APF División de Honor


The División de Honor or División Profesional de la Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol, or due to sponsorship reasons Copa de Primera Tigo – ueno bank, is the top-flight professional football league in Paraguay. Currently, there are 12 teams in the first division.
The most successful club is Olimpia, with 47 championships. Cerro Porteño are the most recent champions, having won the 2025 Clausura tournament. As of 2022, IFFHS ranked the league as the 10th strongest in the world and 3rd in South America.

History

Liga Paraguaya's first game was played in 1906, after the director of the El Diario newspaper, Don Adolfo Riquelme, brought to his office on 18 June 1906, the representatives of the five existing football teams in Paraguay at that time to create the governing body of football in Paraguay: the Liga Paraguaya de Fútbol. The representatives were William Paats and Junio Godoy Ramón Caballero, Manuel Bella and Salvador Melián, Juan Escalada, César Urdapilleta, and Vicente Gadea. The Liga Paraguaya saw Club Guaraní as the first champion in 1906, after defeating Olimpia in the final.
The Primera División was founded in 1906 with 5 teams, and turned professional in 1935 when 10 clubs broke away from the amateur leagues to form a professional league. Since 1996 the format of tournament was changed to Torneo Apertura and Clausura, but since 2008 each tournament is independent.
Traditionally, the dominance of Olimpia and Cerro Porteño went mostly unchallenged for decades. All of this changed at the turn of the 21st century. Since then, Libertad has been the most dominant club, while Nacional and Guaraní have also experienced success at the local level.

Format

The league is currently contested by 12 teams that play home and away games in a round-robin format. The league is traditionally divided into two halves: the Torneo Apertura from February to July, and the Torneo Clausura from July to December.
Relegation is based on an averaging system. At the end of each season, the two teams with the worst three-year averages are relegated, and the two best teams in the "División Intermedia" are promoted to Primera División.

International cup participation

Since 2017, Paraguay have eight slots in international cups. These eight slots will be filled by eight teams.
In the Copa Libertadores, the winner of the Apertura and Clausura tournaments qualify automatically. The third and fourth representatives are the best placed non-champion teams from the accumulative table of both the Apertura and Clausura.
In the Copa Sudamericana, the 4th, 5th and 6th best placed teams from the Apertura and Clausura accumulative table qualify for the first stage, alongside the winners of the Copa Paraguay.

Teams

The following are the teams in the first division for the 2026 season:
TeamCityStadiumCapacity
2 de MayoPedro Juan CaballeroRío Parapití25,000
Cerro PorteñoAsunciónGeneral Pablo Rojas45,000
GuaraníAsunciónLa Arboleda8,000
LibertadAsunciónLa Huerta14,000
NacionalAsunciónArsenio Erico7,500
OlimpiaCapiatáErico Galeano13,500
RecoletaAsunciónRicardo Gregor4,000
Rubio ÑuAsunciónLa Arboleda8,000
San LorenzoSan LorenzoGunther Vogel5,000
Sportivo AmelianoVilletaAmeliano Villeta7,000
Sportivo LuqueñoItauguáLuis Alberto Salinas10,000
Sportivo TrinidenseAsunciónMartín Torres3,000

;Notes

List of champions

Complete list of champions since 1906. Paraguayan football turned professional since the 1935 season.

Titles by club

  • Teams in bold compete in the Primera División as of the 2025 season.
  • Italics indicates clubs that no longer exist or disaffiliated from the APF.
RankClubWinnersRunners-upWinning yearsRunners-up years
1Olimpia47271912, 1914, 1916, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1947, 1948, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1968, 1971, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2011 Clausura, 2015 Clausura, 2018 Apertura, 2018 Clausura, 2019 Apertura, 2019 Clausura, 2020 Clausura, 2022 Clausura, 2024 Clausura1906, 1907, 1915, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1926, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1955, 1961, 1963, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1986, 1987, 1994, 2011 Apertura, 2012 Apertura, 2016 Apertura, 2016 Clausura, 2017 Clausura, 2020 Apertura, 2021 Apertura
2Cerro Porteño35391913, 1915, 1918, 1919, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1950, 1954, 1961, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2009 Apertura, 2012 Apertura, 2013 Clausura, 2015 Apertura, 2017 Clausura, 2020 Apertura, 2021 Clausura, 2025 Clausura1914, 1937, 1938, 1942, 1945, 1948, 1951, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1971, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2010 Apertura, 2010 Clausura, 2011 Clausura, 2014 Clausura, 2015 Clausura, 2018 Apertura, 2018 Clausura, 2019 Apertura, 2022 Apertura, 2022 Clausura, 2023 Apertura, 2023 Clausura, 2024 Apertura, 2025 Apertura
3Libertad26221910, 1917, 1920, 1930, 1943, 1945, 1955, 1976, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008 Apertura, 2008 Clausura, 2010 Clausura, 2012 Clausura, 2014 Apertura, 2014 Clausura, 2016 Apertura, 2017 Apertura, 2021 Apertura, 2022 Apertura, 2023 Apertura, 2023 Clausura, 2024 Apertura, 2025 Apertura1909, 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1944, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1967, 1977, 1990, 1992, 2004, 2005, 2009 Apertura, 2009 Clausura, 2013 Clausura, 2019 Clausura
4Guaraní11201906, 1907, 1921, 1923, 1949, 1964, 1967, 1969, 1984, 2010 Apertura, 2016 Clausura1916, 1925, 1947, 1957, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1989, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2008 Clausura, 2013 Apertura, 2014 Apertura, 2015 Apertura, 2017 Apertura, 2020 Clausura, 2021 Clausura, 2024 Clausura, 2025 Clausura
5Nacional9101909, 1911, 1924, 1926, 1942, 1946, 2009 Clausura, 2011 Apertura, 2013 Apertura1918, 1921, 1927, 1949, 1962, 1964, 1982, 1985, 2008 Apertura, 2012 Clausura
6Sol de América2111986, 19911912, 1913, 1935, 1940, 1946, 1952, 1957, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1988
7Sportivo Luqueño241951, 19531975, 1983, 2001, 2007
8Presidente Hayes1—1952 —

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