The 2023 Categoría Primera B season (officially known as the 2023 Torneo BetPlay Dimayor season for sponsorship reasons) was the 34th season of the Categoría Primera B since its founding as Colombia's second division football league. The season began on 2 February and ended on 28 November 2023.
Patriotas won their first Primera B title as well as promotion to the top tier Categoría Primera A at the end of the season, defeating Fortaleza 3–2 on aggregate in the Grand Final. Runners-up Fortaleza were also promoted after placing first in the season's aggregate table.
Format The format for the 2023 Primera B season was approved at DIMAYOR's General Assembly session of 14 December 2022 and confirmed on 12 January 2023, keeping the system used in the previous season.
Two tournaments (Torneo I and Torneo II) with three stages each were played. In the first stage of both tournaments, the 16 teams played a single round-robin tournament with an additional matchday for regional derbies and home-and-away order reversed for the Torneo II. The top eight teams at the end of the sixteen rounds advanced to the semi-final stage, in which teams were drawn into two groups of four where they played each one of their rivals twice. The top team of each group advanced to the finals, playing a double-legged series with the winners advancing to the season's Grand Final.
The Grand Final to decide the season champions as well as the first promotion to Primera A, was a double-legged series contested at the end of the season by the winners of the season's two tournaments. If one team won both of the season's tournaments, the Grand Final would not be played and that team would be automatically crowned Primera B champions and promoted to the top flight. The second promotion spot to Primera A for the 2024 season would be decided in a promotion play-off between the Grand Final loser and the best-placed team of the season's aggregate table, other than the Grand Final winners. If the Grand Final losers were the same team that topped the aggregate table, that team would also earn promotion and the play-off would not be played.
Teams 16 teams took part in the season. The previous season's champions Boyacá Chicó and the winners of the promotion play-off series Atlético Huila were promoted to Primera A for the 2023 season and were replaced in Primera B by Patriotas and Cortuluá, who were relegated from Primera A at the end of the 2022 season after finishing in the bottom two places of the top tier's relegation table.
On 14 December 2022 the General Assembly of DIMAYOR approved a proposal by Cortuluá to move their home matches from Tuluá to Yumbo, Valle del Cauca Department, starting from this season.
On 22 June 2023, and motivated by the lack of support from both the government and local private enterprises, the board of Valledupar voted 4–1 to move the club to Soacha and rebrand it, effectively folding the existing club. The move was confirmed at a General Assembly of DIMAYOR on 6 July 2023, in which Real Soacha Cundinamarca was announced as the new club that replaced Valledupar for the second half of the season.
ClubCityStadiumCapacity Atlético Cali Pascual Guerrero 33,130 Barranquilla Barranquilla Romelio Martínez 8,000 Boca Juniors de Cali Cali Pascual Guerrero 33,130 Bogotá Bogotá Metropolitano de Techo 8,000 Cortuluá Yumbo Municipal Raúl Miranda 3,500 Cúcuta Deportivo Cúcuta General Santander 42,901 Deportes Quindío Armenia Centenario 20,716 Fortaleza Bogotá Metropolitano de Techo 8,000 Leones Itagüí Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí 12,000 Llaneros Villavicencio Bello Horizonte 15,000 Orsomarso Palmira Francisco Rivera Escobar 15,300 Patriotas Tunja La Independencia 20,630 Real Cartagena Cartagena Jaime Morón León 16,068 Real Santander Piedecuesta Villa Concha 5,500 Real Soacha Cundinamarca Soacha Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento 8,000 Tigres Bogotá Metropolitano de Techo 8,000 Valledupar Valledupar Armando Maestre Pavajeau 11,000 Notes
Torneo I First stage Standings
Results
Semi-finals The eight teams that advanced to the semi-finals were drawn into two groups of four teams, with the top two teams from the first stage being seeded in each group. The two group winners advanced to the final.
Group A
Group B
Finals
Patriotas won 1–0 on aggregate.
Top scorers Rank Player Club Goals 1 Santiago GómezReal Cartagena 10 2 Misael MartínezValledupar 9 3 Carlos LucumíFortaleza 8 Dairon ValenciaValledupar 5 Johar MejíaCortuluá 7 Néider OspinaLlaneros Jefry ZapataCúcuta Deportivo 8 Stiwart AcuñaBarranquilla 6 Jonathan AgudeloCúcuta Deportivo Jhonier BlancoFortaleza Santiago CórdobaPatriotas Jairo DittaCortuluá Iván RivasPatriotas Alexis SernaDeportes Quindío
Source: Soccerway
Torneo II First stage Standings
Results
Semi-finals The eight teams that advanced to the semi-finals were drawn into two groups of four teams, with the top two teams from the first stage being seeded in each group. The two group winners will advance to the final.
Group A
Group B
Finals
Top scorers Rank Player Club Goals 1 Jhonier BlancoFortaleza 15 2 Santiago CórdobaPatriotas 9 Santiago GómezReal Cartagena 4 Andrés CarabalíAtlético 8 Mateo ZuletaLeones 6 Ferney AnguloBoca Juniors de Cali 7 Juan Sebastián HerreraLeones Lucas RíosCúcuta Deportivo 9 Yeison FuentesLeones 6 Sebastián NavarroFortaleza
Source: Soccerway
Grand Final
Patriotas won 3–2 on aggregate.
Aggregate table
Promotion play-off Since the season runners-up Fortaleza also ended up as the best-placed team in the aggregate table, they earned automatic promotion to the Categoría Primera A and the promotion play-off was not played.
See also 2023 Categoría Primera A season 2023 Copa Colombia
References
External links