2023 Liga Panameña de Fútbol

The 2023 Liga Panameña de Fútbol or 2023 Liga LPF (known as the Liga LPF Tigo for sponsorship reasons) was the 36th season of the Liga Panameña de Fútbol (LPF), the top-flight football league in Panama, and the fourth under the management of the Liga Panameña de Fútbol. The season began on 13 January 2023, when the Apertura tournament started,^[1] and ended on 12 November 2023 with the Clausura tournament Final.

Competition format

Same as previous years, the season was divided into two championships: Torneo Apertura and Torneo Clausura. Both Apertura and Clausura were played under the same format which consisted in a Classification stage, where the 12 teams were geographically divided into the Eastern and Western Conferences (6 teams per conference); Play-offs, Semifinals and Final.^[2]

Within each conference, teams played each other twice on a double round-robin format (home and away). In addition, each team played one game against all the 6 teams in the opposite conference for a total of 16 games per team in the classification stage. Winners of each conference qualified directly to the semi-finals, whilst the second and third placed teams advanced to the play-offs stage.

The Play-offs stage was played on a single-leg format between the second placed team of each conference against the third placed team of the opposite conference, with the second placed teams hosting the matches. Winners of play-offs advanced to semi-finals to play against the first placed team of each conference on a home-and-away two-legged basis. Winners of the semifinals played the final on a single-leg match at a venue and date determined by the LFP, with highest team ranked in the classification stage acting as the "home" team for administrative purposes.

Teams

Alianza

Árabe Unido

Sporting San Miguelito

Atlético Chiriquí

Independiente

Herrera

San Francisco

UMECIT

Universitario

Panama City

Panama City teams:
Alianza
Plaza Amador
Potros del Este
Tauro

Locations of the 2023 Liga Panameña de Fútbol teams

A total of 12 teams took part in this season; the top eleven teams from the aggregate table of the 2022 season as well as UMECIT,^[2] who were promoted from the 2022 Liga Prom after being champions of both Apertura and Clausura tournaments of the 2022 Liga Prom season.^[3] They replaced and took the place in the Western Conference of Veraguas United, the bottom team in the aggregate table of the 2022 season, who were relegated to Liga Prom.

Stadia and locations

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity
Eastern Conference
Alianza	Panama City	Javier Cruz	700
Árabe Unido	Colón	Armando Dely Valdés	4,000
Plaza Amador	Panama City	Rommel Fernandez	32,000
		Javier Cruz	700
Potros del Este	Panama City	Javier Cruz	700
Sporting San Miguelito	San Miguelito	Los Andes	1,450
Tauro	Panama City	Rommel Fernandez	32,000
Western Conference
Atlético Chiriquí	David	San Cristóbal	2,890
Independiente	La Chorrera	Agustín Sánchez	3,040
Herrera	Chitré	Los Milagros	1,000
San Francisco	La Chorrera	Agustín Sánchez	3,040
UMECIT[a]	Atalaya	Atalaya	500
Universitario	Penonomé	Universidad Latina	3,500

1. ^a By regulations, UMECIT took the venue of the relegated Veraguas United in the Western Conference even though its original location is in San Miguelito.^[4]

Personnel and kits

Team	Head Coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor(s)
Alianza	Jair Palacios	Kevin Melgar	Keuka	ShowTime, Clinilab Panamá
Árabe Unido	Alberto Valencia	Harold Cummings	Kelme	Kendall Motor Oil, AguAseo
Atlético Chiriquí	Herney Duque	Miguel Saavedra		Transporte Rivera Hermanos S.A., Hotel Ciudad de David
Herrera	Miguel Corral	Juan González	Adidas	Varela Hermanos S.A., Betcris
Independiente	Franklin Narváez	Rafael Águila	Everlast	Altos De La Pradera, Eco Moda, Powerade
Plaza Amador	Ameth de León	Ricardo Buitrago	Puma	Sportium, SPARK
Potros del Este	Ángel Sánchez	Edgar Góndola	Luanvi	Bridgestone
San Francisco	Gary Stempel	Francisco Palacios	Valor	TicketMore
Sporting San Miguelito	David Dóniga	Pedro Jeanine	Spirits	Sparkle Power S.A.
Tauro	Felipe Baloy	Jan Carlos Vargas	Patrick	Terpel, Universidad del Istmo, KFC
Universitario	Julio Infante	Manuel Torres	Sheffy	Latin University of Panama, Learding Vila, Banco LAFISE
UMECIT	Javier Torres (interim)	Jacinto Fuentes	Adidas	UMECIT

