The Liga de Fútbol de Primera División 2017/18 included the 111th and 112th edition of the Liga de Fútbol de Primera División , the highest Costa Rican soccer league. In this season, as usual in recent years, two championships - Campeonato Banco Popular Apertura 2018 and Campeonato Banco Popular Clausura 2019 - were played. The winners of both championships qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League 2019 and the CONCACAF League 2018 .
The 2017/18 season was divided into the two seasons Campeonato Banco Popular Apertura 2017 and Campeonato Banco Popular Clausura 2018 . The two championships were played in the following mode:
First, the twelve participating teams played the best four teams in a single round (return leg) in the "everyone against everyone" mode.
This was followed by a championship finals for the four best clubs, also in the "everyone against everyone" mode.
In the final, the best placed in the main round and the winner of the championship finals met to play off the champions.
An overall table was created from the main rounds of the two championships (Invierno and Verano); the last placed in this rating rose to the Liga de Ascenso-Segunda División .
Special additional rules
Each squad (consisting of a maximum of 30 players) was allowed to have a maximum of four foreigners.
All teams must allow U-21 players to play for at least 810 minutes. All clubs that did not comply with this rule had to pay a fine of one million colones , all others were paid this sum as a bonus, the club with the most accumulated minutes even three million colones.
Attendees
Except for relegated AD San Carlos, all eleven clubs from the previous season continued to participate. It should be noted, however, that Belén FC changed its name to Guadalupe FC and has moved to the city of the same name. New here was AD Municipal Grecia FC as a climber from the Liga de Ascenso-Segunda División . Of the seven Costa Rican provinces, only Puntarenas had no representative in the FPD. The province of San José was most strongly represented with four associations, while the city of Alajuela provided two associations (AD Carmelita and LD Alajuelense).
