2022 Liga Panameña de Fútbol

The 2022 Liga Panameña de Fútbol or 2022 Liga LPF (known as the Liga LPF Tigo for sponsorship reasons) was the 35th season of the Liga Panameña de Fútbol (LPF), the top-flight football league in Panama, and the third under the management of the Liga Panameña de Fútbol. The season began on 4 February 2022, when the Apertura tournament started, and ended on 12 November 2022 with the Clausura tournament Final.

The season was originally scheduled to start on 21 January 2022,^[1] but the date was pushed back due to the detection of several COVID-19 cases in the participating clubs.^[2]

A total of twelve teams competed throughout the entire season, which was divided into two championships: Torneo Apertura and Torneo Clausura, each of them being an independent championship and crowning its own champion.

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.^[3]

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

A total of 12 teams took part in this season; the same ones that played in the previous 2021 season, including San Francisco,^[3] which finished in the last place (12th) on the aggregate table of the 2021 season, which meant its relegation to the 2022 Liga Prom season. However, San Francisco was able to stay in the Liga LPF, subject to the payment of a financial penalty, since the champions and runners-up of the 2021 Liga Prom (Alianza FC II and Panamá Oeste) did not meet the requirements of the Liga Panameña de Fútbol to play in the 2022 Liga LPF.^[4]

Stadia and locations

Team	City	Stadium[5]	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	Hacienda Country Club	100
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	Llano Bonito	Los Milagros	1,000
San Francisco	La Chorrera	Agustín Sánchez	3,040
Veraguas United	Atalaya	Atalaya	500
Universitario	Penonomé	Virgilio Tejeira	900

Personnel and kits

Team	Head Coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor(s)
Alianza	Jair Palacios	Kevin Melgar	Keuka	Clinilab Panamá
Árabe Unido	Julio Dely Valdés	Abdiel Macea	Kelme	BetCha.pa, AguAseo, Kendall Motor Oil
Atlético Chiriquí	Dayron Pérez	Miguel Saavedra	Kelme
Herrera	Alberto Valencia	Santiago Cedeño	Strik3r	Varela Hermanos S.A., Betcris, Gran Hotel Azuero, Hertz
Independiente	Franklin Narváez	César Samudio	Fila	Altos De La Pradera
Plaza Amador	Jorge Dely Valdés	Ricardo Buitrago	Puma	Sportium, SPARK
Potros del Este	Daniel Blanco	Edgar Góndola	Luanvi	UniWorld Air Cargo
San Francisco	Gary Stempel	Francisco Palacios	Strik3r	Betcha.pa
Sporting San Miguelito	Felipe Borowsky	Adolfo Machado	Spirits	Teletón 20-30
Tauro	Francisco Perlo	Edwin Aguilar	Patrick	Betcha.pa, Universidad del Istmo, KFC
Universitario	Julio Infante	Manuel Torres	FB Sports	Latin University of Panama
Veraguas United	Villi Trebino	Rolando Algandona	Strik3r	Betcris, Super Carnes, La Parmigiana

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Torneo Apertura
San Francisco	Jorge Santos	End of caretaker spell	20 November 2021	Pre-season	Gonzalo Soto[i]	19 January 2022[7][8]
Sporting San Miguelito	Saúl Maldonado	Mutual agreement	22 November 2021[9][10]		Felipe Borowsky	26 November 2021[11]
Veraguas United	Isaac Jové	End of contract	4 December 2021[12]		José Anthony Torres[ii]	January 2022[13][14]
Independiente	Francisco Perlo	Signed by Academia Puerto Cabello	8 December 2021[15][16]		Iván Guerra	15 December 2021[17][18]
Árabe Unido	Sergio Angulo	End of contract	22 December 2021[19][20][21]		Julio Dely Valdés	22 December 2021[22]
Tauro	Kike García	Mutual agreement	29 December 2021[23]		Rolando Palma	30 December 2021[24]
Universitario	Gary Stempel	Resigned	16 February 2022[25][26]	6th, WC	Alberto Blanco[ii]	17 February 2022[25]
Veraguas United	José Anthony Torres	End of caretaker spell	21 March 2022[27]	5th, WC	Daniel Lanata	22 March 2022[28]
Torneo Clausura
Veraguas United	Daniel Lanata	End of contract	7 May 2022	Pre-season	Héctor Blanco	July 2022[29][30]
Independiente	Iván Guerra	End of contract	18 May 2022[31][32]		Franklin Narváez	23 May 2022[33][34]
Herrera	Julio Infante	Sacked	20 May 2022[35][36]		Emmanuel Calleja	23 May 2022[37]
Universitario	Alberto Blanco	End of contract	20 May 2022[32]		Julio Infante	23 June 2022[38]
Atlético Chiriquí	Alberto Valencia	End of contract	21 May 2022		Dayron Pérez	July 2022[39][40]
Tauro	Rolando Palma	Sacked	11 August 2022[41]	6th, EC	Francisco Perlo[iii]	13 August 2022[43]
San Francisco	Gonzalo Soto	Mutual agreement	28 August 2022[44]	5th, WC	Gary Stempel	29 August 2022[45]
Veraguas United	Héctor Blanco	Resigned	20 September 2022[46]	5th, WC	Villi Trebino	20 September 2022[46]
Herrera	Emmanuel Calleja	Sacked	21 September 2022[47]	6th, WC	Alberto Valencia[iv]	30 September 2022[48][49]

