Liga Aguazuleña

The Liga Aguazuleña was a professional association football league in Aguazul.

History
The first professional football league in the country (la Liga Nacional) was established shortly after independence and was exceptionally popular prior to going bankrupt. While some teams disbanded and others went on hiatus, several of the larger clubs asked the government to subsidize a replacement league. After their suggestions were rejected, however, the four remaining teams joined the emerging MUFN.

As they competed, the nation's interest in football grew to levels approaching its onetime heyday. Aguazul's teams grew frustrated with the MUFN, which did not participate in international club football. The last straw came when Trecelunas FC won the third league championship despite having finished second-to-last in the regular season, due to a format that had tended to reward defensive-minded teams. With Zwangzug's sporting administration in disarray, Aguazul seized its opportunity to start fresh. Six teams (some resurrected from the Liga Nacional, others new) were invited to join the preexisting four. Veteran players were drafted accordingly, ostensibly to promote profit by offering more fans an opportunity to witness the best players but nevertheless denounced as commie propaganda.

The league did not help its goal of participating in international club tournaments by missing the deadline to enter TakilQuip Champions' Cup 7, but entered teams in future TQCCs. Forty seasons were played in total. San Pablo were an early force in the league with five titles in eight seasons before their relegation; Unión de Ciudagua were even more dominant with a six-season winning streak, followed by a later five-season streak. They also won the 36th edition of the UICA Champions' Cup.

The Copa Nacional, in which all teams from the league's top two divisions and the top two teams from its third competed, occurred during the fourteenth season of play. Trecelunas FC were unpopular winners, and the cup was disbanded. It was later replaced by the larger-scale la Copa del Aguazul in Season 24, which expanded to include overseas teams in Season 25.

The eighteenth season marked a historic upswing in goalscoring overall during a transition to new league organization; since the nineteenth season, goals have settled in at new levels (higher than previously, but not as high as season 18).

Following the revolutionary change in government and dissolution of the Aguazul national football team, the league was disbanded.

Format
Each season consisted of a double round-robin: teams play each other twice (home and away), and the team with the most points at the end of the season was declared the champion. After point total, teams were sorted by goal differential, goals for, fewest goals against (intended to console defensive-minded teams after "goals for" was formally introduced as the second tiebreaker, to little effect), and head-to-head record in that order.

For purposes of promotion and relegation, however, the league operated under an Apertura and Clausura system. After every second season, or Clausura, the first-division team with the fewest points from the preceding two seasons combined is relegated to the second division. The second-division team with the most points from the preceding two seasons combined is promoted to replace them, though this rule was applied inaccurately in early seasons. The second-to-last team in the first division and the second-placed team in the second division play off, with the winner going to the first division and the loser to the second. The same rules apply for movement between the second and third divisions.

Qualification for international tournaments
Due to the league's reluctance to send teams that finished in the bottom half of the league overseas and historical reluctance to publicize second division results, Aguazul frequently sent fewer teams than the maximum to international tournaments. Until TQCC14, the league sent the maximal four clubs to the TakilQuip Champions’ Cup, but only two to the Series B Champions’ Cup. Three times, however, the fourth- and fifth-placed teams were tied; because of this, those fifth-place teams were sent to the Globe Cup. This unwritten policy became popularly known as "Rule 12" after its first beneficiaries, 12 de noviembre.

Aguazul settled on sending as many teams as possible to the TQCC and Globe Cup so long as no team in the lower half of the league was nominated, unless teams in the lower-half have tied for upper-half places and the league has enough entries to permit their qualification. It sent four teams to the SBCC since SBCC14. Its highest place achieved in the UICA association rankings was fifth, which it held on several occasions, after Champions' Cups 24, 36, and 38-40.

Segunda División
Records are erratic for early seasons. Italicized teams won their playoffs to achieve promotion.