Segunda División de Panamá

Segunda División de Panamá also known as Liga Prom, is a professional league for association football clubs in Panamá. It is the country's second-tier football competition, contested by 24 clubs with no promotion or relegation. The competition was formed in 2021.

History

ANAPROF ERA

The Anaprof era is remembered for establishing the Primera A branding with a format of two short tournaments per season (Apertura and Clausura), similar to many Latin American championships. Champions teams required promotional playoff games with ANAPROF's (top-tier league) last placed team.

LNA ERA

The Liga Nacional de Ascenso was formed in 2009 to replace the governing body of the league and forced ANAPROF top tier league to accept a direct promotion team. Other important goals were league expansion to 16 teams, later reduced to 14 teams after the 2011-12 season. The league was successful with attendance records since it had several popular teams like Río Abajo FC, C.A. Independiente, SUNTRACS FC and Atlético Nacional. This severely affected ANAPROF and LPF (top-tier league) attendance numbers and reputation.

LPF ERA

The Ascenso LPF (2016–2020) era organised by Panamanian Football Federation was mostly remembered for reducing participating teams to eight and disaffiliating several teams for missing documentation and requirements.

Liga PROM

After Manuel Arias won the Panamanian Football Federation election, the General Board accepted his proposal for a new structure for Panamanian football at all levels starting in 2021; for the second division tier, will have a 24-team league named Liga PROM, with promotion and relegation suspended. It added 12 LPF Under-20 teams, kept 7 remaining Ascenso LPF teams and invited 5 teams.

Teams

The following teams are expected to play in the Liga Prom Apertura 2021 season.

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Founded	Joined	Head coach	LPF affiliate
Eastern Conference
Zona Norte
Árabe Unido U-20	Colón	Estadio Armando Dely Valdés[i]	4,000	1994	2021	Julio Medina	C.D. Árabe Unido
Champions FC Academy	Colón	Estadio Armando Dely Valdés[i]	4,000	2016	2021	Ausberto Valencia
Colón C3 FC	Colón	Estadio Armando Dely Valdés[i]	4,000	2010	2021	Carlos Miranda
C.D. Centenario	Colón	Estadio Armando Dely Valdés[i]	4,000	2011	2021	Javier Miller
UMECIT FC	San Miguelito	Estadio UMECIT[ii]	300	2020	2021	Fredy Romero
Sporting San Miguelito U-20	San Miguelito	Estadio Javier Cruz	2,500	1989	2021	Jorge Santos	Sporting San Miguelito
Zona Sur
Alianza FC U-20	Juan Díaz	Estadio Cascarita Tapia[i]	900	1963	2021	José Soriano	Alianza FC
C.D. Plaza Amador U-20	El Chorrillo	Estadio Maracaná[i]	5,500	1955	2021	Cesar Morales	C.D. Plaza Amador
C.D. del Este U-20	Pacora	Estadio Maracaná[i]	5,500	2008	2021	Rubén Chávez	C.D. del Este
Panamá City FC	Panama City	Eagles Stadium	300	2014	2021	Pablo Falquez
San Martín FC	San Martín	Estadio Cascarita Tapia[i]	900	2010	2021	Alejandro Quezada R.
Tauro FC	Pedregal	Estadio Javier Cruz	2,500	1984	2021	Javier Ainstein	Tauro FC
Western Conference
Zona Norte
Atlético Chiriquí U-20	David	Estadio San Cristóbal[i]	2,500	2002	2021	Jonathan Parra	Atlético Chiriquí
Herrera FC U-20	Chitré	Estadio Los Milagros[i]	1000	2019	2021	Hugo Domínguez	Herrera FC
Mario Mendez FC	David	Estadio San Cristóbal[i]	2,500	2019	2021	Mario Méndez
Unión Coclé / San Antonio FC	Penonomé	Estadio Virgilio Tejeira[i][iii]	900	2019	2021	Jorge González
Universitario	Penonomé	Estadio Universitario[i]	3,500	2016	2021	Mike Stump	U.D. Universitario
Veraguas C.D. U-20	Santiago	Complejo de Atalaya[iv]	300	2020	2021	José Anthony Torres	Veraguas C.D.
Zona Sur
C.A. Independiente U-20	La Chorrera	Estadio Agustín Sánchez[i]	3,100	1982	2021	Franklin Narvaez	C.A. Independiente
San Francisco FC U-20	La Chorrera	Estadio Agustín Sánchez[i]	3,100	1992	2021	Luis Ureña	San Francisco FC
S.D. Atlético Nacional	Juan Díaz	Estadio Oscar Suman Carrillo[v]	1,000	2001	2021	Gustavo Ávila
S.D. Panamá Oeste	Capira	Estadio Agustín Sánchez[i]	3,100	2010	2021	Andrés Corbillon
UDELAS FC	San Miguelito	CAI Sports Center[vi]	500	2020	2021	Jayro Benavides
Universidad de Panamá Águilas	Panama City	Estadio Oscar Suman Carrillo[v]	1,000	2020	2021	David Acosta

Notes

Media coverage

The LPF has been partnered with local cable sports network Cableonda Sports (subsidiary of Tigo Panamá) to broadcast live games on the Cableonda tv cable system. In addition all teams are authorize to produce live streaming broadcasts using YouTube platform with no home or away matches restrictions, however is required to add Liga Prom logo and grant copyright to the LPF organization.

Champions

See also

• Liga Panameña de Fútbol
• Panamanian Football Federation

References