The 2019–20 Argentine Primera División - Superliga Argentina (officially the Superliga Quilmes Clásica for sponsorship reasons)[1] was the 130th season of top-flight professional football in Argentina. The league season began on 26 July 2019 and ended on 9 March 2020.
On 7 March 2020, Boca Juniors won their 34th national league championship in the last round after they defeated Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP) 1–0 and, simultaneously, Atlético Tucumán and River Plate drew 1–1.[2]
On 28 April 2020 AFA announced the abandonment of the Copa de la Superliga and the culmination of the 2019–20 season in all of its league competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. International berths (except for the ones allocated to the Copa de la Superliga and Copa Argentina winners) were awarded according to the aggregate table of both the Primera División and Copa de la Superliga first stage until 17 March, when the Copa de la Superliga was suspended, while no teams were relegated in this season. Relegation from Primera División was suspended until 2022.[3]
Competition format
The season was contested by 24 teams. The season began on 26 July 2019 and was scheduled to end on 31 May 2020, featuring two tournaments: the Superliga and the Copa de la Superliga. In the Superliga, which was played from 26 July 2019 to 9 March 2020, each team played the other 23 teams in a single round-robin tournament. At the conclusion of the league season, the Primera División teams would take part in the Copa de la Superliga, in which they were sorted into two groups of 12 teams each. Unlike the previous season, in which only the league matches were considered for international tournaments qualification and relegation, in this season Copa de la Superliga first stage matches would also be taken into account, for a total of 34 games.[4]
Santiago García (Godoy Cruz) has played 30 months in a row on the same team, therefore, he does not take foreign slot and Godoy Cruz were allowed to sign a seventh foreign player.
International qualification for the 2021 season presented a change from previous ones. The 2019–20 Superliga champions, 2020 Copa de la Superliga champions and 2019–20 Copa Argentina champions would earn a berth to the 2021 Copa Libertadores, however, with the decision by AFA to end the season on 28 April, only the Superliga champions were awarded a berth. The berth originally allocated to the Copa de la Superliga champions went instead to the winners of the 2020 Copa de la Liga Profesional to be played from October 2020 to January 2021, while the berth for the Copa Argentina champions remained in place, provided that government directives allow for the realization of that competition.[3]
The remaining berths to the 2021 Copa Libertadores as well as the ones to the 2021 Copa Sudamericana were determined by an aggregate table of the 2019–20 Superliga and 2020 Copa de la Superliga first stage tournaments. The top three teams in the aggregate table not already qualified for any international tournament qualified for the Copa Libertadores, while the next six teams qualified for the Copa Sudamericana. On 11 December 2020, with the confirmation that the Copa Argentina would not be completed in time to award its winner the Argentina 3 berth into the 2021 Copa Libertadores, AFA decided to transfer the berth to the best team of the aggregate table of the season not yet qualified, and all other lower berths were moved down as a result.[74]
Relegation at the end of the season would be based on coefficients, which take into consideration the points obtained by the clubs during the present season (aggregate table points) and the two previous seasons (only seasons at the top flight are counted). The total tally is then divided by the number of games played in the top flight over those three seasons and an average is calculated. The three teams with the worst average at the end of the season would have been relegated to Primera B Nacional, however, with the decision by AFA to declare the culmination of the season it was also decided that no teams would be relegated.