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Playoffs

	Semifinals							Finals
	1	Alajuelense	0	3	3
	4	San Carlos	0	0	0
								1	Alajuelense	0	0	0
								3	Herediano	2	0	2
	2	Saprissa	1	1	2 (4)
	3	Herediano	1	1	2 (5)

Semifinals

First legs

23 November 2019 (2019-11-23)

18:00 (UTC-6)

Herediano	1 – 1	Saprissa
B. Burke   90+1'		38' A. Robinson

Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero

Referee: Ricardo Montero

24 November 2019 (2019-11-24)

16:00 (UTC-6)

San Carlos	0 – 0	Alajuelense

Estadio Carlos Ugalde Álvarez

Referee: Juan Calderón

Second legs

30 November 2019 (2019-11-30)

18:00 (UTC-6)

Alajuelense	3 - 0	San Carlos
M. Ureña   22'   43' J. McDonald   62'

Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto

Referee: Hugo Cruz

1 December 2019 (2019-12-01)

16:00 (UTC-6)

Saprissa	1 - 1 (a.e.t.)	Herediano
J. Venegas   33' (pen)		76' Ó. Granados
Penalties
	4-5

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá

Referee: Juan Calderón

Finals

First leg

4 December 2019 (2019-12-04)

18:00 (UTC-6)

Herediano	2 – 0	Alajuelense
F. Rodríguez   14'   33'

Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero

Referee: Henry Bejarano

Second leg

8 December 2019 (2019-12-08)

13:00 (UTC-6)

Alajuelense	0 – 0	Herediano

Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto

Referee: Hugo Cruz

Grand final

If the regular season winners are unable to win the playoffs, a double-legged final will be played against the playoffs winner in order to determine the champions of the Apertura tournament. The team with the better accumulated record over the regular season and playoffs will host the second leg.

First leg

15 December 2019 (2019-12-15)

14:30 (UTC-6)

Herediano	1 – 0	Alajuelense
A. Soto   8'

Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero

Referee: Juan Calderón

Second leg

21 December 2019 (2019-12-21)

16:00 (UTC-6)

Alajuelense	2 – 1 (a.e.t.)	Herediano
B. Alfaro   73' J. Moya   76'		87' Y. Ruiz
Penalties
	4 – 5

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá

Referee: Henry Bejarano

Apertura 2019 champions
Herediano 27th title

Clausura

The Clausura 2020 season began in January 2020.

Regular season

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Saprissa	22	13	6	3	41	24	+17	45	Advance to Playoffs and (if necessary) Grand final
2	Herediano	22	10	10	2	40	21	+19	40	Advance to Playoffs
3	Alajuelense	22	11	7	4	42	26	+16	40
4	Cartaginés	22	10	5	7	33	35	−2	35
5	Guadalupe	22	8	9	5	28	22	+6	33
6	Jicaral	22	8	8	6	33	27	+6	32
7	San Carlos	22	8	5	9	41	41	0	29
8	Grecia	22	8	5	9	33	37	−4	29
9	Pérez Zeledón	22	5	6	11	26	38	−12	21
10	Santos de Guápiles	21	5	5	11	31	41	−10	20
11	Limón	21	4	4	13	19	28	−9	16
12	La U Universitarios	22	4	4	14	27	54	−27	16

Updated to match(es) played on 10 June 2020. Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) head-to-head points; 5) head-to-head goal difference; 6) head-to-head goals scored; 7) draw

Results

Home \ Away	ALA	CART	GRE	GUA	HER	JIC	LAU	LIM	PER	SCA	SNT	SAP
Alajuelense	—	1–1	5–1	3–2	0–0	1–0	6–1	4–1	2–0	3–0	1–0	2–2
Cartaginés	0–2	—	4–3	0–0	1–4	4–2	2–1	1–0	0–3	3–2	2–2	1–2
Grecia	3–1	2–3	—	2–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–3	1–0	2–5	1–1	0–3
Guadalupe	3–0	0–0	3–0	—	0–0	1–1	5–0	1–0	3–1	0–2	1–0	2–1
Herediano	3–3	3–0	3–3	0–0	—	1–0	5–2	0–1	1–1	3–3	3–1	4–1
Jicaral	2–2	2–1	1–1	0–0	1–1	—	5–0	2–1	3–1	2–1	6–2	0–3
La U Universitarios	1–2	0–0	0–4	3–0	1–2	2–2	—	2–1	2–0	1–2	1–3	2–0
Limón	1–0	1–2	0–2	0–0	0–2	0–1	3–3	—	1–2	1–2	3–0	0–1
Pérez Zeledón	3–1	0–1	1–4	1–1	0–1	2–0	3–2	1–1	—	0–4	3–3	1–1
San Carlos	1–1	1–3	1–0	2–2	1–3	0–1	2–2	1–1	3–2	—	3–0	0–1
Santos de Guápiles	0–1	1–3	1–0	3–4	1–1	0–0	3–0	10 Jun	3–1	5–2	—	2–4
Saprissa	1–1	3–1	2–2	3–0	1–0	2–2	3–1	1–0	0–0	5–3	1–0	—

