Bolivian Primera División: Difference between revisions

División de Fútbol Profesional
Founded	1950; 74 years ago
Country	Bolivia
Confederation	CONMEBOL
Number of teams	16
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Copa Simón Bolívar
Domestic cup(s)	Copa Bolivia; Copa de la División Profesional
International cup(s)	Copa Libertadores; Copa Sudamericana
Current champions	Bolívar (30th title) ; (2022 Apertura)
Most championships	Bolívar (30 titles)
TV partners	Tigo Sports
Website	fbf.com.bo
	Current: 2023 season

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Revision as of 20:32, 8 August 2023

The División de Fútbol Profesional is the top-flight professional football league in Bolivia. Until 2017 it was known as the "Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano" (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈliɣa ðe ˈfuðβol pɾofesjoˈnal βoliˈβjano]; Template:Lang-en).

Since 1950, a total of 16 clubs have been crowned champions of the Bolivian football league system. The current champions are Bolívar, which won the title in the 2022 Apertura tournament. Bolívar is also the most successful club in the league, with 30 titles to date.

History

The organisation of football in Bolivia started in 1914 with the creation of regional associations and their respective competitions. The "La Paz Football Association" (Asociación de Fútbol de La Paz – AFLP) was the first organised body with 29 championships held between 1914 and 1949. The AFLP was considered for many years the top football tournament in the country. In 1950 the body modified its statutes allowing the professionalisation of the sport in Bolivia, so the "Torneo Profesional" was created.^[1]

Between 1950 and 1959, only clubs from La Paz, Oruro (since 1954) and Cochabamba (1955) took part of the championship because football was still amateur in the rest of the regions.

At the end of 1960, the Bolivian Football Federation established a national championship, with the purpose of crowning a champion representing Bolivia in recently created Copa Libertadores. The competition, named "Copa Simón Bolívar", was contested by champions and runner ups of regional associations.

The demise of Bolivian national team in the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification (where it was thrashed by Brazil 8–0 and Peru 5–0) encouraged some clubs to create their own league, so 16 teams separated from their respective associations to establish the "Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano" (Bolivian Professional Football League – LFPB) to organise championships autonomously, in 1977.^[2]

The creation of the LFPB ended the distinction. It also resulted in the creation of three separate entities: the FBF's role was restricted to the international representation of Bolivia in the sport, the newly created LFPB became the organizer of the sole first division tournament, and the LPFA, together with the rest of the regional associations, became the organizer of the second (and lower) division regionalized tournaments. It was the first and, until the formation of the basketball league (LIBOBASQUET) in 2014, the only professional sports league in the country.

In 2017, after a change of statutes in the FBF, the LFPB and the ANF were replaced by the "División Profesional" (professional division) and the "División Aficionados" (amateur division), both managed by the FBF from 2018 onwards.

Format overview

The championship format has changed over the years. Beginning in 1977, the league ran with sixteen clubs divided into two series, but switched to fourteen clubs in two series playing two tournaments each year beginning in the mid 80s and economical problems with some teams led to another cut in the number of participants to twelve in 1991. Another change came in 2005 when teams decided to adapt to the International FIFA calendar, meaning the season would be played from August to June rather than from February to December, in order to avoid problems defining which teams would qualify for international tournaments. The league played a short tournament from February to June in 2005, and the official 2005-06 season started in August. This led to yet another problem — second division teams weren't keen on the idea of putting off relegation until June 2006. After negotiations, the league determined that relegation of the lowest standing club would take place after the completion of the Apertura tournament, making the Bolivian league an odd tournament where teams were relegated in the middle of the season. But this decision was overturned in November 2006 and the league switched back to a calendar-year season in 2007 starting with the Apertura tournament in March 2007. For the 2018 season, the number of teams was increased from twelve to fourteen.

Historically, teams from La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz have dominated the league. Until 2007 only San José won the league in 1995, but since then teams from the "big three" have struggled to win the league again and 3 teams from smaller cities have won it (Real Potosí, San José and Universitario).

