Association football in Guatemala
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

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 the most popular sport in
Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
and is run by the Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala. The association administers the national football team, as well as the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala.


Local tournaments

The first clubs of the country were established in the capital Guatemala City, where a second football club was founded with Olympic FC at the beginning of the 20th century. These two teams started the first competition with the Copa Centroamericana between 28 August and 30 October 1904, and they were conceded exclusively between these two teams, who competed ten times against each other. With six wins and a draw against three defeats, the younger Olympic FC won this first match. The second competition took place between October 1905 and February 1906 and was contested by a total of three teams. Once again, Olympic FC went through, but the Guatemala FC "defended" second place in front of the newly added team of the Gay SC. After that, other tournaments were played out as of 1911 under the new name Copa Manuel Estrada Cabrera. The first tournament won the Gay SC, but in the years 1913 and 1914 the Guatemala FC finally entered the winner list Soon football reached the second largest city in the country, Quetzaltenango, where Quetzaltenango FC was founded in May 1906. In 1919 the League Capitalina was launched and the first Campeonato Nacional was played, which was won by the Hércules FC. With the establishment of the Campeonato de Liga for the season 1942/43, professional football was introduced in Guatemala. Since then the country's football has been dominated by the two major rivals from Guatemala City, CSD Comunicaciones and CSD Municipal, who have won the championship title 59 times already (until the end of the 2015/16 season, Comunicaciones was successful 30 times, Municipal 29 Times). In the third place follows by a long distance the
Aurora F.C. Aurora Fútbol Club is a Guatemalan professional football club. They are based in Guatemala City and play their home matches in the Estadio Cementos Progreso. Once one of the most powerful teams in the country and a traditional rival of fellow ...
, which also plays in the capital, and between 1964 and 1992/93 a total of eight times came to champions. The best team outside the capital is Club Xelajú MC from Quetzaltenango, which has five titles.


International competitions


Club football

CSD Municipal won the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 1974. Four years later, the arch-rival Comunicaciones F.C. was also delighted with this triumph, although it was only one of three season winners. However, because the tournament of the year 1978 was not carried out anymore, all three teams were declared as equivalent tournament champions. Comunicaciones won the final in the first tournament in 1962, where they also failed against the Mexican neighbor Chivas Guadalajara as well as seven years later against Cruz Azul. Municipal reached the final once again in 1995 and failed in this case against the Costa Rican club Deportivo Saprissa.


National team

The Guatemalan national soccer team celebrated their best result so far with fourth place at the
1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the third edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). The tournament returned to the United States and California; the games were hosted by Los ...
. The only notable title the national team won was the
1967 CONCACAF Championship The 1967 CONCACAF Championship, also referred to as the NORCECA Championship, was the third edition of the CONCACAF Championship. The final tournament took place from 5 to 19 March in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Mexico qualified automatically as defe ...
against neighbors Mexico. The qualification for a FIFA World Cup has not yet been achieved, but the Olympics have been played, in
1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...
,
1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...
, and
1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
, achieving its best result in its first participation by arriving to the quarter finals.


League system


References

{{League systems