away when facing same team at the Clausura. This way the League can assure that Eastern Conference and Western Conference will face each other at Home & Away at the end of both tournaments. When playing against teams within the same conference, each team will face Home & Aways matches in both Apertura and Clausura. The first stage of both tournaments is combined into an aggregate table to determine relegation. The team with the fewest points is relegated to the Primera A for the following season. The champions of both tournaments + the next best ranked team qualify to the CONCACAF Central American Cup. Beforehand, via the CONCACAF League, 3 teams used to classify as well. As well, starting from 2023, the winners of both the Apertura & Clausura tournaments will classify for Copa Libertadores, while the runners-up classify for Copa Sudamericana. History In 1987, a group of men, composed of Giancarlo Gronchi, Jan Domburg, Edgar Plazas, Jorge Zelasny, Ángel Valero and Juan Carlos Delgado, met and founded the Asociación Nacional Pro-Fútbol (ANAPROF for short), which was inaugurated on February 26, 1988. Their objective was to organize professional football in Panama, in order to help the Panama national team in the long term. Founding teams Chirilanco (Bocas del Toro) Deportivo la Previsora (La Chorrera) Deportivo Perú (Panama City) Euro Kickers (Panama City) Plaza Amador (Panama City) Tauro (Panama City) Timeline The league was founded as ANAPROF in 1988 after years of turmoil in Panamanian football. The first season, which featured six teams, began on February 26, 1988. Six teams participated. From that year until 2001, the league used a "long tournament" format in which every team played every other team in a home and away set. Since 2001, the league has used the Apertura/Clausura split season that is common to Latin America. From 1994 to 1996, Panamanian football was rent by a schism between ANAPROF and a rival league, LINFUNA. The split was resolved in 1996–97 when the leagues merged into a single twelve-team tournament. The next few seasons of league football were a bit confusing as the governing body tried to sort out its formats. In 1997–98, the league was split into two groups for the regular season, followed by an eight-team playoff. In 1998–99, the league shrunk to ten teams, with six of them advancing to a post-season tournament. The top four advanced further to a playoff to