Notes

1. Juan Carlos Cubilla was the caretaker manager for the Torneo Apertura 3rd round match against Atlético Chiriquí.^[6]
2. Caretaker manager.
3. Manuel Valencia was the caretaker manager for the Torneo Clausura 5th round match against Árabe Unido.^[42]
4. Miguel Corral was the caretaker manager for the Torneo Clausura 11th and 12th round match against Árabe Unido and Atlético Chiriquí.

Torneo Apertura

The Torneo Apertura began on 4 February and ended on 28 May with the final.

Classification stage

Eastern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sporting San Miguelito	16	9	6	1	24	11	+13	33	Advance to Semi-finals
2	Alianza	16	8	5	3	15	7	+8	29	Advance to Play-offs
3	Tauro	16	8	3	5	20	11	+9	27
4	Plaza Amador	16	6	8	2	26	18	+8	26
5	Potros del Este	16	3	7	6	15	23	−8	16
6	Árabe Unido	16	1	7	8	4	15	−11	10

Source: FPF

Western Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Atlético Chiriquí	16	8	4	4	21	20	+1	28	Advance to Semi-finals
2	Independiente	16	8	2	6	23	20	+3	26	Advance to Play-offs
3	Herrera	16	4	9	3	20	15	+5	21
4	San Francisco	16	5	5	6	18	14	+4	20
5	Veraguas United	16	2	6	8	14	27	−13	12
6	Universitario	16	2	2	12	8	28	−20	8

Source: FPF

Results

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

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

Bracket

	Play-offs					Semi-finals							Final
						EC3	Tauro	1	0	1
	WC2	Independiente	1			EC1	Sporting San Miguelito	2	0	2
	EC3	Tauro (a.e.t.)	2										EC1	Sporting San Miguelito	1
													EC2	Alianza	2
						EC2	Alianza	1	1	2
	EC2	Alianza	2			WC1	Atlético Chiriquí	0	1	1
	WC3	Herrera	0

Play-offs

Alianza	2–0	Herrera
Medina 50' Chiari 90+4'	Report

10 May 2022

20:00

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: Jorge Negron Marciales

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Independiente	1–2 (a.e.t.)	Tauro
Ávila 15'	Report	McKenzie 6' González 114'

11 May 2022

20:10

Estadio Agustín Sánchez, La Chorrera

Referee: Jorge Carrasco

Semi-finals

Alianza	1–0	Atlético Chiriquí
Verley 34'	Report

14 May 2022

20:00

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: Fernando Morón

Atlético Chiriquí	1–1	Alianza
Aparicio 90+9'	Report	Verley 88'

21 May 2022

20:00

Estadio San Cristóbal, David

Referee: Jafeth Perea

Alianza won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the final.

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Tauro	1–2	Sporting San Miguelito
Chará 60'	Report	Zúñiga 27', 54'

15 May 2022

18:30

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: Noriel Reina

Sporting San Miguelito	0–0	Tauro
	Report

22 May 2022

18:00

Estadio Los Andes, San Miguelito

Referee: Jorge Negron Marciales

Sporting San Miguelito won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the final.

