The Paraguayan Football Association ( es, Asociación Paraguaya de Futbol ; APF) ( Guarani: ''Paraguái Mangapy Atyguasu''), is the omnibus

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ge ...

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 ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. It organizes the Paraguayan football league, including

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

and beach soccer, as well as and the

Paraguay national football team The Paraguay national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Paraguay) represents Paraguay in men's international football competitions, and are controlled by the Paraguayan Football Association (Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol). Paraguay ...

. It is based in the city of

Luque Luque () is a city in Central Department of Paraguay, part of the Gran Asunción metropolitan area. Both 1635 and 1750 have been recorded as dates of its founding. It was temporarily the capital of Paraguay in 1868 during the Paraguayan War be ...

, near the capital city,

Asunción Asunción (, , , Guarani: Paraguay) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of ...

. Football is the most popular sport in Paraguay.

History

In the late 1890s

William Paats William Paats (b. ''Friedrich Wilhelm Paats Hantelmann'', 12 January 1876, Rotterdam – d. 28 August 1946, Asunción) was a Dutch-born Paraguayan sports instructor. Often regarded as "the father of Paraguayan football", Paats' family moved t ...

brought soccer to Paraguay, when it was then played at an

teacher’s college. Escuela Normal de Maestros. In 1906, five existing Paraguayan football teams (Olimpia, Guaraní, Libertad, General Díaz, and Nacional) created the governing body of football in Paraguay, the Paraguayan Football League. In 1998 it adopted its current name. In June 18, 1906, the representatives of the five existing football teams in Paraguay at that time ( Olimpia,

Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to Ethnography * Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia) * Guaraní language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay * ...

, Libertad, General Díaz, and

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

) met to establish the Paraguayan Football League, named Liga Paraguaya de Football Association. The first match was played on a Sunday, July 8, 1906. Adolfo Riquelme, who was a well known Paraguayan

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, was the organization’s first president. In 1921, during the presidency of Enrique Pinho, the Paraguayan Football League joined the

South American Football Confederation The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

(CONMEBOL). In 1925 it became a member 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 ...

. In 1941 it changed its name to Liga Paraguaya de Football and in 1957 the name was Hispanicized as Liga Paraguaya de Fútbol. On December 3, 1998, its name was changed to its current denomination, Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol, which coincidentally is one of the names that had been adopted by a dissident football association that brought together some teams, which would later join the League, and which organized championships between 1911 and 1917. In 2016, APF appointed Robert Harrison, the former head of

Club Nacional Club Nacional is a Paraguayan professional football club based in the neighbourhood of Obrero in Asunción. Founded in 1904, the club currently plays in the Paraguayan Primera División, and holds its home games at Estadio Arsenio Erico. In ...

, as president. Harrison succeeded Alejandro Domínguez, who resigned to run for president of CONMEBOL, after

Juan Ángel Napout Juan Ángel Napout Barreto (born 13 May 1958) is a Paraguayan football executive and businessman. He was head of the Paraguayan Football Association from 2007 to 2014. Napout served as President of CONMEBOL from August 2014 until his resignatio ...

stepped down from that role in December 2015. In 2019, APF hired Argentinian

Eduardo Berizzo Eduardo Berizzo Magnolo (; born 13 November 1969) is an Argentine retired footballer who played as a central defender. He is the manager of Chile. During his 18-year professional career he played for six teams in four countries, mainly Newell' ...

as manager of the Paraguay's national men's team. Paraguay have not previously hosted the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

. In August 2022, APF joined up with the football associations of Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile to jointly bid to host the World Cup in 2030.

Honours

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

champions 1953, 1979 *

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

silver medal (Athens 2004) *

8 participations 1930, 1950, 1958, 1986, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 The Paraguayan national team appeared in the World Cup finals eight times, reaching the quarter finals in the world FIFA event in South Africa (2010), losing to the eventual tournament victor, a Spanish team. The

Club Olimpia Club Olimpia is a Paraguayan sports club based in the city of Asunción. The club promotes the practice of various sports with most importance given to the football, rugby and basketball sides, the former being the highest priority and most s ...

has been indomitable: 38 Paraguayan championship titles; 3 in the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

the continental

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

n soccer tournament (1979, 1990, 2002); and Intercontinental cup.

Leadership and staff

Presidents

Liga Paraguaya de Football Association

Liga Paraguaya de Football

Liga Paraguaya de Fútbol

Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol

Association staff (2022)

Paraguayan football league system

The football in Paraguay has four levels in men's tournaments (five in the interior of the country) and one division in women's tournaments. The Paraguayan Football Association with an affiliated association called the Interior Football Union (UFI) -which consists of 17 federations, one for each department of the country, excluding the city of

-, organizes the different championships. The most popular football teams in Paraguay are Olimpia,

Cerro Porteño Club Cerro Porteño is a professional Paraguayan football club, based in the neighbourhood of Obrero in Asunción. Founded in 1912, Cerro has won 34 Primera División titles and is one of the most popular football clubs in Paraguay. Its presi ...

, Libertad and

. All of them are from Asunción. The

Supercopa Paraguay The Supercopa Paraguay (''Paraguay Supercup'') is an annual one-match football official competition in Paraguay organised by the Paraguayan Football Association (APF) which is played by the Primera División champions with the best record in the s ...

is a national cup played since 2021. It is single match, on a neutral field that faces the champion of Primera División and the champion of Copa Paraguay, a competition created in 2018 with teams of all categories, including the federations that belong to UFI. There is also a category for the reserve of the football teams called Categoría Reserva and then the formative divisions from 14 to 19 years. The women’s division also has a U-18 category. Regarding

, it is organized in four categories: a premium league, the Honor Category, Primera and Intermedia. There is also a category for women. The APF also organizes two

beach soccer Beach soccer, also known as beach football, sand football or beasal, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand. Whilst football has been played informally on beaches, the introduction of ''beach soccer'' was an a ...

championships, the Tournament of Stars and the Women’s Beach Soccer Tournament.

Controversy

The freedom of players to be contractually released and transfer between clubs and negotiate contracts (commonly called a "

buyout clause A buyout clause or release clause refers to a clause in a contract that imposes an obligation on another organisation wishing to acquire the services of the employee under contract to pay the (usually substantial) fee of the clause to the organisati ...

") has been controversial, and subject to both scholarly inquiry and legal proceedings.

References

External links

Official APF site
at FIFA site {{Authority control

Football in Paraguay Sports governing bodies in Paraguay Sports organizations established in 1906 1906 establishments in Paraguay