Dimayor overhauls calendar, plans changes to League and Cup after earthquake

Colombian soccer is stirring back to life, though not the way anyone had planned. The earthquake that shook the western part of the country brought play to a halt and forced Dimayor to rework a large chunk of the calendar. Matchday 5 of the Liga BetPlay was postponed, and now, with aftershocks still rattling the sports schedule, the governing body has to figure out how to close out the soccer year without running out of time.

Play resumes on August 19, a Wednesday that will carry extra weight. That same day, Dimayor will hold an extraordinary assembly to discuss possible format changes for both the League and the Copa BetPlay. This is no routine meeting. With the calendar squeezed and several stadiums damaged by the quake, league officials know that keeping the original formats in place is close to impossible.

Dimayor president Carlos Mario Zuluaga has already hinted at where the proposals are headed. For the League, the idea is to scrap the four team groups and go back to a playoff format, the same one used in the first half of the year when the calendar had to bend around the World Cup. For the Cup, the plan is for the round of 16 and the quarterfinals to be played as single matches instead of two legged ties, to save time that is already in short supply.

Zuluaga himself laid out the reasoning behind the urgency in an interview with Caracol Radio:

We have options to bring to the Dimayor Assembly so they can make the call. There's simply no way to fit in the remaining matches within the time we have left. I need to have a champion before the year ends. The date we had planned was December 13, but we'll probably have to push it to the 22nd. The idea is to skip the four team groups and go with the playoff system like we did in the first half of the year, and for the Cup we're proposing single matches for the round of 16 and the quarterfinals.Carlos Mario Zuluaga

An uneven calendar

The other problem, maybe the most pressing one, is that not every club is entering this break on equal footing. The tournament has generally reached four matchdays played, but clubs like Atletico Nacional and back to back champion Junior de Barranquilla have only played two, with games still outstanding that make rearranging the schedule even trickier. On top of that, several stadiums suffered damage in the quake, which narrows the list of available venues in the coming weeks.

Zuluaga was also clear about how play will pick back up once activity resumes. First, the postponed matchday 4 games will be caught up, and then, that same weekend, matchday 6 will kick off as originally planned on the calendar.

As for matchday 5, the one left hanging because of the emergency, Zuluaga was just as direct:

Matchday 5 is up in the air, and we'll fit it in based on the circumstances and whatever's possible.Carlos Mario Zuluaga

With the August 19 assembly on the horizon, Colombian soccer is entering a phase of key decisions. The stated goal is still to crown a champion before the year is out, even if the deadline is no longer December 13 but, more likely, a few days before Christmas.