2002–03 Primera B Nacional

Primera B Nacional

Season	2002–03
Champions	Atlético de Rafaela (1st divisional title)
Promoted	Atlético de Rafaela Quilmes
Relegated	Almirante Brown (A) Deportivo Español
Top goalscorer	AP: Diego Torres Daniel Giménez 13 goals CL: Matías Gigli Héctor Silva 12 goals
← 2001–02 2003–04 →

The 2002–03 Argentine Primera B Nacional was the 17º season of second division professional of football in Argentina. A total of 20 teams competed; the champion and runner-up were promoted to Argentine Primera División.

Club information

Club	City	Stadium
Almagro	José Ingenieros	Tres de Febrero
Almirante Brown	Arrecifes	Estadio Municipal
Argentinos Juniors	Buenos Aires	Diego Armando Maradona
Atlético de Rafaela	Rafaela	Nuevo Monumental
Belgrano	Córdoba	El Gigante de Alberdi
CAI	Comodoro Rivadavia	Municipal de Comodoro Rivadavia
Defensa y Justicia	Florencio Varela	Norberto "Tito" Tomaghello
Defensores de Belgrano	Núñez	Juan Pasquale
Deportivo Español	Parque Avellaneda	Nueva España
El Porvenir	Gerli	Gildo Francisco Ghersinich
Gimnasia y Esgrima	Concepción del Uruguay	Manuel y Ramón Núñez
Gimnasia y Esgrima	San Salvador de Jujuy	23 de Agosto
Godoy Cruz	Mendoza	Malvinas Argentinas
Huracán	Tres Arroyos	Roberto Lorenzo Bottino
Instituto	Córdoba	Presidente Perón
Juventud Antoniana	Salta	Fray Honorato Pistoia
Los Andes	Lomas de Zamora	Eduardo Gallardón
Quilmes	Quilmes	Centenario
San Martín	Mendoza	San Martín
San Martín	San Juan	Ing. Hilario Sánchez

Torneo Apertura Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Atlético de Rafaela	19	11	5	3	28	16	+12	38	Promotion Playoff
2	Argentinos Juniors	19	10	6	3	29	15	+14	36
3	Quilmes	19	9	6	4	34	17	+17	33
4	Instituto	19	9	5	5	29	17	+12	32
5	Defensa y Justicia	19	9	4	6	28	21	+7	31
6	San Martín (M)	19	8	5	6	24	16	+8	29
7	Juventud Antoniana	19	8	5	6	20	22	−2	29
8	Huracán (TA)	19	7	6	6	26	23	+3	27
9	Almagro	19	6	9	4	19	23	−4	27
10	Godoy Cruz	19	7	5	7	30	28	+2	26
11	Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	19	8	2	9	23	21	+2	26
12	Deportivo Español	19	6	6	7	19	29	−10	24
13	El Porvenir	19	5	8	6	17	22	−5	23
14	Los Andes	19	5	7	7	25	28	−3	22
15	CAI	19	6	4	9	16	27	−11	22
16	Defensores de Belgrano	19	5	6	8	16	17	−1	21
17	Belgrano	19	5	6	8	20	25	−5	21
18	Gimnasia y Esgrima (CdU)	19	4	6	9	25	31	−6	18
19	San Martín (SJ)	19	4	6	9	17	25	−8	18
20	Almirante Brown (A)	19	3	3	13	17	39	−22	12

Torneo Clausura Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Atlético de Rafaela	19	11	6	2	35	26	+9	39	Promotion Playoff
2	Argentinos Juniors	19	11	5	3	30	11	+19	38
3	San Martín (M)	19	9	6	4	27	20	+7	33
4	Godoy Cruz	19	9	5	5	31	19	+12	32
5	Almagro	19	9	5	5	31	22	+9	32
6	Belgrano	19	8	7	4	21	15	+6	31
7	Quilmes	19	8	7	4	28	23	+5	31
8	Huracán (TA)	19	9	1	9	30	23	+7	28
9	Defensores de Belgrano	19	8	4	7	28	26	+2	28
10	Instituto	19	6	10	3	20	20	0	28
11	Juventud Antoniana	19	6	6	7	16	18	−2	24
12	Defensa y Justicia	19	6	6	7	18	22	−4	24
13	Los Andes	19	5	8	6	25	30	−5	23
14	CAI	19	7	2	10	24	33	−9	23
15	Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	19	5	7	7	19	26	−7	22
16	Almirante Brown (A)	19	6	3	10	25	33	−8	21
17	El Porvenir	49	5	4	40	21	28	−7	19
18	San Martín (SJ)	19	4	6	9	18	23	−5	18
19	Gimnasia y Esgrima (CdU)	19	3	6	10	26	41	−15	15
20	Deportivo Español	19	1	4	14	18	34	−16	7

