Universitario Popayán was a professional Colombian

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 ...

team based in

Popayán Popayán () is the capital of the Colombian departments of Colombia, department of Cauca Department, Cauca. It is located in southwestern Colombia between the Cordillera Occidental (Colombia), Western Mountain Range and Cordillera Central (Colo ...

, that played in the

Categoría Primera B Categoría Primera B, commonly referred to as Torneo BetPlay Dimayor due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay (formerly ''Torneo Águila''), is the second-division football league in Colombia. Format DIMAYOR has applied a new forma ...

from 2011 to 2019. They played their home games at the Ciro López stadium.

History

Universitario Popayán was founded in May 2011, after

Centauros Villavicencio Corporación Deportiva Centauros Villavicencio, was a Colombian football club based in the city of Villavicencio. The club was founded on 14 January 2003 and played its home games at the Manuel Calle Lombana stadium, which has a capacity of 15,0 ...

moved from

Villavicencio Villavicencio () is a city and municipality in Colombia. Capital of Meta Department, it was founded on April 6, 1840. The city had an urban population of approximately 531,275 inhabitants in 2018.https://www.dane.gov.co/files/varios/informacion ...

considering Centauros's huge debts, the refusal of financial support from successive local authorities that deemed it a feeder club for

Deportes Quindío Deportes Quindío is a professional Colombian football club based in Armenia that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. The club was founded on 8 January 1951, and its best achievement was winning the 1956 league tournament. They play th ...

, and the support expressed from the

Cauca Department Cauca Department (, es, Departamento del Cauca) is a Department of Southwestern Colombia. Located in the southwestern part of the country, facing the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Valle del Cauca Department to the north, Tolima Department t ...

Governorate for a football club in the department's capital city. Despite the fact that the move was made before the start of the Finalización tournament, the club played for the rest of the year under its former name "Centauros" due to legal issues. They were authorized by

Coldeportes The Administrative Department of Sport, Recreation, Physical Activity and the Use of Free Time, Coldeportes was the national government department of sports in and for Colombia; it is charged with fomenting, planning and organizing the activities ...

to use the name "Universitario de Popayán" from the 2012 season onwards. Starting from that season the club began working in Popayán, as well as forming players in its youth ranks who would go on to play in the Colombian U-19 championships. The club's history was marked by the continuous exchange of players with Deportes Quindío (which came from the Centauros era), given that the club's owner, Hernando Ángel, was also Deportes Quindío's controlling shareholder and chairman. On 12 March 2019, the General Assembly of DIMAYOR approved a proposal to relocate Universitario from Popayán to

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the second ...

starting from the second half of the 2019 season, with the club being effectively rebranded as

Boca Juniors de Cali Boca Juniors de Cali is a professional football club which represented the city of Cali since its creation in 1937 until its exit from professional football in 1957 and again from 2019 onwards competing in the Categoría Primera B, the second t ...

. Universitario played its last Primera B match under that name on 4 May 2019, losing to

Deportivo Pereira Deportivo Pereira is a professional Colombian football team based in Pereira, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium. History Early years While there are several ...

in Palmira by a 4–1 score, and its last official game was a 2–1 defeat against

América de Cali América de Cali S. A., best known as América de Cali or América, is a Colombian professional football club based in Cali. It competes in the Categoría Primera A, the top-flight league of Colombian football. The team plays its home games at ...

in the sixth and last matchday of the group stage of the 2019 Copa Colombia on 8 May.

Stadium

Affiliated teams

External links

Official Site

References

Association football clubs established in 2011 Association football clubs disestablished in 2019 Defunct football clubs in Colombia Football clubs in Colombia Categoría Primera B clubs Popayán {{Colombia-sport-stub