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Torneo Apertura
Plaza Amador	Jorge Dely Valdés	Resigned	31 October 2022[5]	Pre-season	Saúl Maldonado	2 December 2022[6]
Herrera	Alberto Valencia	Mutual agreement[7]	December 2022		Miguel Corral	21 December 2022[8][9]
Plaza Amador	Saúl Maldonado	Resigned	16 April 2023[10]	6th, EC	Ameth de León[i]	17 April 2023[12]
Tauro	Francisco Perlo	Sacked	23 April 2023[13]	4th, EC	Diego Gutierre[ii]	23 April 2023[13]
Atlético Chiriquí	Dayron Pérez	Resigned	29 April 2023[citation needed]	6th, WC	Jonathan Parra	July 2023[citation needed]
UMECIT	Fredy Romero	Mutual agreement	30 April 2023[14]	4th, WC	Francisco Perlo	15 May 2023[15]
Potros del Este	Daniel Blanco	End of contract[16]	9 May 2023[17]	4th, EC	Ángel Sánchez	1 June 2023[18]
Torneo Clausura
Tauro	Diego Gutierre	End of caretaker spell	27 May 2023[19]	Pre-tournament	Felipe Baloy	11 June 2023[20]
Sporting San Miguelito	Felipe Borowsky	Sacked	31 May 2023[21]		David Dóniga	12 June 2023[22]
Árabe Unido	Julio Dely Valdés	Resigned[23]	15 August 2023[24]	6th, EC	Alberto Valencia	16 August 2023[25]
Atlético Chiriquí	Jonathan Parra	Resigned	11 September 2023[26]	6th, WC	Herney Duque	September 2023[citation needed]
UMECIT	Francisco Perlo	Mutual agreement	12 September 2023[27]	5th, WC	Javier Torres[ii]	12 September 2023[27]

Notes

1. Originally as caretaker manager, appointed on a permanent basis for the Clausura tournament.^[11]
2. Caretaker manager.

Torneo Apertura

The Torneo Apertura began on 13 January and ended on 27 May with the final.^[28] Independiente were the defending champions, having won the Clausura 2022 tournament at the previous season.

Classification phase

The classification phase of the Apertura tournament ran from 13 January to 29 April 2023.

Eastern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sporting San Miguelito	16	7	6	3	20	13	+7	27	Advance to Semi-finals
2	Plaza Amador	16	6	4	6	19	17	+2	22	Advance to Play-offs
3	Tauro	16	6	4	6	15	13	+2	22
4	Potros del Este	16	6	2	8	22	25	−3	20
5	Árabe Unido	16	4	7	5	14	12	+2	19
6	Alianza	16	5	4	7	11	17	−6	19

Source: LPF

Western Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Independiente	16	9	3	4	33	17	+16	30	Advance to Semi-finals
2	Herrera	16	7	6	3	24	14	+10	27	Advance to Play-offs
3	Universitario	16	6	4	6	18	22	−4	22
4	UMECIT	16	5	6	5	14	14	0	21
5	San Francisco	16	3	9	4	11	17	−6	18
6	Atlético Chiriquí	16	3	3	10	13	33	−20	12

Source: LPF

Results

The match schedule was announced on 9 January 2023.^[28][29]

