2023 Categoría Primera B season

Torneo BetPlay Dimayor
Season	2023
Dates	2 February – 28 November 2023
Champions	Patriotas (1st title)
Promoted	Patriotas; Fortaleza
Matches played	310
Goals scored	681 (2.2 per match)
Top goalscorer	Torneo I: Santiago Gómez (10 goals); Torneo II: Jhonier Blanco (15 goals)
Biggest home win	Patriotas 4–0 Boca Juniors; (9 March); Fortaleza 5–1 Valledupar; (20 April); Fortaleza 4–0 Real Cartagena; (19 May); Leones 4–0 Orsomarso; (24 August); Patriotas 4–0 Tigres; (11 October)
Biggest away win	Barranquilla 0–5 Cortuluá; (8 March)
Highest scoring	Valledupar 5–3 Leones; (23 April)
	← 2022 2024 →

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.^[1]

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.^[2]

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.^[3]

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.^[4]

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.^[5]

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,^[6] in which Real Soacha Cundinamarca was announced as the new club that replaced Valledupar for the second half of the season.^[7]

Barranquilla

Bogotá

Cali

Bogotá teams:
Bogotá
Fortaleza
Tigres
Cali teams:
Atlético
Boca Juniors

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Locations of the 2023 Categoría Primera B teams

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity
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^[8]
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^[i]	Soacha	Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento	8,000
Tigres	Bogotá	Metropolitano de Techo	8,000
Valledupar	Valledupar	Armando Maestre Pavajeau	11,000

Notes

^ Replaced Valledupar for the Torneo II.

Torneo I

First stage

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Llaneros	16	9	5	2	19	10	+9	32	Advance to the semi-finals
2	Patriotas	16	8	6	2	20	7	+13	30
3	Cúcuta Deportivo	16	7	7	2	19	12	+7	28
4	Deportes Quindío	16	8	4	4	17	12	+5	28
5	Cortuluá	16	7	6	3	22	16	+6	27
6	Real Cartagena	16	7	5	4	24	19	+5	26
7	Fortaleza	16	6	7	3	20	15	+5	25
8	Valledupar	16	5	6	5	18	21	−3	21
9	Real Santander	16	5	5	6	13	12	+1	20
10	Leones	16	4	6	6	26	28	−2	18
11	Bogotá	16	4	5	7	12	16	−4	17
12	Barranquilla	16	5	2	9	18	24	−6	17
13	Orsomarso	16	5	2	9	12	20	−8	17
14	Tigres	16	4	3	9	7	13	−6	15
15	Boca Juniors de Cali	16	2	6	8	14	22	−8	12
16	Atlético	16	1	7	8	16	30	−14	10

Source: Dimayor, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) Goal difference, 3) Goals for, 4) Away goals for, 5) Away goals against, 6) Drawing of lots.

