Three days separate us from Start of the Opening Tournament of the Colombian League, which will have several teams as candidates for the title. The current champion of the Deportivo Cali tournament and the finalist Deportes Tolima appear as the top favorites plus Atlético Junior and Atlético Nacional that are always reinforced with great players.
the championship It will not have major changes regarding the game system used in the previous season, in which three phases were played to determine the two finalists of each of the semesters.
The first phase will be played from January 20 and will end on June 26. It will be a round of matches all against all, with home and away games distributed over 20 days. In addition, there will be a date of classics and the eight best teams will remain in competition.
The second phase will be carried out with some semi-final home runs with home-and-away games, depending on how the draws are. The qualified teams are divided into two groups A and B. The two best of all against all remain as group head and they will not have any extra benefit because the invisible point will not be taken into account in this season.
For each group, the club that scores the most points in all the matches qualifies for the final and they will face each other in the final in the third phase. This last round will be played with two back and forth matches to finally meet the champion.
Before the tournament begins, the clubs that are going to participate in the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana can register up to 35 players, while teams that do not have international participation may register up to 30 footballers.
In this first semester you will meet the first classified to CONMEBOL Libertadores in 2023, well the Opening Tournament Champion automatically stays with the first quota granted by Dimayor.
On the other hand, the championship will again have the participation of two teams that return after several years in the B Tournament. Cortuluá and Unión Magdalena take the place left by Atlético Huila and Deportes Quindío, teams that lost the category due to the bad campaign of the previous season.
The newly promoted come to fight for permanence because due to the relegation system they are the most committed in the average table. However, for this year Dimayor made a change in the model and teams will not inherit points, as it was being developed, but they will have to build their own average. In other words, the two teams that were promoted (Cortuluá and Unión Magdalena) will have their own average.
The other clubs that start the year committed to the relegation table are Patriotas, Alianza and Once Caldas, this is due to the fact that in the last three years their campaigns have been very irregular and they have not added many points in the round robin. Likewise, with a small advantage over the Manizales team, Envigado, Deportivo Pereira and Jaguares arrive, so a strong and very intense fight is expected not to drop in category for 2023.
This is how the descent table starts
19. Union Magdalena, 0 points, average 0.0
19. Cortuluá, 0 points, average 0.0
18. Patriots, 52 points, average 0.89
17. Alliance, 56 points, average 0.96
16. Once Caldas, 66 points, average 1.13
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