Liga Premier SJG

Liga Premier

Country	San José Guayabal
Confederation	FEGC
Founded	2180
Number of teams	16
Levels on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Segunda División
Domestic cup(s)	Copa Nacional
Current champions	Alianza FC (5th title) (8)
Most championships	Alianza FC (5 titles)
TV partners	NDTV, GTV, Radio Nacional, GSN, others
Website	www.ligapremier.gu

The Liga Premier (Premier League in English and Premier Ligan in Swedish), is San José Guayabal’s top division of association football, officially named by sponsorship reasons as Liga Meski. Run by the Consejo Administrador de Fútbol Profesional, an entity affiliated to the Federación de Futbol Guayabalense (Guayabalense Football Federation), it contains sixteen clubs from across the country, and maintains a system of direct promotion and relegation of two clubs and a promotion-relegation playoff each year between it and the Segunda División, San José Guayabal’s second division.

At the previous seven seasons, just three times has won the league at least once being that team Spartak Neryungri (2184-85), two of them won it multiple times, being that teams Alianza FC who won in four times (2180-81, 2182-83, 2186-87, 2192-93) and C.D. Barrio El Niño (2188-89, 2190-91)

Competition System

The competition format follows the usual double round-robin format. During the course of a season, which is two year-long, each club plays every other club twice, once at home and once away, for a total of 30 games. Teams receive three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, with the highest-ranked club at the end of the season crowned champion. If points are equal between two or more clubs, the rules are:

• If all clubs involved have played each other twice:
  • If the tie is between two clubs, then the tie is broken using the head-to-head goal difference.
  • If the tie is between more than two clubs, then the tie is broken, using the games the clubs have played against each other:
    • a) head-to-head points
    • b) head-to-head goal difference
    • c) head-to-head goals scored
• If two legged games between all clubs involved have not been played, or the tie is not broken by the rules above, it is broken using total goal difference.
• If the tie is still not broken, it is to be resolved by number of wins and finally alphabetical order, unless the title, an international qualification place or a relegation spot is in dispute. In these cases, number of wins is replaced as a tie-breaker by a special play-off match at the neutral ground of Estadio Cuscatlán in the city of San Salvador.

A system of promotion and relegation exists between the First Division and the Second Division. The two lowest placed teams in the Liga Premier are relegated to the Segunda División, and the third lowest placed team on Liga Premier faces the third highest placed team of the Segunda División in a double legged playoff in order to get promotion/relegation or keep his position on the respective division. Below is a record of how many teams competed in each season throughout the league's history.

• 2180-2192 22 teams
• 2192-present 16 teams

International Competititions

The top teams in the First Division qualify for the UICA Champions’ Cup; depending on the league's current standing within the UICA coëfficients, the first, second, third and fourth-placed teams may qualify. The following three teams qualify for the UICA Globe Cup. The league champions additionally qualify for the Campionato Esportivano di Campeones.

The Guayabalense second spot for the CEdC is decided through a double legged play-off series among the second, third, fourth and fifth placed teams, playing in the following order: 2 vs 5, 3 vs 4. The winners goes to the final series, the highest seeded team plays away first and at home for the second match, viceversa for the lowest seeded team, the winner qualifies for the CEdC.

Performance by club