Home \ Away	ALI	DAU	ACH	HER	IND	PLA	CDE	SFR	SSM	TAU	UME	CDU
Alianza	—	0–2	2–1	—	0–1	2–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	2–1	—	—
Árabe Unido	0–0	—	—	1–1	—	0–0	4–1	0–0	0–2	0–1	—	1–2
Atlético Chiriquí	—	0–0	—	2–0	1–6	0–3	—	3–1	1–0	—	1–1	0–0
Herrera	2–1	—	4–0	—	3–0	—	3–2	0–0	—	0–0	1–0	3–4
Independiente	—	2–1	3–0	1–3	—	1–2	—	3–0	—	0–0	4–0	4–1
Plaza Amador	3–1	0–1	—	0–2	—	—	1–1	—	1–0	1–2	0–0	0–1
Potros del Este	2–0	0–2	2–1	—	1–1	1–2	—	—	1–2	2–0	—	4–0
San Francisco	—	—	1–0	0–0	2–2	1–1	1–3	—	1–1	—	0–0	2–1
Sporting San Miguelito	2–0	1–0	—	1–1	1–2	4–2	2–1	—	—	2–2	0–0	—
Tauro	0–1	1–1	3–0	—	—	0–2	2–0	2–0	0–1	—	0–1	—
UMECIT	0–1	1–1	3–1	1–0	1–3	—	4–0	0–0	—	—	—	1–0
Universitario	1–1	—	4–2	1–1	1–0	—	—	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	—

Source: LPF, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Bracket

The play-offs, semi-finals and final were scheduled to be played between 6 and 27 May 2023.^[28]

	Play-offs					Semi-finals							Final
						E2	Plaza Amador	0	1	1
	E2	Plaza Amador	6			W1	Independiente	0	3	3
	W3	Universitario	0										W1	Independiente	3
													E3	Tauro	1
						E3	Tauro	2	2	4
	W2	Herrera	1			E1	Sporting San Miguelito	1	1	2
	E3	Tauro	2

Play-offs

6 May 2023

19:00

Plaza Amador	6–0	Universitario
Ramírez 32', 62' Murillo 35', 49' Dinolis 73', 78'	Report

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: Oliver Vergara

---

7 May 2023

18:15

Herrera	1–2	Tauro
Córdoba 48'	Report	Medina 8' Negrete 11'

Estadio Los Milagros, Chitré

Referee: Noriel Reina

Semi-finals

14 May 2023

18:15

Tauro	2–1	Sporting San Miguelito
Asprilla 34' Golúz 38'	Report	Dupuy 2'

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: Cristian Pinilla

19 May 2023

20:00

Sporting San Miguelito	1–2	Tauro
Rodríguez 3'	Report	Vargas 50' Golúz 69'

Estadio Los Andes, San Miguelito

Referee: Fernando Morón

Tauro won 4–2 on aggregate and advanced to the final.

---

12 May 2023

20:00

Plaza Amador	0–0	Independiente
	Report

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: Fernando Morón

20 May 2023

19:00

Independiente	3–1	Plaza Amador
Small 6' Águila 94' Valverde 120+3'	Report	Ramírez 25' (o.g.)

Estadio Agustín Sánchez, La Chorrera

Referee: Noriel Reina

Independiente won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the final.

Final

27 May 2023

19:00

Independiente	3–1	Tauro
Negrete 2' (o.g.) Ávila 77' Valverde 90+2'	Report	Golúz 27'

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: Oliver Vergara

Torneo Apertura 2023 winners
Independiente 5th title

Top goalscorers

Players sorted first by goals scored, then by last name. The list includes goals scored in play-offs, semi-finals and final.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ronaldo Córdoba	Herrera	16
2	Breidy Golúz	Tauro	8
3	Alessandro Canales	Potros del Este	6
	José Murillo	Plaza Amador
5	Ronaldo Dinolis	Plaza Amador	5
	Darwin Pinzón	UMECIT
	Carlos Small	Independiente
	César Yanis	Potros del Este
9	Rafael Águila	Independiente	4
	Víctor Ávila	Independiente
	Omar Browne	Tauro
	Valentín Pimentel	Sporting San Miguelito
	Miguel Saavedra	Atlético Chiriquí
	Jorge Serrano	Independiente
	Anthony Stewart	Independiente