Three teams share the record of never been relegated to "La Simón Bolivar" (2nd division): The Strongest, Oriente Petrolero and Bolívar (although they were relegated in 1969 before the LPFB era).

For the 2008 season, and for the first time, three tournaments were played instead of the usual two. The Apertura tournament was played from March to July on a round-robin system; the Clausura tournament played from August to October where the teams were divided into two series of 6 teams each, Group A comprised all western teams (plus Universitario) and Group B comprised all eastern teams (plus Wilstermann and Aurora), the top two teams of each group advanced to the semifinals and the finals. The newly instated play-off tournament consisted of home-away matches (and with away goals rule used for the first time).

An average points from the previous two seasons determines relegation, with the last placed team being directly relegated and replaced by the winner of the Liga Nacional B. With the 11th placed team playing a promotion play-off with the runner-up of the Liga Nacional B.

Current teams (2023)

Always Ready

Aurora
Wilstermann

Bolívar
The Strongest

Santa Cruz de la Sierra

Universitario (V)

Vaca Díez

Santa Cruz de la Sierra teams:
Blooming
Oriente Petrolero
Real Santa Cruz
Royal Pari

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Locations of the 2023 División Profesional teams.

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity
Always Ready	El Alto	Municipal de Villa Ingenio	25,000
Aurora	Cochabamba	Estadio Félix Capriles	32,000
Blooming	Santa Cruz	Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera	38,000
Bolívar	La Paz	Hernando Siles	42,000
Guabirá	Montero	Gilberto Parada	13,000
Independiente Petrolero	Sucre	Olímpico Patria	30,700
Jorge Wilstermann	Cochabamba	Estadio Félix Capriles	32,000
Libertad Gran Mamoré	Trinidad	Gran Mamoré	12,000
Nacional Potosí	Potosí	Víctor Agustín Ugarte	32,105
Oriente Petrolero	Santa Cruz	Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera	38,000
Palmaflor del Trópico	Villa Tunari	Bicentenario	25,000
Real Santa Cruz	Santa Cruz	Real Santa Cruz	14,000
Real Tomayapo	Tarija	IV Centenario	15,000
Royal Pari	Santa Cruz	Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera	38,000
The Strongest	La Paz	Hernando Siles	42,000
Universitario de Vinto	Vinto	Hipólito Lazarte	2,000
Vaca Díez	Cobija	Roberto Jordán Cuéllar	24,000

List of champions

Tournament names:

1950–1953: "Torneo Interdepartamental" (AFLP)
1954–1959: "Torneo Integrado" (AFLP)
1960–1976: "Copa Simón Bolívar"
1977–2017: "Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano"
2018–present: "División de Fútbol Profesional"

Keys:

AFLP: Asociación de Fútbol de La Paz
AFC: Asociación de Fútbol Cochabamba
AFO: Asociación de Fútbol Oruro