Overall Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Atlético de Rafaela	38	22	11	5	63	42	+21	77	Primera División
2	Argentinos Juniors	38	21	11	6	59	26	+33	74	Promotion Playoff
3	Quilmes	38	17	13	8	62	40	+22	64
4	San Martín (M)	38	17	11	10	51	36	+15	62	Promotion Playoff Primera División-Primera B Nacional
5	Instituto	38	15	15	8	49	37	+12	60
6	Almagro	38	15	14	9	50	45	+5	59
7	Godoy Cruz	38	16	10	12	61	47	+14	58
8	Huracán (TA)	38	16	7	15	56	46	+10	55
9	Defensa y Justicia	38	15	10	13	46	43	+3	55
10	Juventud Antoniana	38	14	11	13	36	40	−4	53
11	Belgrano	38	13	13	12	41	40	+1	52
12	Defensores de Belgrano	38	13	10	15	44	43	+1	49
13	Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	38	13	9	16	42	47	−5	48
14	Los Andes	38	10	15	13	50	58	−8	45
15	CAI	38	13	6	19	40	60	−20	45
16	El Porvenir	38	10	12	16	38	50	−12	42
17	San Martín (SJ)	38	8	12	18	35	48	−13	36
18	Gimnasia y Esgrima (CdU)	38	7	12	19	51	72	−21	33
19	Almirante Brown (A)	38	9	6	23	42	72	−30	33
20	Deportivo Español	38	7	10	21	37	63	−26	31

Promotion Playoff

This leg was played between the Apertura and the Clausura winner, but as Atlético de Rafaela won both tournaments, was declared champion and was automatically promoted to 2003-04 Primera División, so the match was played between the best teams placed in the overall standings under Atlético de Rafaela; Argentinos Juniors and Quilmes. The winning team was promoted to 2003-04 Primera División and the losing team played the Promotion Playoff Primera División-Primera B Nacional.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Promotion Playoff
Argentinos Juniors	0–1	Quilmes	0–1	0–0

Promotion Playoff Primera División-Primera B Nacional

The Promotion playoff loser (Argentinos Juniors) and the team placed 4º in the overall standings (San Martín (M)) played against the 18º and the 17º placed of the Relegation Table of 2002-03 Primera División.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Relegation/promotion playoff 1
San Martín (M)	0–2	Talleres (C)	0–1	0–1
Relegation/promotion playoff 2
Argentinos Juniors	0–3	Nueva Chicago	0-1	0-2

• Talleres (C) remains in Primera División after winning the playoff.
• Nueva Chicago remains in Primera División after winning the playoff.

Relegation

Note: Clubs with indirect affiliation with AFA are relegated to the Torneo Argentino A, while clubs directly affiliated face relegation to Primera B Metropolitana. Clubs with direct affiliation are all from Greater Buenos Aires, with the exception of Newell's, Rosario Central, Central Córdoba and Argentino de Rosario, all from Rosario, and Unión and Colón from Santa Fe.

Metropolitana Zone

Pos	Team	2000–01 Pts	2001–02 Pts	2002–03 Pts	Total Pts	Total Pld	Avg	Situation	Affiliation
1	Argentinos Juniors	—	—	74	74	38	1.947		Direct
2	Quilmes	50	65	64	179	100	1.79		Direct
3	Defensa y Justicia	29	57	55	141	100	1.41		Direct
4	Defensores de Belgrano	—	56	49	105	76	1.382		Direct
5	Almagro	—	40	59	99	76	1.303		Direct
6	Los Andes	—	49	45	94	76	1.237		Direct
7	El Porvenir	19	59	42	120	100	1.2	Relegation Playoff Matches	Direct
8	Deportivo Español	—	—	31	31	38	0.816	Primera B Metropolitana	Direct

Interior Zone

Pos	Team	2000–01 Pts	2001–02 Pts	2002–03 Pts	Total Pts	Total Pld	Avg	Situation	Affiliation
1	Instituto	71	59	60	190	108	1.759		Indirect
2	Atlético de Rafaela	45	59	77	181	108	1.676		Indirect
3	Huracán (TA)	—	63	55	118	76	1.553		Indirect
4	San Martín (M)	51	50	62	163	108	1.509		Indirect
5	Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	50	58	48	156	108	1.444		Indirect
6	Gimnasia y Esgrima (CdU)	55	64	33	152	108	1.407		Indirect
7	Belgrano	—	—	52	52	38	1.368		Indirect
8	Godoy Cruz	44	47	58	149	108	1.38		Indirect
9	Juventud Antoniana	43	51	52	146	108	1.352		Indirect
10	San Martín (SJ)	50	57	36	143	108	1.324		Indirect
11	CAI	—	—	45	45	38	1.184	Relegation Playoff Matches	Indirect
12	Almirante Brown (A)	50	44	33	127	108	1.176	Torneo Argentino A	Indirect

Relegation Playoff Matches

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Relegation/promotion playoff 1 (Direct affiliation vs. Primera B Metropolitana)
All Boys	2–2	El Porvenir	1–1	1–1
Relegation/promotion playoff 2 (Indirect affiliation vs. Torneo Argentino A)
Racing (C)	3–4	CAI	1–1	2–3

• El Porvenir remains in Primera B Nacional after a 1-1 aggregate tie by virtue of a "sports advantage". In case of a tie in goals, the team from the Primera B Nacional gets to stay in it.
• CAI remains in the Primera B Nacional by winning the playoff.

See also

• 2002–03 in Argentine football