The 2016 Categoría Primera A season (officially known as the 2016 Liga Águila season for sponsorship reasons) was the 69th season of Colombia's top-flight football league. Atlético Nacional came in as the defending champions having won the title in the 2015 season's Finalización tournament.
20 teams competed against one another, eighteen returning from last season plus Atlético Bucaramanga and Fortaleza, who were promoted from the 2015 Primera B and will be returning to the top tier after 7 years and 1 year, respectively, replacing Uniautónoma and Cúcuta Deportivo who were relegated at the end of the last season.
Independiente Medellín won its sixth title in the Torneo Apertura after beating Junior in the finals, while in the Torneo Finalización Santa Fe won its ninth title after beating Deportes Tolima in the finals.
Format The league retained the format used in the most recent season. The Apertura and Finalización tournaments were divided into three stages: a First Stage which was contested on a single round-robin basis, with each team playing the other teams once and playing a regional rival once more for a total of 20 matches. The top eight teams after the twenty rounds advanced to a knockout round, where they were pitted into four ties to be played on a home-and-away basis, with the four winners advancing to the semifinals and the winner of each semifinal advancing to the final of the tournament, which was played on a home-and-away basis as well. The winner of the final in each tournament was declared the tournament champion and will participate in the 2017 Copa Libertadores.
Teams
Stadia and locations
Team City Stadium 2015 season Alianza Petrolera Barrancabermeja Daniel Villa Zapata 14th Atlético Bucaramanga Bucaramanga Alfonso Lópeza 1st (Primera B) Atlético Huila Neiva Guillermo Plazas Alcidb 11th Atlético Nacional Medellín Atanasio Girardot 1st Boyacá Chicó Tunja La Independencia 18th Cortuluá Tuluá Doce de Octubre 15th Deportes Tolima Ibagué Manuel Murillo Toro 5th Deportivo Cali Cali Deportivo Calic 4th Deportivo Pasto Pasto Departamental Libertad 16th Envigado Envigado Polideportivo Sur 8th Fortaleza Bogotá Metropolitano de Techo 3rd (Primera B) Independiente Medellín Medellín Atanasio Girardot 2nd Jaguares Montería Jaraguay 19th Junior Barranquilla Metropolitano 3rd La Equidad Bogotá Metropolitano de Techo 13th Millonarios Bogotá Nemesio Camachod 6th Once Caldas Manizales Palogrande 9th Patriotas Tunja La Independencia 10th Rionegro Águilase Rionegro Alberto Grisales 12th Santa Fe Bogotá Nemesio Camachod 7th a: Temporarily plays its home games at Estadio Álvaro Gómez Hurtado in Floridablanca due to remodeling works at Estadio Alfonso López. b: Temporarily played its home games at Estadio Manuel Murillo Toro in Ibagué due to the temporary closure of Estadio Guillermo Plazas Alcid. c: Plays Sunday evening home games at Estadio Pascual Guerrero in Cali. d: Temporarily played its home games at Estadio Metropolitano de Techo due to remodeling works at Estadio El Campín. e: Formerly known as Águilas Doradas.
Torneo Apertura
First stage The First Stage began on 29 January and consisted of twenty rounds including a series of regional rivalries in the tenth round. It ended on 29 May with the top eight teams at the end of this stage advancing to the knockout stage.
Standings
Results
Knockout phase bracket
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Finals
Top goalscorers Rank Name Club Goals 1 Miguel BorjaCortuluá 19 2 Vladimir HernándezJunior 13 3 Luis PáezRionegro Águilas 12 Sergio RomeroAlianza Petrolera 12 5 Leonardo CastroIndependiente Medellín 10
Source: DIMAYOR
Torneo Finalización
First stage The First Stage began on 1 July and featured the same format used in the Torneo Apertura, with reversed fixtures. It ended on 20 November with the top eight teams at the end of this stage advancing to the knockout stage.
Standings
Results
Knockout phase bracket
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Finals
Top goalscorers Rank Name Club Goals 1 Ayron del ValleMillonarios 12 2 Diego ÁlvarezPatriotas 11 3 Darío RodríguezAtlético Bucaramanga 10 4 Luis PáezRionegro Águilas 9 Ángelo RodríguezDeportes Tolima 9
Source: DIMAYOR
Relegation A separate table is kept to determine the teams that get relegated to the Categoría Primera B for the next season. The table includes an average of all first stage games played for the current season and the previous two seasons. For purposes of elaborating the table, the promoted teams are given the same point and goal tallies as the team in the 18th position at the start of the season. Team Relegation 1Atlético Nacional 63 79 76 218 116 2Independiente Medellín 51 70 73 194 116 3Santa Fe 61 62 70 193 116 4Junior 55 69 65 189 116 5Millonarios 53 62 70 185 116 6Deportivo Cali 47 67 66 180 116 7Rionegro Águilas 57 54 60 171 116 8Deportes Tolima 45 68 57 170 116 9Once Caldas 57 57 51 165 116 10Patriotas 45 58 61 164 116 11Envigado 48 61 51 160 116 12Alianza Petrolera 54 53 47 154 116 13Atlético Huila 46 57 42 145 116 14La Equidad 41 54 42 137 116 15Atlético Bucaramanga 45 31 55 131 116 16Cortuluá 35 45 45 125 116 17Jaguares 45 31 46 122 116 18Deportivo Pasto 38 39 44 121 116 19Boyacá Chicó (R) 47 34 31 112 116 Relegation to Categoría Primera B 20Fortaleza (R) 45 31 35 111 116 Source: DIMAYORRules for classification: 1st average; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored; 4th away goals scored.
Aggregate table
References
External links DIMAYOR's official website