Ed.	Season		Champion	Runner-up	Third place
1	1950		Bolívar (1)	Litoral	Unión Maestranza
2	1951		Always Ready (1)	Bolívar	Ferroviario
3	1952		The Strongest (1)	Always Ready	Ingavi
4	1953		Bolívar (2)	Always Ready	Ingavi
5	1954		Litoral (1)	The Strongest	Deportivo Municipal
6	1955		San José (1)	Chaco Petrolero	Bolívar
7	1956		Bolívar (3)	Deportivo Municipal	Litoral
8	1957	Integrado	Always Ready (2)	Deportivo Municipal	Chaco Petrolero
8	1957	Nacional ^{[note 1]}	Jorge Wilstermann (1)	Aurora	San José
9	1958		Jorge Wilstermann (2)	Deportivo Municipal	San José
10	1959		Jorge Wilstermann (3)	Always Ready	Bolívar
11	1960		Jorge Wilstermann (4)	Aurora	Deportivo Municipal
12	1961		Deportivo Municipal (1)	The Strongest	Chaco Petrolero
—	1962		La Paz league was won by Chaco Petrolero but this is not considered a national title.
13	1963		Aurora (1)	Jorge Wilstermann	San José
14	1964		The Strongest (2)	Deportivo Municipal	31 de Octubre
15	1965		Deportivo Municipal (2)	Jorge Wilstermann	Oriente Petrolero
16	1966		Bolívar (4)	31 de Octubre	Jorge Wilstermann
17	1967		Jorge Wilstermann (5)	Always Ready	Blooming
18	1968		Bolívar (5)	Guabirá	Litoral
19	1969		Universitario de La Paz (1)	Bolívar	Oriente Petrolero
20	1970		Chaco Petrolero (1)	The Strongest	Oriente Petrolero
21	1971		Oriente Petrolero (1)	Chaco Petrolero	The Strongest
22	1972		Jorge Wilstermann (6)	Oriente Petrolero	Petrolero
23	1973		Jorge Wilstermann (7)	Deportivo Municipal	31 de Octubre
24	1974		The Strongest (3)	Jorge Wilstermann	Bolívar
25	1975		Guabirá (1)	Bolívar	Oriente Petrolero
26	1976		Bolívar (6)	Oriente Petrolero	Guabirá
27	1977		The Strongest (4)	Oriente Petrolero	Bolívar
28	1978		Bolívar (7)	Jorge Wilstermann	Oriente Petrolero
29	1979		Oriente Petrolero (2)	The Strongest	Blooming Bolívar
30	1980		Jorge Wilstermann (8)	The Strongest	Chaco Petrolero
31	1981		Jorge Wilstermann (9)	Blooming	Guabirá Deportivo Municipal
32	1982		Bolívar (8)	Jorge Wilstermann	Blooming Oriente Petrolero
33	1983		Bolívar (9)	Oriente Petrolero	Blooming The Strongest
34	1984		Blooming (1)	Bolívar	Oriente Petrolero The Strongest
35	1985		Bolívar (10)	Jorge Wilstermann	Real Santa Cruz
36	1986		The Strongest (5)	Oriente Petrolero	— ^{[note 2]}
37	1987		Bolívar (11)	Oriente Petrolero	— ^{[note 2]}
38	1988		Bolívar (12)	The Strongest	— ^{[note 2]}
39	1989		The Strongest (6)	Oriente Petrolero	— ^{[note 2]}
40	1990		Oriente Petrolero (3)	Bolívar	— ^{[note 2]}
41	1991		Bolívar (13)	San José	Oriente Petrolero
42	1992		Bolívar (14)	San José	Jorge Wilstermann
43	1993		The Strongest (7)	Bolívar	Blooming
44	1994		Bolívar (15)	Jorge Wilstermann	The Strongest
45	1995		San José (2)	Guabirá	Bolívar
46	1996		Bolívar (16)	Oriente Petrolero	The Strongest
