Liga FPD


The Liga de Fútbol de Primera División, commonly known as Liga FPD, and Liga Promérica for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional association football division in Costa Rica. It is administered by the Unión de Clubes de Fútbol de la Primera División. The league consists of 12 teams, with the last-placed team relegated to the Liga de Ascenso.
The International Federation of Football History & Statistics ranks the Liga FPD as the 51st strongest league in the world, and the 2nd strongest within CONCACAF, behind Mexico's Liga MX.
The league was founded in 1921, with Herediano crowned as the first champions. Saprissa is the most successful club having won the championship a record 35 times. Saprissa, Alajuelense and Herediano have dominated the league.

Competition format

The Liga FPD features a format in which two separate tournaments are held over the course of one particular season. The Torneo de Apertura lasts from July to December, while the Torneo de Clausura lasts from January to May. and Torneo de Verano
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.

Promotion and relegation

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 Apertura and Clausura tournaments. The last-placed team in the aggregate table is relegated to the Liga de Ascenso.

Qualifying for CONCACAF competitions

The top teams in the Liga FPD qualify to the CONCACAF Champions League. Starting in the 2017–18 season, the CONCACAF Champions League will be separated into two stages. The first stage is CONCACAF League, which consists of sixteen teams from Central America and the Caribbean, in which the winner qualifies to the second stage, the Champions League, joining other fifteen teams. Because of this format, the qualification criteria in the Liga FPD are:
On 13 June 1921, the Costa Rican Football League was created. With its creation, the need of a tournament also emerged, along with the establishment of a national team, as a result of Costa Rica being invited to the 1921 Juegos del Centenario in Guatemala.
The first season of the Costa Rican Primera División was played in 1921 with seven teams: Alajuelense, Cartaginés, Herediano, La Libertad, Sociedad Gimnástica Española, Sociedad Gimnástica Limonense and La Unión de Tres Ríos. La Libertad and Gimnástica Limonense played the first ever match of the Liga FPD, with La Libertad emerging victorious with a lone goal scored by Rafael Madrigal. Herediano were crowned as champions.
In 1999, the Costa Rican Football Federation created the UNAFUT, an entity designed for the organization and administration of the Primera División tournament and its youth leagues.
On 9 January 2014, UNAFUT decided to rename the tournament to Liga FPD, in order to give more identity to the league.
The main rivalry in the league is El Clásico, played by Alajuelense and Saprissa, as both teams are the most successful in the league and both share the vast majority of followers throughout the country. Since their first encounter at the old national stadium on 12 October 1949, the two teams have faced each other in over 300 matches, with the winning balance in favor of Saprissa.

Clubs

The league currently consists of the following 12 clubs.
TeamLocationStadiumCapacity
Liga Deportiva AlajuelenseAlajuela, AlajuelaAlejandro Morera Soto18,000
Club Sport CartaginésCartago, CartagoJosé Rafael "Fello" Meza13,500
Municipal GreciaGrecia, AlajuelaAllen Riggioni4,000
Guadalupe F.C.Guadalupe, San José"Colleya" Fonseca4,500
Club Sport HeredianoHeredia, HerediaEladio Rosabal Cordero8,500
Limón F.C.Limón, LimónEstadio Juan Gobán3,000
A.D. Municipal Pérez ZeledónSan Isidro de El General, San JoséEstadio Municipal6,000
Santos de Guápiles F.C.Guápiles, LimónEbal Rodríguez3,000
Deportivo SaprissaSan Juan de Tibás, San JoséRicardo Saprissa23,112
La U UniversitariosDesamparados, San José"Cuty" Monge5,500
A.D. San CarlosCiudad Quesada, AlajuelaCarlos Ugalde Álvarez5,600
A.D.R. JicaralJicaral, PuntarenasLuis "Chochi" Briceño1,500

Champions

Performance by club

Player records

Top scorers

RankNameGoals
1
Julian Chavarria321-
1Víctor Núñez244
2Errol Daniels196
3Roy Sáenz168
4Leonel Hernández164
5Guillermo Guardia149
6Evaristo Coronado148
7Alejandro Alpízar147
8Erick Scott144
9Juan Ulloa140
10Vicente Wanchope133

Most appearances

RankNameYearsApps
1Marvin Obando1979–2000685
2Julio Fuller1975–1994684
3Enrique Díaz1977–1996676
4Danny Fonseca1999–2018652
5Luis Diego Arnáez1987–2005579
6Mauricio Montero1980–1990556
7Wílmer López1992–2009550
8Óscar Ramírez1983–1999546
9Evaristo Coronado1981–1995536
10Luis Quirós1986–2000531