2023 Bolivian Primera División

The 2023 Bolivian Primera División season, known as the 2023 Liga Tigo season for sponsorship reasons, was the 46th season of the División Profesional del Fútbol Boliviano, Bolivia's top-flight football league and the sixth season under División de Fútbol Profesional management. The season started on 4 February and ended on 6 December 2023.

The competition was suspended at a meeting of the División Profesional's Council on 5 September 2023, along with the 2023 Copa de la División Profesional, after the Bolivian Football Federation president Fernando Costa denounced suspicions of match-fixing, bribery, illegal betting and alterations to VAR. However, the suspension was lifted per suggestion from Costa on 27 September after reforms to the referee commission were performed and an agreement with CONMEBOL for monitoring was reached, as well as to allow the FBF's Sports Disciplinary Court to finish the investigations on the matter.

The Strongest were the champions, clinching their sixteenth league title with two games in hand and a 1–1 draw against Always Ready on 26 November 2023. Bolívar were the defending champions.

Format

On 11 November 2022, the Bolivian Football Federation announced that the 2023 season of the División Profesional would have 17 teams, as the division's Higher Council decided that no club would be directly relegated to the Bolivian Football Regional Leagues. With this, the 2022 Copa Simón Bolívar earned a direct spot in the top tier, while the runners-up played a promotion/relegation play-off against the last-placed team in the aggregate table, Universitario de Sucre.

The format for the season was confirmed after a meeting of the División Profesional's Council held on 13 January 2023. Teams played two parallel tournaments in the season: a double round-robin league tournament which was played on weekends and crowned the season's only champion and a league cup tournament which was played on weekdays with a group stage and an eight-team knockout stage. The champions of both tournaments will qualify for the 2024 Copa Libertadores, whilst the league cup runners-up will qualify for the 2024 Copa Sudamericana. The remaining international berths as well as relegation were decided by an aggregate table which considered the performance of teams in both the league tournament and the group stage of the División Profesional cup. The two teams with the lowest average at the end of the season were directly relegated to the regional leagues, while the team with the next lowest average will play a relegation play-off series, this in order to return to 16 teams in the league for the following season.

Teams

17 teams competed in the league for the 2023 season, 15 of which took part in 2022. Vaca Díez took part in the top flight for the first time ever, ensuring their promotion on 24 November 2022 after winning the 2022 Copa Simón Bolívar, whilst Libertad Gran Mamoré were also promoted after winning the promotion/relegation play-off against Universitario de Sucre, who were relegated after one season in the top flight.

Stadia and locations

Notes

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

Notes

Standings

Results

Top scorers

Source: Soccerway

Aggregate table

For this season, the aggregate table considered the performance of teams in the 2023 División Profesional league tournament as well as the group stage of the 2023 Copa de la División Profesional. Given the odd number of teams in the league for the season and the uneven size of groups in the Copa de la División Profesional, this table was based on averages, dividing the sum of points in both tournaments by the total number of games played in both tournaments for each team.

Source: Paraelfutbol.com
Rules for classification: 1) Average, 2) Average goal difference, 4) Average goals for, 5) Average away goals for, 6) Average yellow cards, 7) Average red cards, 8) Drawing of lots.
(C) Champion; (R) Relegated

Notes

Promotion/relegation play-off

The relegation play-off was played by:

• Libertad Gran Mamoré (2023 División Profesional aggregate table 15th place)
• San Antonio Bulo Bulo (2023 Copa Simón Bolívar runners-up)

The winners will play in the top flight in the 2024 season.

Tied 2–2 on aggregate, San Antonio Bulo Bulo won on penalties and was promoted to the División Profesional.

See also

• 2023 Copa de la División Profesional

References

External links

• División Profesional on the FBF's official website (in Spanish)