47	1997		Bolívar (17)	Oriente Petrolero	Blooming
48	1998		Blooming (2)	Jorge Wilstermann	The Strongest
49	1999		Blooming (3)	The Strongest	Bolívar
50	2000		Jorge Wilstermann (10)	Oriente Petrolero	The Strongest
51	2001		Oriente Petrolero (4)	Bolívar	The Strongest
52	2002		Bolívar (18)	Oriente Petrolero	The Strongest
53	2003	Apertura	The Strongest (8)	Bolívar	Jorge Wilstermann
54	2003	Clausura	The Strongest (9)	Jorge Wilstermann	Bolívar
55	2004	Apertura	Bolívar (19)	Aurora	Jorge Wilstermann
56	2004	Clausura	The Strongest (10)	Oriente Petrolero	Real Potosí
57	2005	Adecuación	Bolívar (20)	The Strongest	Oriente Petrolero
58	2005–06	Apertura	Blooming (4)	Bolívar	Oriente Petrolero
59	2005–06	Clausura	Bolívar (21)	Real Potosí	Universitario de Sucre
60	2006	Segundo Torneo	Jorge Wilstermann (11)	Real Potosí	Oriente Petrolero
61	2007	Apertura	Real Potosí (1)	Bolívar	La Paz
62	2007	Clausura	San José (3)	La Paz	Blooming
63	2008	Apertura	Universitario de Sucre (1)	La Paz	San José
64	2008	Clausura	Aurora (2)	Blooming	La Paz Real Potosí
65	2009	Apertura	Bolívar (22)	Real Potosí	San José
66	2009	Clausura	Blooming (5)	Bolívar	The Strongest Oriente Petrolero
67	2010	Apertura	Jorge Wilstermann (12)	Oriente Petrolero	Aurora
68	2010	Clausura	Oriente Petrolero (5)	Bolívar	Aurora
69	2011	Adecuación	Bolívar (23)	Real Potosí	Oriente Petrolero
70	2011–12	Apertura	The Strongest (11)	Universitario de Sucre	Oriente Petrolero
71	2011–12	Clausura	The Strongest (12)	San José	Oriente Petrolero
72	2012–13	Apertura	The Strongest (13)	San José	Bolívar
73	2012–13	Clausura	Bolívar (24)	Oriente Petrolero	San José
74	2013–14	Apertura	The Strongest (14)	Bolívar	San José
75	2013–14	Clausura	Universitario de Sucre (2)	San José	The Strongest
76	2014–15	Apertura	Bolívar (25)	Oriente Petrolero	The Strongest
77	2014–15	Clausura	Bolívar (26)	The Strongest	Jorge Wilstermann
78	2015–16	Apertura	Sport Boys (1)	Bolívar	The Strongest
79	2015–16	Clausura	Jorge Wilstermann (13)	The Strongest	Universitario de Sucre
80	2016–17	2016 Apertura	The Strongest (15)	Bolívar	Oriente Petrolero
81		2017 Apertura	Bolívar (27)	The Strongest	Guabirá
82		Clausura	Bolívar (28)	The Strongest	Jorge Wilstermann
83	2018	Apertura	Jorge Wilstermann (14)	The Strongest	San José
84	2018	Clausura	San José (4)	The Strongest	Royal Pari
85	2019	Apertura	Bolívar (29)	The Strongest	Nacional Potosí
86	2019	Clausura	Jorge Wilstermann (15)	The Strongest	Bolívar
87	2020	Apertura	Always Ready (3)	The Strongest	Bolívar
—	2020	Clausura	(Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
88	2021		Independiente Petrolero (1)	Always Ready	The Strongest
89	2022	Apertura	Bolívar (30)	The Strongest	— ^{[note 2]}
90	2022	Clausura	(Abandoned due to civil unrest in the Santa Cruz Department)^[3]
91	2023