FInal

Sporting San Miguelito	1–2	Alianza
Peralta 45+2'	Report	Chiari 25', 78'

28 May 2022

19:00

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Attendance: 10,536

Referee: Fernando Morón

Torneo Apertura 2022 winners:
Alianza 1st title

Top goalscorers

Players sorted first by goals scored, then by last name.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Edgar Aparicio	Atlético Chiriquí	7
	Víctor Ávila	Independiente
	Ricardo Buitrago	Plaza Amador
4	Luis Zúñiga	Sporting San Miguelito	6
	José Florez	Atlético Chiriquí
	Sergio Cunningham	Herrera
7	Ricardo Clarke	Plaza Amador	5
	Alexis Corpas	Sporting San Miguelito
	César Medina	Alianza
	Ángel Orelien	Plaza Amador
	Omar Valencia	Tauro

Torneo Clausura

The Torneo Clausura began on 22 July and ended on 12 November with the final.

Classification stage

Eastern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Árabe Unido	16	7	4	5	20	13	+7	25	Advance to Semi-finals
2	Sporting San Miguelito	16	6	7	3	21	16	+5	25	Advance to Play-offs
3	Plaza Amador	16	6	6	4	18	17	+1	24
4	Alianza	16	7	3	6	15	15	0	24
5	Tauro	16	7	3	6	15	15	0	24
6	Potros del Este	16	6	4	6	25	21	+4	22

Source: FPF

Western Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Independiente	16	10	2	4	26	11	+15	32	Advance to Semi-finals
2	Universitario	16	7	5	4	25	20	+5	26	Advance to Play-offs
3	San Francisco	16	5	3	8	20	18	+2	18
4	Veraguas United	16	3	6	7	17	20	−3	15
5	Herrera	16	2	7	7	10	28	−18	13
6	Atlético Chiriquí	16	1	8	7	7	25	−18	11

Source: FPF

Results

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

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

Bracket

	Play-offs					Semi-finals							Final
						EC2	Sporting San Miguelito	1	0	1
	EC2	Sporting San Miguelito	2			WC1	Independiente	1	1	2
	WC3	San Francisco	0										WC1	Independiente (a.e.t.)	2
													WC2	Universitario	1
						WC2	Universitario	1	0	1
	WC2	Universitario	1			EC1	Árabe Unido	0	0	0
	EC3	Plaza Amador	0

Play-offs

Sporting San Miguelito	2–0	San Francisco
Oliveira 29' (pen.) Sánchez 44'	Report

25 October 2022

20:00

Estadio Los Andes, San Miguelito

Referee: Jorge Negron Marciales

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Universitario	1–0	Plaza Amador
Carmona 42'	Report

26 October 2022

20:o0

Estadio Universidad Latina, Penonomé

Referee: Jafeth Perea

Semi-finals

Sporting San Miguelito	1–1	Independiente
Sánchez 73'	Report	Palacios 13'

29 October 2022

19:00

Estadio Los Andes, San Miguelito

Referee: José Carrasco

Independiente	1–0	Sporting San Miguelito
Caicedo 46'	Report

5 November 2022

19:00

Estadio Agustín Sánchez, La Chorrera

Independiente won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the final.

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Universitario	1–0	Árabe Unido
Cox 61'	Report

30 October 2022

18:00

Estadio Universidad Latina, Penonomé

Referee: Oliver Vergara

Árabe Unido	0–0	Universitario
	Report

6 November 2022

15:00

Estadio Armando Dely Valdés, Colón

Referee: Jafeth Perea

Universitario won 1–0 on aggregate and advanced to the final.

FInal

Independiente	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Universitario
Hernández 55' Ávila 118'	Report	Cox 7'

12 November 2022

19:00

Estadio Rommel Fernández, Panama City

Referee: Jafeth Perea

Torneo Clausura 2022 winners:
Independiente 4th title

Top goalscorers

Players sorted first by goals scored, then by last name.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Joseph Cox	Universitario	13
2	Jorlian Sánchez	Sporting San Miguelito	9
3	Yoameth Murillo	Potros del Este	7
4	Dwann Oliveira	Sporting San Miguelito	6
	César Yanis	Potros del Este
6	Víctor Ávila	Árabe Unido	5
	Alexis Cundumi	Veraguas United
8	Gabriel Brown	Árabe Unido	4
	Mario Carmona	Universitario
	Gilberto Hernández	Independiente
	Jhamal Rodríguez	San Francisco
	Ángel Sánchez	Herrera

External links

• Liga Panameña de Fútbol LPF 2022