Apertura and Clausura
The Apertura [apeɾˈtuɾa] and Clausura [klawˈsuɾa] tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues.
In French-speaking Haiti, these are known as the Ouverture and the Fermeture, while in English-speaking Belize, they are respectively the Opening and Closing seasons.
The Apertura is held in the first half of the calendar year in Bolivia, Colombia, Haiti, Paraguay and Uruguay while it is held in the second half of the calendar year in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua.
In leagues with 12 or fewer teams, each Apertura and Clausura has a double round-robin format, as a means to fill in the gaps caused by the lack of elimination cup competitions as in most European countries.
Ecuador adopted the Apertura and Clausura in 2005 featuring two champions in the season, however, its subsequent tournaments renamed the Apertura and Clausura as first and second stages, respectively, with the top placed teams advancing to a third stage to determine the champion and international qualification.
Starting in 2009, the Ecuadorian championships were decided by a final between stage or group winners, maintaining the half-year tournament format.
Brazilian clubs also participate in the state leagues from January to April, some of which do feature a split season format.
Following the traditional standard for soccer in the United States and Canada, the season is entirely contained within a calendar year, running April to November.
The second incarnation of the North American Soccer League adopted a split-season format in 2013, divided into Spring and Fall Championships.
Like other soccer leagues in the United States and Canada, the season was entirely contained within a calendar year.
[5][6] The third-division National Independent Soccer Association debuted in 2019 with a split season format that was played from fall to spring.
[7][8] The format was abandoned following the Fall 2021 season as the league moved to a spring-to-fall single-season schedule.
Its first season (1936) contained a split-season format for all four tiers of the championship including Groups (A, B, V, and Ghe).
In baseball, the Double-A Southern and Texas Leagues in the United States both use a similar system, dividing the March–October regular season in half, with records being cleared mid-season, and the top teams mid-season and at the end of the season clinching spots in the playoff for the league pennant (the remainder of playoff slots being filled by wild cards).
[13] The Philippine Basketball Association also conducts a split season similar in many ways to the Apertura and Clausura.
The LEC has three splits, winter, spring and summer, as well as an end-of-season tournament called Season Finals which decides which teams qualify for the World Championship.
