The 2023 Copa de la División Profesional, known as the 2023 Copa Tigo for sponsorship purposes, was the first edition of the Copa de la División Profesional, a Bolivian league cup competition which was contested by the 17 teams that took part in the Bolivian Primera División for the 2023 season. The competition was approved at a meeting of the División Profesional's Council held on 13 January 2023. It began on 14 February and ended on 18 December 2023.[1][2]
The competition was suspended at a meeting of the División Profesional's Council on 5 September 2023, along with the 2023 Primera División tournament, after the Bolivian Football Federation president Fernando Costa denounced suspicions of match-fixing, bribery, illegal betting and alterations to VAR.[3][4] However, the suspension was lifted per suggestion from Costa on 27 September after reforms to the referee commission were performed and an agreement with CONMEBOL for monitoring was reached, as well as to allow the FBF's Sports Disciplinary Court to finish the investigations on the matter.[5]
The Copa de la División Profesional, which was played on weekdays and concurrently with the 2023 División Profesional tournament, featured a group stage and an 8-team knockout stage. For the group stage, the 17 teams were drawn into two groups of six teams and one group of five, in which teams played each one of their group rivals twice (once at home and once away). The top three teams of the six-team groups and the top two teams in the five-team group advanced to the knockout stage, in which teams played the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals over two legs.[7]
The Copa de la División Profesional champions were entitled to qualify for the 2024 Copa Libertadores, taking the Bolivia 4 berth for that competition, while the runners-up would qualify for the 2024 Copa Sudamericana, taking the Bolivia 1 berth.[8]