Liga Dominicana de Fútbol

Liga Dominicana de Fútbol

Founded	2014
Country	Dominican Republic
Confederation	CONCACAF
Number of teams	8
Level on pyramid	1
Domestic cup(s)	Copa Dominicana de Fútbol
International cup(s)	CONCACAF Champions Cup CONCACAF Caribbean Cup CONCACAF Caribbean Shield
Current champions	Cibao F.C. (2023)
Most championships	Cibao F.C. (4 titles)
TV partners	Domestic CDN Deportes[1] Live Streaming Youtube: Canal official de Liga Dominicana de Fútbol
Website	ligadominicanadefutbol.com
Current: 2024 Liga Dominicana de Fútbol

The Liga Dominicana de Fútbol is the first professional football league in Dominican Republic, it was launched in March 2015.^[2] For sponsorship reasons it is known as LDF Banco Popular.^[3]

History

Prior to the league's establishment, football in the Dominican Republic was only played in a semi-pro level.

To address the issue and to raise the status of football in the country, the Dominican Football Federation has decided to implement the idea of a new professional league in the country, to attract more people into the sport. Thus, the Liga Dominicana de Fútbol was approved, as an attempt to raise the country's football profile. The first season began in 2014.^[4]

Jarabacoa FC gets Relegated for the 2024 Season

On 2 February 2024, the Official Jarabacoa FC account on X announced they will not participate in the 2024 season in desire to maintain and improve their turf along with general improvements to their Stadium.[1] The 2024 season will feature the previous 8 teams from the 2023 season.^[5]

Competition format

In the first three installments, each team played 18 matches in the regular season with the 4 teams with most points qualifying for the playoffs. The champion was decided in a single-legged final.

The 2018 season grew from 10 to 12 teams with the arrival of San Francisco de Macoris (Atlético) and Bayaguana (Inter). Since Delfines from the Eastern part of the country joined, the LDF now had a team in each of the seven provinces and the National District, and the only professional league with a team in the South region San Cristóbal.

The tournament featured 132 regular series matches. Each team played 22 games in the regular phase (instead of the 18 of the first three editions), and the six highest scoring advanced to the second phase, where they played one against all in a round. The best four then advanced to a semi-final with round-trip matches. The winners had a championship in a single match, which extends the league calendar to 152 matches from 95 in 2017.

As a novelty, the LDF 2018 season had a national and international television transmission chain that brought the small screen 60 matches at the local level and a number of meetings to be defined that will be taken to at least five nations of the region, including the United States and Mexico.

The 2019 tournament of the Liga Dominicana de Futbol started with 12 teams. The event brought up a new format in which each of the twelve clubs can have up to 6 foreign players on their payroll.

The new format includes an "

The champion of each tournament will then compete to win the qualification to the CONCACAF championship tournament. Another club will qualify for the CONCACAF tournament, accumulating the most points in both tournaments.

Teams

Team	City	Stadium (capacity)	Founded	First season	Head coach
LDF
Cibao F.C.	Santiago	Estadio Cibao FC (10,000)	2014	2015	Jorge Alfonso
Atlético Vega Real	La Vega	Estadio Olímpico (La Vega) (7,000)	2014	2015	Jose Rodriguez
Moca F.C.	Moca	Estadio Complejo Deportivo Moca 86 (2,000)	1971	2015	Ronald Batista
Atlántico F.C.	Puerto Plata	Estadio Leonel Plácido (2,000)	2014	2015	Lenín José Bastidas Bello
C.A. San Cristóbal	San Cristóbal	Estadio Panamericano (3,000)	2014	2015	Froilán Hidalgo
Delfines Del Este F.C.	La Romana	Estadio Municipal La Romana (1,200)	2014	2015	Juan Carlos Gastón
Universidad O&M F.C.	Santo Domingo	Estadio Olímpico Félix Sánchez (27,000)	2010	2015	Martín Arriola
C.A. Pantoja	Santo Domingo	Estadio Olímpico Félix Sánchez (27,000)	1999	2015	Orlando Capellino

Former Teams

Champions

Most goals

Place	Player	Country	Team (s)	Goals
1	Anderson Arias	Venezuela	2017 ) ( Atletico San Francisco	47
2	Pablo Marsini	Argentina	Club Atlético Pantoja (2019 )	38
3	Domingo Peralta	Dominican Republic	2015 -2017) (2018) Moca FC ( Atletico Vega Real ( O&M FC	37
4	Daniel Jamesley	Haiti	Jarabacoa FC (2018 ) ( O&M FC	37
5	Charles Herold Jr.	Haiti	2015 -)	36
6	Luis Espinal	Dominican Republic	2015-2019) Cibao FC (2021-) Moca FC	33
7	Jonathan Faña	Dominican Republic	Club Atlético Pantoja (2018 )	30
8	Sam Colson	Haiti	Atlético San Cristobal )	30
9	Berthame Dine	Haiti	2016 -)	25
10	Bony Pierre	Haiti	2017 -)	21

Stadiums and locations

Atlético San Cristóbal

Atlántico FC