“We must review the championship system”: Fernando Jaramillo, president of the Dimayor

After the Colombian Professional Football Major Division (Dimayor) confirmed the return of Cucuta Deportivo to national football, the organization's president, Fernando Jaramillo Giraldo, spoke about possible modifications that he would consider putting to the vote by the clubs to change the tournament system in the first division of Colombia.

In a dialogue with ESPN F 90 Colombia, Jaramillo referred to a number of possible changes he has contemplated to improve the championship system; the way in which the Primera Division is lowered, as well as the infrastructure and level of local football around the eventual creation of a Primera C professional category.

In view of the fact that there are commercial commitments for the number of matches to be televised and programmed in each stadium of the country during the season, the Bogotá leader confessed that his peers and club presidents did not consider it feasible to reduce the tournament to a single annual championship, despite the fact that there is a notable amount for athletes demand and accumulation of minutes that has resulted in constant injuries and muscle wasting due to scheduled games every 3 or 4 days.

When asked at F 90 about his options to change the championship system, this is how Jaramillo referred to the impediment that stopped his proposal in the ordinary assemblies scheduled during the course of the 2022 national football season:

Regarding the relegation system and the average (now not inherited) of clubs that make their debut in the BetPlay League, the president of the governing body of Colombian football says that the system is designed to protect Colombia's traditional teams:

Regarding the problem of fan attendance at the country's stadiums, he says that it is due to a problem of infrastructure, security and that the spectacle is not entirely attractive:

As incentives for the champion of the semi-annual tournament in Colombia, the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) is planning to award economic prizes to the champion of each league on the continent, approximately one million dollars (divided into two semesters), in addition to the amount earned by winning a competition slot international.

Finally, the president acknowledges that creating a third division of professional football in Colombia is not yet viable in terms of budgets and travel costs, a territory that has already won, for example, the BetPlay Women's League, going from playing a group stage to having a round-robin league format (17 teams) and eventually play quarterfinals, semifinals and finals:

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