Notes

^ Dissident league tournament.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f No third-place awarded.

Titles by club

Rank	Club	Winners	Runners-up	Winning years	Runners-up years
1	Bolívar	30	15	1950, 1953, 1956, 1966, 1968, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2004 Apertura, 2005 Adecuación, 2005–06 Clausura, 2009 Apertura, 2011 Adecuación, 2013 Clausura, 2014 Apertura, 2015 Clausura, 2017 Apertura, 2017 Clausura, 2019 Apertura, 2022 Apertura	1951, 1969, 1975, 1984, 1990, 1993, 2001, 2003 Apertura, 2005–06 Apertura, 2007 Apertura, 2009 Clausura, 2010 Clausura, 2013 Apertura, 2015 Apertura, 2016 Apertura
2	The Strongest	15	18	1952, 1964, 1974, 1977, 1986, 1989, 1993, 2003 Apertura, 2003 Clausura, 2004 Clausura, 2011 Apertura, 2012 Clausura, 2012 Apertura, 2013 Apertura, 2016 Apertura	1954, 1961, 1970, 1979, 1980, 1988, 1999, 2005 Adecuación, 2015 Clausura, 2016 Clausura, 2017 Apertura, 2017 Clausura, 2018 Apertura, 2018 Clausura, 2019 Apertura, 2019 Clausura, 2020 Apertura, 2022 Apertura
3	Jorge Wilstermann	15	9	1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1967, 1972, 1973, 1980, 1981, 2000, 2006 Segundo Torneo, 2010 Apertura, 2016 Clausura, 2018 Apertura, 2019 Clausura	1963, 1965, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1994, 1998, 2003 Clausura
4	Oriente Petrolero	5	15	1971, 1979, 1990, 2001, 2010 Clausura	1972, 1976, 1977, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2004 Clausura, 2010 Apertura, 2013 Clausura, 2014 Apertura
5	Blooming	5	2	1984, 1998, 1999, 2005–06 Apertura, 2009 Clausura	1983, 2008 Clausura
6	San José	4	5	1955, 1995, 2007 Clausura, 2018 Clausura	1991, 1992, 2012 Clausura, 2012 Apertura, 2014 Clausura
7	Always Ready	3	6	1951, 1957, 2020 Apertura	1952, 1953, 1959, 1963, 1967, 2021
8	Deportivo Municipal	2	5	1961, 1965	1956, 1957 Integrado, 1958, 1964, 1973
9	Aurora	2	4	1963, 2008 Clausura	1957, 1960, 1964, 2004 Apertura
10	Universitario de Sucre	2	1	2008 Apertura, 2014 Clausura	2011 Apertura
11	Real Potosí	1	4	2007 Apertura	2005–06 Clausura, 2006 Segundo Torneo, 2009 Apertura, 2011 Adecuación
12	Chaco Petrolero	1	2	1970	1955, 1971
12	Guabirá	1	2	1975	1995, 1968
14	Litoral	1	1	1954	1950
15	Independiente Petrolero	1	0	2021	—
	Sport Boys	1	0	2015 Apertura	—
	Universitario de La Paz	1	0	1969	—

References

^ Comienza El Profesionalismo 1950-1959 on Historia del fútbol boliviano by Carlos Mesa Gisbert
^ Y nació la liga by Jaime Galarza, 2 Jan 2012
^ "El torneo Clausura de la División Profesional fue suspendido de forma definitiva" [The División Profesional's Clausura tournament was definitely suspended] (in Spanish). El Deber. 10 November 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2022.

External links

[dissid-3] Dissident league tournament.

[nothird-4] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f No third-place awarded.

[1] Comienza El Profesionalismo 1950-1959 on Historia del fútbol boliviano by Carlos Mesa Gisbert

[2] Y nació la liga by Jaime Galarza, 2 Jan 2012

[5] "El torneo Clausura de la División Profesional fue suspendido de forma definitiva" [The División Profesional's Clausura tournament was definitely suspended] (in Spanish). El Deber. 10 November 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2022.

[1]

[2]

[note 1]

[note 2]

[3]

v t e División Profesional
2024 teams	Always Ready Aurora Blooming Bolívar Guabirá GV San José Independiente Petrolero Jorge Wilstermann Nacional Potosí Oriente Petrolero Real Santa Cruz Real Tomayapo Royal Pari San Antonio Bulo Bulo The Strongest Universitario de Vinto
Former teams	31 de Octubre Chaco Petrolero Ciclón Deportivo Municipal Destroyers La Paz Libertad Gran Mamoré Litoral (C) Litoral (LP) Mariscal Braun Mariscal Santa Cruz Oruro Royal Palmaflor del Trópico Petrolero Real Mamoré Real Potosí San José Sport Boys Unión Central Universitario de Pando Universitario de Sucre Vaca Díez
Competitions	Seasons
Associated competitions	Copa Aerosur Copa Aerosur del Sur Copa Sudamericana Copa Aerosur Internacional Copa Libertadores
Seasons	1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1971 1977 1990 1991 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2005–06 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

v t e Bolivian Primera División venues
Current	Dr. Carlos Villegas Félix Capriles Gilberto Parada Hernando Siles Hipólito Lazarte IV Centenario Jesús Bermúdez Municipal de Villa Ingenio Olímpico Patria Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera Real Santa Cruz Víctor Agustín Ugarte
Former	Bicentenario de Villa Tunari Capitán José Angulo Federico Ibarra Gran Mamoré Municipal de Quillacollo Rafael Mendoza Roberto Jordán Cuéllar Samuel Vaca Jiménez