Copa Simón Bolívar (Venezuela)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Copa Simón Bolívar
Organising bodyVenezuelan Football Federation
Founded1970
Abolished1976; 46 years ago (1976)
RegionSouth America
Number of teams11
Related competitionsCopa Merconorte
Most successful club(s)
6 teams (1 title)

The Copa Simón Bolívar (English: Simon Bolivar Cup) was an official international football competition organized by the Venezuelan Football Federation.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] The idea of this competition was to create a tournament between the champions clubs of the countries liberated by Simón Bolívar. It was played six times from its first edition in 1970 to its last in 1976. Clubs from Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia participated. For its format it will be the precursor cup of the Copa Merconorte, played between the same Bolivarian countries or the Andean Community of Nations from 1998 to 2001.

The tournament was official as it was organized by a football federation, the Venezuelan federation and for having continuity for several years. Although the South American Football Confederation endorsed it at the time, so much so that the president of Conmebol Teófilo Salinas delivered the cup officially,[8] at present this is not mentioned on the website of the entity.[9] It was not organized by Conmebol or FIFA, similar to the case of the old River Plate tournaments such as the Copa Aldao, which is also considered official.[10]

Other examples are in Europe where the Copa Latina, Copa Mitropa, or the Copa de Ferias were played that were not organized by UEFA and were also considered official competitions at the time, although these are endorsed by FIFA.[11]

History[]

The tournament began in 1970 on the initiative of the Venezuelan Football Federation and initially counting on the support and participation of the Colombian clubs affiliated to the Colombian Football Major Division, the governing body of the Colombian league and which even created previous qualification systems to the tournament [12][13] in the first three editions only included clubs from Colombia and Venezuela, from 1975 representatives of Peru joined, Bolivia and Ecuador; the tournament was discontinued in 1976 for calendar and economic reasons. It is recognized as a predecessor of the Copa Merconorte that was played by these same countries of northern South America.

The reasons for the disappearance of the event were written by journalist José Visconti, for the newspaper El Nacional:

Es muy difícil que la Copa Simón Bolívar sobreviva. Nadie quiere cargar con los elevados costos que supone. Además, no hay nada que obligue a los equipos participantes a enviar equipos en forma para este certamen y ello incide negativamente en la calidad del evento.

It is very difficult for the Simon Bolivar Cup to survive. Nobody wants to bear the high costs involved. In addition, there is nothing that forces the participating teams to send teams in form for this event and this has a negative impact on the quality of the event.

— José Visconti, for the newspaper El Nacional[14]

List of champions[]

Year Champion Count Runner-up Third Place Fourth Place
1970 Colombia Santa Fe 1 Venezuela Deportivo Galicia Colombia Junior Venezuela Canarias
1971 Venezuela Deportivo Galicia 1 Colombia Atlético Nacional Venezuela UD Canarias Colombia Deportivo Cali
1972 Colombia Millonarios 1 Venezuela Deportivo Portugués N/A
1974 Peru Defensor Lima 1 Venezuela Portuguesa Ecuador El Nacional Colombia Atlético Nacional
1975 Colombia América de Cali 1 Venezuela Estudiantes de Mérida Bolivia The Strongest Ecuador LDU Quito
1976 Peru Alianza Lima 1 Bolivia Guabirá Venezuela Portuguesa Colombia América de Cali

Performances[]

By club[]

Team Won Runner-up Years won Years runner-up
Venezuela Deportivo Galicia 1 1 1971 1970
Colombia Santa Fe 1 0 1070
—
Colombia Millonarios 1 0 1972
—
Peru Defensor Lima 1 0 1974
—
Colombia América de Cali 1 0 1975
—
Peru Alianza Lima 1 0 1976
—
Colombia Atlético Nacional 0 1
—
 1971
Venezuela Deportivo Portugués 0 1
—
 1972
Venezuela Portuguesa 0 1
—
 1974
Venezuela Estudiantes de Mérida 0 1
—
 1975
Bolivia Guabirá 0 1
—
 1976

By country[]

Country Won Runners-Up Winning Clubs Runners-Up
 Colombia 3 1 América de Cali (1); Millonarios (1); Santa Fe (1) Atlético Nacional (1)
 Peru 2 0 Alianza Lima (1); Defensor Lima (1)
—
 Venezuela 1 4 Deportivo Galicia (1) Deportivo Galicia (1), Deportivo Portugués (1), Estudiantes de Mérida (1), Portuguesa (1)
 Bolivia 0 1
—
 Guabirá (1)
 Ecuador 0 0
—
—

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Copa Simón Bolívar Files
  2. ^ "Meet Colombian Champions in Tournaments in the Americas" (in Spanish). Gol Caracol. Retrieved 2014-12-01.
  3. ^ "A day like today Alianza Lima won its only international title" (in Spanish). La República. Archived from the original on 2019-01-08. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  4. ^ "Table of official titles of Colombian teams" (in Spanish). Pulzo. 2019-12-07.
  5. ^ "Millonarios, champion and super champion!" (in Spanish). El Espectador. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  6. ^ "America de Cali celebrates '84 springs and four winters'" (in Spanish). Win Sports. Archived from the original on 2015-09-26. Retrieved 2015-02-13.
  7. ^ "Millonarios and the Simón Bolívar Cup 1972" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2015-09-26. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  8. ^ "Cup for Defensor" (in Spanish). El Tiempo. 1975-01-21.
  9. ^ "The official competitions of CONMEBOL". conmebol.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2015-08-19.
  10. ^ "Conmebol released the official titles and backtracked with the inclusion of the Aldao Cup" (in Spanish). Conmebol. Retrieved 2015-08-19.
  11. ^ "The local force of Atletico worries Porto" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2012-01-19. Retrieved 2009-01-13.
  12. ^ Quindio the Greatest Boy
  13. ^ Tolima Boys Tournament Champion
  14. ^ Eliézer Pérez Copa Simón Bolívar 1976 (2/2)
Retrieved from ""