2018–19 Liga FPD


The 2018–19 Liga FPD season, also known as Campeonato Banco Popular for sponsorship reasons, is the 98th since its establishment. The tournament is the second 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.
The Voit Lummo is the official match ball of the tournament. Deportivo Saprissa are the defending champions, after defeating Herediano in the Clausura 2018 tournament.

Teams and Structure Changes

A total of 12 teams will contest the league, including 11 sides from the 2017–18 season, one team promoted from the Liga de Ascenso.
San Carlos were promoted for the first time to the Liga FPD after defeating Jicaral in the Liga de Ascenso final, thus replacing Liberia in the Liga FPD.
For this season, the league has changed the playoff format. The top 4 teams in the regular season will progress to a two-legged knockout tournament. If the same team that wins the regular season wins the playoff, that team wins the season championship immediately. Should a different team win the playoff than won the regular season, those two teams will meet in a two-legged Grand Final for the season championship.

Personnel, kits and Stadia

TeamManagerKit manufacturerShirt sponsorStadiumCapacity
AlajuelenseNts|18000

Managerial changes

Before the start of the season

TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyReplaced byDate of appointmentPosition in table
CF Universidad de Costa Rica

Apertura

The Apertura tournament will be played in the second half of 2018, starting on 21 July.

Regular season

The regular season began on 21 July 2018 and ended on 11 November 2018.
On 17 October 2018, the match between Limón and Grecia was suspended in the 25th minute due to a waterlogged pitch. The remaining 65 minutes were played the next day.

Standings


Playoffs

Semifinals

First legs
Second legs

Finals

First leg
Second leg

Grand final

If the regular season winners are unable to win the playoffs, a double-legged final will be played against the playoffs winner in order to determine the champions of the Apertura tournament. The team with the better accumulated record over the regular season and playoffs will host the second leg.

Clausura

Regular season

The regular season began on 12 January 2019 and will end of 28 April 2019.

Standings


Playoffs

Semifinals

First legs
Second legs
San Carlos progress 4–3 on aggregate.
Saprissa progress 3–2 on aggregate.

Finals

First leg
Second leg
1–1 on aggregate. San Carlos wins 1–0 on away goals.

Grand final

If the regular season winners are unable to win the playoffs, a double-legged final will be played against the playoffs winner in order to determine the champions of the Clausura tournament. The team with the better accumulated record over the regular season and playoffs will host the second leg. For this tournament, San Carlos won both the regular season and playoffs, so they were declared champions without a grand final.

Aggregate table


List of foreign players in the league

This is a list of foreign players in the 2018–19 season. The following players:
  1. Have played at least one game for the respective club.
  2. Have not been capped for the Costa Rica national football team on any level, independently from the birthplace
A new rule was introduced this season, that clubs can have four foreign players per club and can only add a new player if there is an injury or a player is released and it's before the close of the season transfer window.
Alajuelense
Carmelita
Cartaginés
Grecia
Herdiano
Guadalupe
  • Lautaro Ayala
  • Sebastián González
  • Alejandro Abasolo
  • Moisés Arce
Limón
Pérez Zeledón
  • Leandro Gastón Rodríguez
  • Javier Liendo
  • Pablo Azcurra
  • Lauro Cazal
  • Lucio Barroca
San Carlos
Santos de Guápiles
  • Francisco Flores
  • Victor Griffith
  • Ronaldo Dinolis
  • Fabrizio Ronchetti
Deportivo Saprissa
Universidad
  • Andres Riascos
  • Jhon Ibargüen
  • Fernando Cárdenas
  • Daniel Ocampo
  • Sebastián Bermúdez
  • Román Calvo
  • Luis Rodríguez
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