The 2021 División Intermedia season, named "Cincuentenario del Club Atlético 3 de Febrero y Homenaje al Lic. Miguel Ángel Cañete Alderete", was the 103rd season of the second-tier league of Paraguayan football and 24th under the Paraguayan División Intermedia name. The season began on 9 April and ended on 26 October 2021. The fixtures for the season were announced on 15 January 2021.
The competition returned after a one-year hiatus as the 2020 seasons of the lower-tier club tournaments of Paraguayan football were cancelled by the Paraguayan Football Association due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
General Caballero (JLM) won their first División Intermedia title with four matches to spare, following a 4–1 victory over Rubio Ñu on 27 September 2021.
Format 18 teams took part in the competition, which was played under a double round-robin system with teams playing each other twice, once at home and once away for a total of 34 matches. The top three teams at the end of the season were promoted to the Paraguayan Primera División for the 2022 season, with the champions also qualifying for the 2022 Copa Sudamericana, while the fourth-placed team will play a play-off against the ninth-placed team of the Primera División relegation table for promotion to the top flight.
The bottom three teams in the relegation table at the end of the season were relegated: teams located within 50 kilometres of Asunción were relegated to Primera División B, while teams from outside Greater Asunción and the Central Department were relegated to Primera División B Nacional.
Teams 18 teams competed in the season: 11 teams from the previous División Intermedia season plus the four teams relegated from Primera División in its 2019 and 2020 seasons (Deportivo Capiatá, Deportivo Santaní, General Díaz and San Lorenzo), the top two teams from the 2019 Primera División B (Sportivo Ameliano and Tacuary) and the 2019 Primera División B Nacional champions Guaraní from Trinidad.
Pastoreo F.C., who were entitled to enter this year's competition as 2019–20 Campeonato Nacional de Interligas champions, had their debut postponed to 2022 per decision by the APF's Executive Committee, since Guaraní de Trinidad already held the berth reserved to the Unión del Fútbol del Interior (UFI) for this season.
Stadia and locations
Team City Stadium Capacity2 de Mayo Pedro Juan Caballero Río Parapití 25,0003 de Febrero Ciudad del Este Antonio Aranda 23,500Atyrá Atyrá San Francisco de Asís 10,000Deportivo Capiatá Capiatá Erico Galeano Segovia 15,000Deportivo Santaní San Estanislao Juan José Vázquez 8,000Fernando de la Mora Asunción Emiliano Ghezzi 6,000Fulgencio Yegros Ñemby Parque Fulgencio Yegros 1,000General Caballero (JLM) Juan León Mallorquín Ka'arendy 3,000General Díaz Luque General Adrián Jara 4,000Guaraní (T) Trinidad Los Fundadores 1,000Independiente (CG) Asunción Ricardo Gregor 4,000Resistencia Asunción Tomás Beggan Correa 3,500Rubio Ñu Asunción La Arboleda 8,000San Lorenzo San Lorenzo Gunther Vogel 5,000 Sportivo Ameliano Asunción José Tomás Silva 800Sportivo Iteño Itá Salvador Morga 4,500Sportivo Trinidense Asunción Martín Torres 3,000Tacuary Asunción Toribio Vargas 3,000
Standings
Results
Top scorers Rank Name Club Goals 1 Alex ArceSportivo Ameliano 24 2 Digno González3 de Febrero 22 3 Gustavo AguilarTacuary 20 4 Jorge SanguinaAtyrá 14 Marcelo FerreiraIndependiente (CG) Santiago SalcedoSan Lorenzo 7 Teodoro ArceGeneral Caballero (JLM) 11 Antonio OviedoRubio Ñu 9 Ronald RoaDeportivo Capiatá 10 Édgar VillalbaDeportivo Santaní Adrián AlcarazFernando de la Mora Sergio DietzeGuaraní (T) Gustavo LegalSportivo Trinidense
Source: APF
Promotion play-off The fourth-placed team in the División Intermedia, Sportivo Ameliano, played a double-legged promotion play-off against Sportivo Luqueño, the ninth-placed team of the relegation table of the 2021 Primera División season. The winner was promoted to the 2022 Primera División.
Sportivo Ameliano won 4–3 on aggregate and were promoted to Primera División.
Relegation Relegation is determined at the end of the season by computing an average of the number of points earned per game over the past three seasons. The three teams with the lowest average were relegated to the Primera División B or Primera División B Nacional for the following season, depending on their geographical location.
Pos Team 2018Pts 2019Pts 2021Pts TotalPts TotalPld Avg Relegation 1 — 41 73 114 64 2 Tacuary — — 57 57 34 3 Sportivo Ameliano — — 56 56 34 4 San Lorenzo — — 53 53 34 5 Resistencia 40 45 61 146 94 6 Fernando de la Mora 51 43 45 139 94 7 2 de Mayo 46 55 36 137 94 8 Independiente (CG) — 41 51 92 64 9 Atyrá — 49 43 92 64 10 Sportivo Trinidense 38 40 52 130 94 11 3 de Febrero — 39 48 87 64 12 Rubio Ñu 44 35 39 118 94 13 Guaraní (T) — — 41 41 34 14 Deportivo Santaní — — 41 41 34 15 Sportivo Iteño 34 36 39 109 94 16 Deportivo Capiatá (R) — — 39 39 34 Relegation to Primera División B 17 Fulgencio Yegros (R) 41 24 21 86 94 18 General Díaz (R) — — 24 24 34 Source: APF
See also 2021 Paraguayan Primera División season 2021 Copa Paraguay
References
External links División Intermedia on the APF's website