Liga Chilena de Fútbol: Primera División
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| Liga Chilena de Fútbol: Primera División |
|---|
 Apertura 2008 |
 |
| Founded |
| 1933 |
| Nation |
 Chile |
| Relegation To |
| Primera B |
| Number of Teams |
| 20 |
| American Qualification |
| Copa Libertadores Copa Sudamericana |
| Cups |
| Copa Chile |
| Current Champions (Apertura 2008) |
| Everton de Viña del Mar |
| Website |
| Official |
Liga Chilena de Fútbol: Primera División (Chilean League of Football, in English, officially called Campeonato Nacional BancoEstado, for sponsorship reasons), is the top category of Chilean football, and main component of the Chilean football league system. It is organized by the Federación de Fútbol de Chile. The league is currently ranked 11th in the IFFHS Best Leagues of the World ranking. [1]The current tournament is Apertura 2008.
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[edit] Competition format
Resembling the Primera División Mexicana league system, the Chilean First Division is currently played by 21 teams, who play two single-round tournaments pear season.
First, the Apertura tournament (usually held between January and June), and then, the Clausura tournament (between July and December). After the single-round tournaments, a play-off post-season begins, where the 8 best team eliminate each other in the "tie" format in two-leg aggregate-score. In this way, there are two champions per season. Unlike most European countries, Chile currently has no official Cup competition, although they have been held in the past years.
The Chilean League of Football has never been regular in terms of their tournament systems. Traditionally, the League had consisted in one annual, two-round tournament, with the addition of a Cup, but the number of participating things and League mechanism has varied throughout the years, until the adaptation of the Mexican system in 2002.
[edit] Relegation and promotion
Very much like the tournament format, the relegation/promotion (to Primera B) has changed throughout the years.
Currently, the three teams with the worst scores in the complete season (including Apertura and Clausura, but excluding the play-off stage), are relegated to Primera B, and replaced by the Champions and Runners-up of this Division, making the number of participating teams for the 2008 season equal to 20. There is also a Relegation Playoff Tournament, played in a home-and-away basis by the team who finishes 18° in the First Division, and the teams who finish 3° and 4° in the Primera B.
[edit] Qualification for International competitions
The champions of the Apertura and Clausura of each season are immediately qualified to Copa Libertadores for the next year. The third Chilean spot in that tournament is used by the team with the highest score in the Clausura regular phase (that is, excluding the play-offs).
For the Copa Sudamericana, the qualification system changes every year. For the 2007 season, a small tournament was played by the top four teams in the Apertura. The winners of that tournament (Colo-Colo and Audax Italiano) qualified for Copa Sudamericana 2007.
[edit] Current teams
These are the teams participating in the Chilean first division in Campeonato de Apertura 2008:
- Deportes Antofagasta, Antofagasta
- Audax Italiano, La Florida, Santiago
- Cobreloa Calama
- Cobresal, El Salvador
- Colo-Colo, Macul, Santiago
- Deportes Concepcion, Concepción
- Everton, Viña del Mar
- Huachipato, Talcahuano
- Deportes La Serena, La Serena
- Rangers, Talca
- Deportes Melipilla, Melipilla
- Ñublense, Chillán
- O'Higgins, Rancagua
- Palestino, La Cisterna, Santiago
- Provincial Osorno, Osorno
- Santiago Morning, La Pintana, Santiago
- Unión Española, Independencia, Santiago
- Universidad Católica, Las Condes, Santiago
- Universidad de Chile, Ñuñoa, Santiago
- Universidad de Concepción, Concepción
[edit] Statistics Year By Year
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Legend [edit] Titles by Team
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