The Peruvian football champions are the winners of the highest league in Peruvian football, which is currently named as Liga 1 and organized by Peruvian Football Federation. The Liga Peruana de Football was established in 1912. It was an amateur league that lasted until 1921 due to scheduling and organizing conflicts. In this league only teams from Lima participated. In 1926, the Peruvian Football Federation took control of organizing the tournament and continued the Peruvian Primera División with the introduction of teams from Callao. In 1951, the Primera División turned professional and in 1966, the Torneo Descentralizado was founded in which the first non-capital teams were invited to play the first national championship.[1] Between 1996 and 2008, the Apertura and Clausura format was adopted.
In its early stages the first division was dominated by Universitario and Alianza Lima. Other notable teams were Atlético Chalaco, Sport Boys and Deportivo Municipal. The professional era saw Sporting Cristal rise to challenge the dominance of Universitario and Alianza Lima. These three teams account for nearly a third of the titles won. Melgar, Juan Aurich and Binacional are the only teams outside the Lima Region to have won national titles.[2] As of 2024, the league title has been won by over 21 clubs but Universitario, Alianza Lima, and Sporting Cristal share a total of 73 titles of the 108 titles contested. Universitario and Alianza Lima alone account for 53 of the titles contested.
List of champions
Peruvian football had amateur status since its foundation until 1950. In the course of this era, Alianza Lima, Atlético Chalaco, Municipal, Sport Boys, and Universitario de Deportes shared the most titles. The first run from 1912 to 1921 featured clubs only from Lima and Callao under the Liga Peruana de Football and were awarded the Escudo Dewar (Dewar Shield, after a trophy gifted to the League by the British Embassy). In 1926, the Peruvian Football Federation organized its first championship and included teams from the Callao league.[3] In 1936 no tournament took place due the 1936 Olympic games.[4] In 1951 the league obtained professional status and in 1966 expanded the league to the entire nation, beginning the Descentralizado.
Universitario and Alianza Lima have a clear advantage of titles won over the other clubs in Peru. They have won a combined total of 52 Primera División championships of the 108 seasons contested, 28 and 25 respectively. Sporting Cristal trails behind with 20 professional era titles since their debut in 1956 and further behind is the traditional Sport Boys having conquered 6 league titles. Newcomer Universidad de San Martín de Porres has begun to challenge the dominance of the Big Three with back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008 and a third i 2010. In addition, Melgar and Unión Huaral are the only clubs outside the metropolitan area of Lima to have won a national championship. Other noteworthy clubs to have won championships include 4-time winner Deportivo Municipal.
Universitario is the club with the longest spell in the Primera División, playing since 1928 when they debuted in the Primera División. They are followed by archrivals Alianza Lima who competed in the first edition of the Primera División but were relegated in 1938 and returning a year later for an uninterrupted spell since 1940. Melgar is the team with the longest run in the Primera División outside Lima, competing since 1971.[10]
The oldest clubs currently participating in the Primera División are Alianza Lima and Cienciano which were founded at the beginning of the turn of the century in 1901. The newest clubs active in the Primera División include Ayacucho, Sport Huancayo, Cusco and Universidad de San Martín. The current Juan Aurich participating in the Descentralizado is not the same club that competed in previous seasons.
As of 2025, Universitario, Alianza Lima and Sporting Cristal have won 28, 25 and 20 official league titles respectively. They are regarded as the Big Three of Peru. However, other teams have risen to new heights. In particular, a team from Cusco, Cienciano, has been the only Peruvian team to win international tournaments || Copa Sudamericana 2003 and Recopa Sudamericana 2004 ||, though it has yet to win the domestic league title. Other notable teams include Binacional, Juan Aurich, Melgar and Unión Huaral, which are the only non-capital teams to have won a national championship.[10]
Several matches to define champions have been played over the course of Peruvian football history. The earliest title-defining matches were played between teams that tied for first place at the end of the season or tournament phase and forced an extra match to determine the champion. Eventually, finals were organized to be played at the end of the season after set conditions were fulfilled or tournament winners. The first of these finals started in the eighties when winners of each regional tournament played each other to determine the season champion; if the same team won both tournaments, they were champions by default. In the late nineties the Apertura and Clausura tournaments were hosted so that the winners of each tournament would also face each other in the final. If the same team won both tournaments, they were champions by default.
In 2001, Alianza Lima won the Apertura tournament, but their performance in the Clausura tournament suffered and placed a shocking 10th place—which led to a rule change. A tournament-winning team had to place above a set place in order to be able to play the final. In the cases of the seasons of 2002, 2007 and 2008, one or both of the tournament winners failed to place above a set position therefore no final was played and the season champion was determined by the aggregate table or by the tournament winner that had satisfied the set conditions.
The Torneo de Primeros Equipos was a football championship that was played in Peru between 1931 and 1934. The tournament was part of the Campeonato de Selección y Competencia of the Peruvian Primera División. The sum of points from this tournament plus the fourth part of the Torneo de Equipos de Reserva (Reserve Tournament) gave the title of Campeón Absoluto (Absolute Champion) of the First Division.
These were the filler tournaments played parallel to or in between the national championship. Some of these tournaments awarded the winning clubs with a qualification to an international tournament or guaranteed a spot in a further round whilst two of these filler tournaments did not award anything to its winner. The purpose of these tournaments was so that the national team could participate in its compromises without affecting the national championship when calling domestic players.[11]
The first regional seasons began in 1984 where teams were divided into regional groups and would advance to the Descentralizado or descend to the División Intermedia for a promotion/relegation tournament against second division teams. Only the 1984 regional did not crown a champion. Starting in 1989, the Descentralizado was temporarily replaced by two regional tournaments, each crowning a champion and contesting a national season final.[11]
In 1997, the first Apertura and Clausura half-year tournaments were introduced and had its champions face each other in a season final as in the regional tournaments between 1989 and 1991. They were abolished at the end of 2008 season, and restored in 2014 to 2025.
A.^ Melgar is recognized as the third-placed team for 1992 regular season. Ovación Sipesa received the berth for the 1993 Copa CONMEBOL as Liguilla runner-up, however they did not participate in the 1992 regular season.
C.^ Includes titles as "Federación Universitaria" (until 1932).
↑ Luis Sánchez (31 January 2008). "Campeonatos Nacionales" (in Spanish). retrofutbolas.com. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
1 2 Behr, Raúl. "Méritos y rachas: los mejores y peores"[Merits and streaks: the best and worst] (in Spanish). DeChalaca. Retrieved 27 August 2009. Unión Huaral y FBC Melgar son los dos únicos equipos del interior que se han logrado consagrar campeones nacionales.
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