Updated to match(es) played on 10 June 2020. Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Playoffs

	Semifinals							Finals
	1	Saprissa	4	2	6
	4	Cartaginés	0	3	3
								1	Saprissa	2	1	3
								3	Alajuelense	0	0	0
	2	Herediano	0	0	0
	3	Alajuelense	2	0	2

Semifinals

First legs

14 June 2020 (2020-06-14)

11:00 (UTC-6)

Cartaginés	0–4	Saprissa
	Report	Barrantes   63' Rodríguez   66' Bolaños   72' Venegas   90'

Estadio José Rafael Fello Meza Ivankovich, Cartago

14 June 2020 (2020-06-14)

19:00 (UTC-6)

Alajuelense	2–0	Herediano
López   30' Lassiter   79'	Report

Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto, Alajuela

Second legs

17 June 2020 (2020-06-17)

17:00 (UTC-6)

Saprissa	2–3	Cartaginés
Bolaños   24', 68'		Hernández   18', 37', 89'

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá, San José

17 June 2020 (2020-06-17)

20:30 (UTC-6)

Herediano	0–0	Alajuelense

Estadio Eladio Rosabal Cordero, Heredia

Finals

First leg

24 June 2020 (2020-06-24)

20:30 (UTC-6)

Alajuelense	0–2	Saprissa
		A. Rodríguez   12' E. Rodríguez   27'

Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto, Alajuela

Referee: Allen Quiros

Second leg

29 June 2020 (2020-06-29)

20:30 (UTC-6)

Saprissa	1–0	Alajuelense
Torres   68'

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá, San José

Referee: Juan Gabriel Calderon

Clausura 2020 champions
Saprissa 35th title

Aggregate table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Alajuelense (Q)	44	27	11	6	91	47	+44	92	CONCACAF League preliminary round^[a]
2	Saprissa (Q)	44	25	10	9	91	54	+37	85	CONCACAF League round of 16^[b]
3	Herediano (Q)	44	20	15	9	80	44	+36	75	CONCACAF League round of 16^[c]
4	Cartaginés	44	19	11	14	64	63	+1	68
5	San Carlos	44	17	11	16	81	78	+3	62
6	Jicaral	44	15	14	15	56	57	−1	59
7	Guadalupe	44	15	14	15	57	59	−2	59
8	Grecia	44	13	11	20	59	76	−17	50
9	Pérez Zeledón	44	12	13	19	50	70	−20	49
10	Santos de Guápiles	43	10	14	19	64	80	−16	44
11	Limón	43	11	8	24	43	68	−25	41
12	UCR (R)	44	8	10	26	50	90	−40	34	Relegated to Liga de Ascenso

Updated to match(es) played on 10 June 2020. Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) head-to-head points; 5) head-to-head goal difference; 6) head-to-head goals scored; 7) draw
(Q) Qualified for the phase indicated; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. As non-champions with the best 2019–20 aggregate record (CRC3).
2. As champions (Clausura) with better 2019–20 aggregate record (CRC1).
3. As champions (Apertura) with worse 2019–20 aggregate record (CRC2).

List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players in the 2019–20 season. The following players:

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

A new rule was introduced this season, that clubs can have four foreign players per club and can only add a new player if there is an injury or a player is released and it's before the close of the season transfer window. [1]

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Former Players
Alajuelense	Facundo Zabala	Alexander López	Adolfo Machado
Cartaginés	Joaquin Aguirre	Marcel Hernández
Grecia	Leonel Peralta	Aldo Magaña
Guadalupe	Lautaro Ayala
Herediano	Diego Gonzalez	Luis Lopez
Jicaral	Pablo Calderón	Carlos Soza
Limón
Pérez Zeledón	Pablo Azcurra	Alexis Ramos	Craig Foster
San Carlos	Julio Cruz	Jorman Aguilar	Omar Browne
Santos de Guápiles	Javon East	Jason Ingram	Víctor Griffith	Chimdum Mez
Deportivo Saprissa	Mariano Torres	Byron Bonilla	Aubrey David
Universitarios	Hernan Fener	Pedro Báez	Renato Mencia

  (player released during the Apertura season)   (player released between the Apertura and Clausura seasons)   (player released during the Clausura season)

References

1. "UNAFUT - SITIO OFICIAL - Liga Promerica será el nuevo concepto del fútbol de la primera división". unafut.com. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
2. "UNAFUT - SITIO OFICIAL - UNAFUT presentó el calendario de la Liga Promerica 19/20". unafut.com. Retrieved 2019-12-16.