Source: Soccerway

Clausura 2022 and Apertura 2023 aggregate table

The aggregate table of the Clausura 2022 and Apertura 2023 tournaments was used to determine the Panamanian teams qualified for the 2023 CONCACAF Central American Cup. As Independiente were the champions in both Clausura 2022 and Apertura 2023 tournaments, the remaining two qualified teams were the next two better placed teams in the aggregate table.^[30]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Independiente (C)	32	19	5	8	59	28	+31	62	Qualification for CONCACAF Central American Cup
2	Sporting San Miguelito	32	13	13	6	41	29	+12	52
3	Universitario	32	13	9	10	43	42	+1	48
4	Plaza Amador	32	12	10	10	37	34	+3	46
5	Tauro	32	13	7	12	30	28	+2	46
6	Árabe Unido	32	11	11	10	34	25	+9	44
7	Alianza	32	12	7	13	26	32	−6	43
8	Potros del Este	32	12	6	14	47	46	+1	42
9	Herrera	32	9	13	10	34	42	−8	40
10	San Francisco	32	8	12	12	31	35	−4	36
11	Atlético Chiriquí	32	4	11	17	20	58	−38	23
12	UMECIT	16	5	6	5	14	14	0	21

Source: LPF
(C) Champions

Torneo Clausura

The Torneo Clausura began on 21 July and ended on 2 December with the final.^[31] Independiente were the two-time defending champions, having won the previous Clausura 2022 and Apertura 2023 tournaments.

Classification phase

The classification phase of the Clausura tournament ran from 21 July to 7 November 2023 (originally 1 November 2023).

Eastern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tauro	16	9	5	2	28	14	+14	32	Advance to Semi-finals
2	Sporting San Miguelito	16	8	4	4	24	11	+13	28	Advance to Play-offs
3	Alianza	16	6	6	4	17	17	0	24
4	Árabe Unido	16	6	5	5	16	16	0	23
5	Plaza Amador	16	5	4	7	22	17	+5	19
6	Potros del Este	16	4	4	8	20	29	−9	16

Source: LPF

Western Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Independiente	16	11	4	1	39	16	+23	37	Advance to Semi-finals
2	San Francisco	16	7	4	5	19	14	+5	25	Advance to Play-offs
3	Herrera	16	6	5	5	28	20	+8	23
4	Universitario	16	5	6	5	15	19	−4	21
5	UMECIT	16	3	2	11	18	25	−7	11
6	Atlético Chiriquí	16	0	3	13	9	57	−48	3

Source: LPF

Results

The match schedule was announced on 10 July 2023.^[31][32]

Home \ Away	ALI	DAU	ACH	HER	IND	PLA	CDE	SFR	SSM	TAU	UME	CDU
Alianza	—	0–2	—	3–1	—	2–0	2–1	—	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–1
Árabe Unido	0–1	—	2–1	—	0–1	3–2	1–1	—	0–0	0–4	1–0	—
Atlético Chiriquí	1–2	—	—	2–2	2–6	—	1–2	0–6	—	0–5	1–4	1–2
Herrera	—	2–0	9–0	—	1–1	2–1	—	0–0	0–0	—	3–1	1–1
Independiente	1–1	—	4–0	4–2	—	—	3–1	2–0	2–1	—	1–0	4–0
Plaza Amador	3–0	0–0	5–0	—	2–1	—	1–1	0–1	4–2	0–0	—	—
Potros del Este	2–3	1–1	—	2–1	—	0–3	—	0–2	1–3	2–3	2–2	—
San Francisco	2–2	0–2	0–0	3–1	0–2	—	—	—	—	0–0	2–1	2–1
Sporting San Miguelito	0–0	2–1	4–0	—	—	1–0	0–1	2–0	—	3–0	—	4–0
Tauro	2–0	1–3	—	1–0	3–3	2–0	2–1	—	2–1	—	—	1–1
UMECIT	—	—	4–0	1–2	3–4	0–0	—	0–1	0–1	0–2	—	0–2
Universitario	—	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	2–1	1–2	1–0	—	—	3–1	—

Source: LPF, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Bracket

The play-offs, semi-finals and final were originally scheduled to be played between 11 November and 1 December,^[31] however, the dates were pushed back in order to facilitate the call-up of players from the Liga Panameña de Fútbol to the Panama national football team during the November FIFA window.^[33][34]

