Peru. Went Brazilian way already – instead of somewhat normal league system a massive complicated championship was in place. 37 teams of the whole country participated in it, regionally divided. Some vague rules of relegation existed. Some vague rules for qualification also existed – based on performance in the regional leagues, it appeared. The outcome was somewhat weird – some successful clubs from the Lima system were unable to play in the national championship.
Defensor (Lima) was one of those – Second Division champions this year, but what Second Division? No national one existed, so it must have been Lima’s Second Division. If so, was there First Division of Lima, or regional leagues were automatically considered second level? And were such winners getting promotion? And what was the benefit of having clubs like Defensor out of the national championship, but having bulk of obscure teams in it? No wonder Peruvian football lost its edge in the 1980s.
To describe the national championship in full would be tedious at best. First Torneo Regional was played – the country was divided geographically into 4 regional groups and the Metropolitan Group was further divided into 2 subgroups. The best in each group went to the next stage – Liguilla Regional and the rest – the Liguilla Regional B, which was important on two accounts: the winner of it still went to final stage and at bottom – relegation. The Metropolitan Group had it a bit different: the last of the two subgroups went to relegation play-off between themselves. The group winners contested the Metropolitan Group title. To what all that amounted is obscure: second stage followed, in which all starting team still played again. As for the winner of the first stage… looks like they were going to grand final between winners of first and second stage, yet there is no record of such game played.
Universitario (Lima) won the Regional championship final Liquilla. Standing from left: Leo Rojas, José del Solar, Pedro Requena, José Antonio Trece, José Carranza, César Chávez.
First row: Juvenal Briceño, Jesús Torrealva, Eduardo Rey Muñoz, Fidel Suárez, Alfonso Yáñez.
Followed Torneo Descentralizado ‘B’. Again, the same geographically divided groups, which winners went to the Final Group and its own winner – to the final Liguilla. But 12 teams, better than the others for some reason, went to stage on their own – the top 5 qualified to the final Liguilla. The last to play in it was the winner of Torneo Descentralizado ‘B’. Go figure… The top two teams among the best got 2 bonus points each to carry to the final Liguilla.
May be it is best not to try understanding rules and proceedings. Guardia Republicana (Lima) and
Internazionale (San Borja) finished last in the subgroups of Metropolitan Group in the first stage. They were supposed to play relegation play-off and the loser to go down somewhere. Internazionale repeated their poor play in the Torneo Descentralizado ‘B’ and were last again, but Guardia Republicana finished 2nd this time, missing qualification to the final stage on obscure rule: they finished not only with the same points (14), but with the same goal-difference (+5) as Alianza (Lima). The criteria would have been either more wins or head-to-head results, but Guardia Republicana ended 2nd and thus the opportunity to make a big joke of the whole championship was missed: if Guardia Republicana went ahead and won the title they would have been perhaps the only club in the world ever to both champions and relegated in the same season.
Alianza reached the final stage with difficulty, but they had to be excused – the whole team died in airplane crash in the late 1987. Such a tragic event shook the club to the core. Alianza still managed to go ahead – they won the final group of Torneo Descentralizado ‘B’ against the winners of other regional groups and went to the final tournament of the season.
Deportivo Canana (Group North) finished 2nd.
Alfonso Ugarte (Group South) was 3rd. Standing from left: Salguero, “Camote” Vásquez, “Cacique” Bustamante, Rubén Deleva, Toledo, Ramos.
First row: Calderón, Vargas, Avendaño, Genaro Neyra, Romero.
Defensor ANDA (Group Central) was 4th.
So, just for the record – the list of teams which ended the monstrous championship early: Metropolitan Group:
Subgroup A:
San Agustin
AELU
CNI and Guardia Repiblicana.
Subgroup B:
Deportivo Municipal
Juventud La Joya
and Internazionale.
Group North:
UTC, Carlos A. Manucci,
Atletico Grau,
Libertad,
Juan Aurich,
15 de Septiembre and Hungaritos Agustinos.
Group Central:
Deportivo Junin, Mina San Vicente, Union Minas, Leon de Huanuco, ADT,
Deportivo Pucallpa,
and Alipio Ponce.
Group South:
Cienciano, Melgar, Coronel Bolognesi,
Deportivo Tintaya,
Diablos Rojos, Huracan, and
Alianza Naval (Mollendo).
Delfin (Manta) won the second level – but was not promoted!
America (Quito) was last with 21 points and relegated by the usual rules.
River Plate (Riobamba) – 17th with 25 points. Originally safe, but eventually relegated.
Juventus (Esmeraldas) – 15th with 27 points. Relegated.
Audaz Octubrino (Machala) – 13th with 31 points. Remained.
Deportivo Cuenca (Cuenca) – 11th with 33 points. Remained.
Aucas (Quito) 10th with 34 points. Remained.
LDU (Quito) won the first stage with 49 points – 20 wins, 9 ties, 5 losses, 64-36. Yet, the confident victory meant next to nothing: they earned 1 bonus point to carry to the next stage, the same as Emelec, which was left 5 points behind.
Filanbanco (Milagro) – last with 3 points.
Macara (Ambato) – 3rd with 6 points.
LDU (Quito) – 2nd with 8 points (1 carried from first stage bonus point). 3 wins, 1 tie, 2 losses, 10-11.
Universidad Catolica (Quito) – last with 3 points. They were relegated at the end of the season – the highest placed team to suffer from the reduction of the league.
Barcelona (Guayaquil) – 2nd with 7 points.
Emelec – 1st with 9 points. 2 wins, 4 ties, 0 losses, 7-4 (plus 1 bonus point from the opening stage).
Deportivo Quito made a brave effort, but their opponents were classier.
Emelec (Quito) won confidently – they made the best of the championship formula, apparently saving strength in the grueling first phase and progressively increasing their form, reaching the peak when really mattered. It was sweet and important victory – their 6th title, but also first since 1979. Almost 10 years of waiting ended.
Universitario (Sucre) was 12th this year with 16 points.
San Jose (Oruro) – 10th with 20 points.
Always Ready (La Paz) – 8th with 25 points. That was the end of the season for those clubs.
Bolivar won the first stage with 35 points – 15 wins, 5 ties, 4 losses, 52-22. Now it was a matter of waiting for the final and keeping form – the second stage was not important anymore.
Jorge Wilstermann (Cochabamba) – last with 2 points.
Blooming (Santa Cruz) – 3rd with 4 points.
Oriente Petrolero – group winners with 10 points. They did not lose even one match.
Bolivar – group winner with 6 points.
Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) lost to The Strongest 1-0 and 1-3. Standing from left: Rómer Roca, Roberto Brunetto, Carlos Leonel Trucco, Marciano Saldías, Claudio Chena (Argentina), Carlos Gabriel Amodeo. Crouching: Wilson Avila, Celio Alves, Víctor Hugo Antelo, Erwin “Chichi” Romero, José Luis Medrano.
The Strongest (La Paz) lost and finished 2nd – always a disappointment for them. Well, next year may be better.
Familiar champion, but a title is always the aim of Bolivar (La Paz). This one was second in a row and 9th altogether. Thus Bolivar became the most successful Bolivian club, besting Jorge Wilstermann, which had 8 titles. The Strongest with their 5 titles trailed quite far behind.