The Liga de Fútbol de Primera División, commonly known as Liga FPD, and Campeonato Banco Popular for sponsorship reasons,is the top professional association football division in Costa Rica. It is administrated by the Unión de Clubes de Fútbol de la Primera División (UNAFUT), and played by 12 teams, with the last-placed team relegated to the Liga de Ascenso.
The Liga FPD features a format in which two separate tournaments are held over the course of one particular season. The tournaments are named Torneo de Invierno and Torneo de Verano, based on the Costa Rican seasons; as a result, the Invierno tournament is played during the rainy season between August and December, while the Verano tournament is played during the dry season between January and May.
A separate tournament is played on stages. The first stage follows the usual double round-robin format. During the course of a tournament, each club plays every other club twice, once at home and once away, for a total of 22 matchdays. Teams receive three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, with the top-four clubs at the end of the stage qualifying to the second stage. The second stage consists of a quadrangular in which the best four teams qualified will face each other twice again, adding 6 additional matchdays. If the top team of the first stage also wins the quadrangular, the club will be crowned as champions; otherwise, a double-legged final will be played between the winners of the first stage and the winners of the quadrangular to determine the champion.
A system of promotion and relegation exists between the Primera División and the Segunda División. In spite of having two champions during a regular season, the Liga FPD only relegates one team per season based on the aggregate performance in both Invierno and Verano tournaments. The last-placed team in the aggregate table is relegated to the Liga de Ascenso.
The 2017–18 Liga FPD season, also known as Campeonato Banco Popular for sponsorship reasons, is the 97th since its establishment. The tournament is the first since the 2006–07 season to use the Apertura and Clausura names to their short tournaments, marking a departure from the Invierno and Verano tournaments.
A total of 12 teams will contest the league, including 10 sides from the 2016–17 season, one team promoted from the Liga de Ascenso and a newly formed team.
Grecia were promoted for the first time to the Liga FPD after defeating Jicaral in the Liga de Ascenso final, thus replacing San Carlos in the Liga FPD.
Guadalupe is a newly established team that takes over the previous franchise of Belén. UNAFUT authorized the name change just two days before the beginning of the season.
On 2 June 2017 Henning Jensen, rector of the University of Costa Rica, announced the cease of the agreement between the university and its homonimous club, citing that the transfer of the administrative management of the team to the Colombian company Con Talla Mundial was neither requested nor advised to the university. Jensen also stated that the club did not comply with the correction in the financial part of the club.[ On 19 June 2017, Con Talla Mundial announced that the club will now be under the name "Universitarios FC".The administration of the team had revealed the team badge and their intentions to use the Estadio Nacional as their home stadium.However, the Asociación Filial Club de Fútbol UCR, which holds the rights of the team within the league, sued the University because of their cease of the agreement. The club then retains its original name and is due to return to the Estadio Ecológico.
The 2018 Apertura season served as the opening half of the 2017–18 Liga FPD season. It began on 29 July 2017 and ended on 23 December 2017.
Defending champions Herediano topped the season undefeated with 54 points. By achieving this, Herediano broke two records in the league. They became the first team with the longest undefeated streak (surpassing the 21-match streak by Saprissa in the 2003–04 season, the team being coincidentially managed by Hernán Medford). The team also broke the record for more points achieved in a regular season, surpassing Alajuelense in the 2014 Invierno season.
On 3 September 2017, the match between Saprissa and Grecia was suspended at the 81st minute due to a false bomb threat.The remaining nine minutes were played the next morning
Quadrangular Apertura
Finals
Pérez Zeledón 1–0 Herediano
Herediano 0-0 Perez Zeledon
Herediano entered as the defending champions, but lost the title in the Apertura finals to Pérez Zeledón
Clausura 2018
The Clausura tournament will be played on the first half of 2018, starting on 7 January and, given the possibility of a final, ending on 20 May. The tournament is dedicated to the Costa Rica national football team squad that played in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, represented by their captain Róger Flores.
Source: http://unafut.com
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https://www.facebook.com/fpdcr/
http://www.futboldecostarica.com/
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