Results

Home \ Away	ATL	BAR	BOC	BOG	COR	CUC	QUI	FOR	LEO	LLA	ORS	PAT	RCA	RSA	TIG	VAL
Atlético	—	0–3	1–1	—	1–1	—	—	—	4–3	—	—	0–0	1–3	1–1	0–0	—
Barranquilla	—	—	—	—	0–5	0–1	—	—	2–3	0–1	—	1–2	2–2	1–0	—	0–0
Boca Juniors de Cali	2–2	1–2	—	1–0	—	—	1–2	0–0	—	—	0–0	—	2–0	—	1–2	—
Bogotá	1–1	2–0	—	—	—	—	0–0	0–0	4–3	—	3–0	—	0–2	—	0–1	—
Cortuluá	—	—	2–1	0–0	—	2–2	2–1	0–1	—	1–1	—	—	—	1–0	—	1–0
Cúcuta Deportivo	2–1	—	2–1	2–0	—	—	0–0	—	—	1–1	1–0	—	—	2–0	1–0	—
Deportes Quindío	4–2	2–0	—	—	—	—	—	1–0	0–3	—	1–1	1–0	2–0	—	1–0	—
Fortaleza	2–1	3–1	—	—	—	1–1	—	—	—	1–1	3–1	1–1	—	—	1–0	5–1
Leones	—	—	1–1	—	2–2	2–1	—	2–2	—	0–1	—	0–0	—	1–1	—	0–2
Llaneros	3–0	—	2–1	2–0	1–3	—	1–0	—	—	—	2–1	—	2–1	—	1–0	—
Orsomarso	1–0	1–3	—	—	0–1	—	1–0	—	1–0	—	—	0–1	0–2	—	2–0	—
Patriotas	—	—	4–0	2–0	1–1	0–0	—	3–0	—	1–0	—	—	—	1–0	—	0–0
Real Cartagena	—	0–3	—	—	2–0	2–2	—	0–0	2–2	—	—	3–2	—	1–1	—	2–0
Real Santander	—	—	1–1	2–0	—	1–0	0–1	2–0	—	0–0	0–1	—	—	—	—	3–1
Tigres	—	1–0	—	0–0	3–0	—	—	—	0–1	—	—	0–2	0–2	0–1	—	0–0
Valledupar	3–1	—	1–0	0–2	—	1–1	1–1	—	5–3	0–0	3–2	—	—	—	—	—

Source: Dimayor, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	LLA	FOR	RCA	QUI
1	Llaneros	6	4	1	1	9	5	+4	13	Advance to the Finals	—	2–1	1–0	2–0
2	Fortaleza	6	4	0	2	11	3	+8	12		0–1	—	4–0	3–0
3	Real Cartagena	6	1	2	3	5	10	−5	5		2–1	0–1	—	1–1
4	Deportes Quindío	6	0	3	3	5	12	−7	3		2–2	0–2	2–2	—

Source: Dimayor, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) First stage position (only applies for the seeded team, if it is involved in a tie), 3) Goal difference, 4) Goals for, 5) Away goals for, 6) Away goals against, 7) Yellow cards, 8) Red cards, 9) First stage position.

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification	PAT	CUC	VAL	COR
1	Patriotas	6	1	5	0	6	4	+2	8^[a]	Advance to the Finals	—	2–2	2–0	0–0
2	Cúcuta Deportivo	6	1	5	0	10	8	+2	8^[a]		1–1	—	1–1	2–2
3	Valledupar	6	1	3	2	5	6	−1	6		1–1	1–1	—	0–1
4	Cortuluá	6	1	3	2	4	7	−3	6		0–0	1–3	0–2	—

Source: Dimayor, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) First stage position (only applies for the seeded team, if it is involved in a tie), 3) Goal difference, 4) Goals for, 5) Away goals for, 6) Away goals against, 7) Yellow cards, 8) Red cards, 9) First stage position.
Notes:

^ ^a ^b Patriotas ahead of Cúcuta Deportivo for being the group's seeded team.

Finals

18 June 2023

18:00 UTC−5

Patriotas	1–0	Llaneros
Barragán 78'	Report

Estadio La Independencia, Tunja

Referee: Carlos Ortega

23 June 2023

20:00 UTC−5

Llaneros	0–0	Patriotas
	Report

Estadio Bello Horizonte, Villavicencio

Referee: Wilmar Roldán

Patriotas won 1–0 on aggregate.

Torneo BetPlay DIMAYOR 2023–I winners
Patriotas Advance to the Grand Final

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Santiago Gómez	Real Cartagena	10
2	Misael Martínez	Valledupar	9
3	Carlos Lucumí	Fortaleza	8
3	Dairon Valencia	Valledupar	8
5	Johar Mejía	Cortuluá	7
	Néider Ospina	Llaneros
	Jefry Zapata	Cúcuta Deportivo
8	Stiwart Acuña	Barranquilla	6
	Jonathan Agudelo	Cúcuta Deportivo
	Jhonier Blanco	Fortaleza
	Santiago Córdoba	Patriotas
	Jairo Ditta	Cortuluá
	Iván Rivas	Patriotas
	Alexis Serna	Deportes Quindío

Source: Soccerway