	Play-offs					Semi-finals							Final
						E2	Sporting San Miguelito	2	1	3
	E2	Sporting San Miguelito	2			W1	Independiente	2	2	4
	W3	Herrera	0										W1	Independiente	3
													E1	Tauro	0
						E3	Alianza	0	1	1
	W2	San Francisco	1 (4)			E1	Tauro	1	2	3
	E3	Alianza (p)	1 (5)

Play-offs

21 November 2023

20:30

Sporting San Miguelito	2–0	Herrera
Torres 27' (pen.) Hurtado 90'	Report

Estadio Los Andes, San Miguelito

Referee: Oliver Vergara

---

22 November 2023

20:30

San Francisco	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Alianza
Soto 54'	Report	Perdomo 26'
Penalties
J. Rodríguez Gómez A. Rodríguez Cundumí Ramírez	4–5	Beltrán Díaz Villegas Perdomo Medina

Estadio Agustín Sánchez, La Chorrera

Referee: Fernando Morón

Semi-finals

26 November 2023

16:00

Alianza	0–1	Tauro
		Blackburn 73'

Estadio Javier Cruz, Panama City

Referee: Jorge Leira

3 December 2023

15:00

Tauro	2–1	Alianza
Browne 60' Jaén 71' (pen.)	Report	Rodríguez 33'

Estadio Javier Cruz, Panama City

Referee: Oliver Vergara

Tauro won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the final.

---

25 November 2023

18:00

Sporting San Miguelito	2–2	Independiente
Torres 65', 90+2'	Report	Ávila 49' (pen.) Serrano 69'

Estadio Los Andes, San Miguelito

Referee: José Carrasco

2 December 2023

18:00

Independiente	2–1	Sporting San Miguelito
Small 48' Ávila 78'	Report	Torres 81'

Estadio Agustín Sánchez, La Chorrera

Referee: Jorge Negron

Independiente won 4–3 on aggregate and advanced to the final.

Final

The final was scheduled to be played on 9 December 2023 at Estadio Universidad Latina in Penonomé.^[35] The team with the best performance in the classification phase (Independiente) acted as the "home" team for administrative purposes.^[2]

9 December 2023

18:15

Independiente	3–0	Tauro
Small 6', 21' Stewart 89'	Report

Estadio Universidad Latina, Penonomé

Referee: Fernando Morón

Torneo Clausura 2023 winners
Independiente 6th title

Top goalscorers

Players sorted first by goals scored, then by last name. The list includes goals scored in play-offs, semi-finals and final.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Víctor Ávila	Independiente	12
2	Carlos Small	Independiente	11
3	Rolando Blackburn	Tauro	9
4	Ronni Villarreal	Herrera	8
5	Breidy Golúz	Tauro	6
	Juan González	Herrera
	Valentín Pimentel	Sporting San Miguelito
8	Ricardo Ávila	Universitario	5
	Ronaldo Dinolis	Plaza Amador
	Ansony Frías	Árabe Unido
	Ovidio López	Plaza Amador
	Kevin Meneses	Independiente
	Darwin Pinzón	UMECIT
	Richard Rodríguez	Alianza
	Alberto Saldaña	Atlético Chiriquí
	Gabriel Torres	Sporting San Miguelito

Source: Soccerway

Aggregate table

The aggregate table of the 2023 season was used to determine the team relegated to the 2024 Liga Prom.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Relegation
1	Independiente (C)	32	20	7	5	72	33	+39	67
2	Sporting San Miguelito	32	15	10	7	43	24	+19	55
3	Tauro	32	15	9	8	43	27	+16	54
4	Herrera	32	13	11	8	52	33	+19	50
5	San Francisco	32	10	13	9	30	31	−1	43
6	Alianza	32	11	10	11	28	34	−6	43
7	Universitario	32	11	10	11	33	41	−8	43
8	Árabe Unido	32	10	12	10	30	28	+2	42
9	Plaza Amador	32	11	8	13	41	34	+7	41
10	Potros del Este	32	10	6	16	42	54	−12	36
11	UMECIT	32	8	8	16	32	39	−7	32
12	Atlético Chiriquí (R)	32	3	6	23	22	90	−68	15	Relegation to Liga Prom

Source: LPF
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated