Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

is one of the leading sports of

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, ranking only behind

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

in national popularity and is the number one participation sport on the island. There has been a significant growth in the sport in recent years, as traditionally football has played a very small role in Puerto Rico. The sport on the island is governed by the

Puerto Rican Football Federation The Puerto Rican Football Federation ( es, Federación Puertorriqueña de Fútbol) is the governing body of association football in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1940 and became affiliated to FIFA in 1960, one of the last to do so in the Wester ...

an affiliate of

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

History

Early years (1900-1919)

It is said that the sport was played during

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

colonial times, mostly by soldiers in the field in front of El Morro. By 1904, games were being played there between sailors of foreign ships which docked in

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

Harbor, but it was not until 1911 that the first organized club was formed, Comercio Sporting Club, which organized games between members of the club. The club then formed two teams,

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...

and Mercurio. These teams took part in the first organized tournament in Puerto Rico, Copa Porananmiz. In 1913, two more clubs where formed, San Juan FC and Ponce Sporting Club. Until then, football was mostly played by the Hispanic population of the island while the Americans would play sports like baseball and basketball, but in 1914 a group of Americans formed Celtics FC and the first rivalry of Puerto Rican football was born. Celtics were Americans and San Juan FC were Puerto Ricans and Spaniards, which brought up the tensions between the Hispanics and Americans in the island during this period. In 1914, Celtics traveled to Ponce to face

Ponce Sporting Club Ponce may refer to: *Ponce (surname) * *Ponce, Puerto Rico, a city in Puerto Rico ** Ponce High School ** Ponce massacre, 1937 * USS ''Ponce'', several ships of the US Navy *Manuel Ponce, a Mexican composer active in the 20th century * British sla ...

, in the first ever reported game between teams from different towns in Puerto Rico.

National team

Since its foundation, the

Puerto Rico national football team The Puerto Rico national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Puerto Rico) represents Puerto Rico in men's international football, and are governed by the Federación Puertorriqueña de Fútbol (FPF). The team's nickname is ''El Huracá ...

has been one of the least successful teams in the world. It did not even enter the qualification stage for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. Its highest

FIFA ranking The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, led by Brazil . The teams of the men's member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the ...

was 97 in March 1994, and its lowest was 202 in November 2004. Until 2008, Puerto Rico had not fielded a national team since 2004 when they lost 5–2 to

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...

. The last time they had won a match was in 1993 when they won 4–0 against the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

. After a four-year absence, the Puerto Rican national team re-emerged on 16 January 2008, with a 2–0 victory in a friendly match against

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

. This was played in preparation for a World Cup qualifier against the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

, scheduled for 26 March 2008, which Puerto Rico won 1–0.

Club football

Club football had been a very limited affair involving a handful of amateur teams in several separate leagues. As the domestic game has grown in popularity, this started to change. The

Puerto Rico Islanders Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to: Places *El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain *Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines *Puerto Colombia, Colombia *Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela *Puerto Galera, Orient ...

began to play in the

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system b ...

, the second tier of football in the United States at the time, and, in 2008, the first ever unified competition, the

Puerto Rico Soccer League The Puerto Rico Soccer League or PRSL is an association football league in Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto ...

, was established. Many clubs on the island are now affiliated with larger teams in some of the world's major football leagues. In 2011, club football teams on the island made another monumental leap. The Puerto Rico Islanders joined the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

, which is the new second tier of football in the United States. In addition,

Puerto Rico United Puerto Rico United is a Puerto Rican association football team based in Aguada, Puerto Rico founded in 2007. The team has played professionally in the Puerto Rico Soccer League (PRSL) and briefly in the American USL Professional Division. The t ...

Club Atlético River Plate Puerto Rico Club Atlético River Plate Puerto Rico is a Puerto Rican professional football team based in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Founded in 2007 as a franchise of the Argentine club River Plate, the team plays in the Puerto Rico Soccer League, and is the re ...

and

Sevilla FC Puerto Rico Sevilla FC Puerto Rico was a Puerto Rican professional association football team based in Juncos, Puerto Rico. Founded in 2006, the team used to play in the Puerto Rico Soccer League. The club was founded in 2006 as a farm team for the Puerto R ...

moved to

USL Pro The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

, the new third tier of football in the United States. The Puerto Rico Soccer League held a 2011 season. However, the PRSL folded after the 2011 season, making the

Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Puerto Rico The Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Puerto Rico (LNF) was the first division association football league of Puerto Rico sharing D-1 status with Puerto Rico Soccer League. The LNF was founded on July 25, 2009 and the 2015 season featured six teams. H ...

the top-tier league, even though it is an amateur league. The LNFPR split into a First Division and Second Division in order to fill the void left by PRSL. Seeking to restructure professional football in Puerto Rico, the PRFF was planning for the Liga Profesional de Fútbol de Puerto Rico, which was supposed to start in 2013.

Puerto Rican association football leagues and associations

Puerto Rican football league system The Puerto Rico soccer league system is a series of professional and amateur soccer leagues based in Puerto Rico. Sometimes erroneously called the Puerto Rican soccer pyramid, teams and leagues in the United States are not linked by the system of ...

Campeonato Nacional de Fútbol de Puerto Rico Campeonato Nacional de Fútbol de Puerto Rico is an amateur football league in Puerto Rico. As of 2008 it has been replaced as the highest level football league in the country by the Puerto Rico Soccer League. It was created in 2005 by the Federaci ...

(defunct) *

Liga Mayor de Fútbol Nacional Liga Mayor de Fútbol Nacional, known more commonly as just Liga Mayor was one of the two amateur football leagues in Puerto Rico played during the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005 the league became defunct as the Federación Puertorriqueña de ...

(defunct) *

Puerto Rican teams

* Puerto Rico men's national football team *

Puerto Rico women's national football team The Puerto Rico women's national football team ( es, Selección femenina de fútbol de Puerto Rico) is governed by the Puerto Rican Football Federation (FPF). History On 30 August 2018, in a home friendly versus Argentina, players staged a pro ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Association Football In Puerto Rico