Copa Simón Bolívar (Venezuela)

The Copa Simón Bolívar (English: Simon Bolivar Cup) was an international football competition organized by the Venezuelan Football Federation.[1][2] The idea of this competition was to create a tournament among the champions clubs of the countries liberated by Simon Bolivar. It was played six times from its first edition in 1970 to the last in 1976, thus integrating the league champions clubs of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. Due to its format, it was a historical precedent of the Copa Merconorte, played between the same Bolivarian countries or the Andean Community from 1998 until the 2001 edition.

Copa Simón Bolívar
Organising body FVF
Founded1970
Abolished1976 (1976)
RegionSouth America
Number of teams11
Related competitionsCopa Merconorte
Most successful club(s)
6 teams
(1 title each)

It is an official tournament to be organized by a football federation member of the CONMEBOL (in this case the Venezuelan federation), in addition to which it had continuity for several years.[1] Although the South American Football Confederation endorsed it at the time, is not included in the list of competitions organised by the entity as they are not the direct organisers of the tournament,[3] however, the competition was very important for the time and was cited by various sports media as a relevant international title,[4][5][6][7][8][9] so much so that the president of the entity at the time, Teófilo Salinas, officially delivered the cup.[2] 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]

The titles list is led by six teams belonging to three federations, while the teams of the Colombian federation lead the list by winning federations with three titles, followed by the Peruvian federation with two titles and the Venezuelan federation with a single title.

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
Ed. Year Champion Runner-up Third Place Fourth Place
1
1970Colombia Santa Fe (1)Venezuela Deportivo GaliciaColombia JuniorVenezuela Canarias
2
1971Venezuela Deportivo Galicia (1)Colombia Atlético NacionalVenezuela CanariasColombia Deportivo Cali
3
1972Colombia Millonarios (1)Venezuela Portugués
–
4
1974Peru Defensor Lima (1)Venezuela PortuguesaEcuador El NacionalColombia Atlético Nacional
5
1975Colombia América de Cali (1)Venezuela Estudiantes de MéridaBolivia The StrongestEcuador Liga de Quito
6
1976Peru Alianza Lima (1)Bolivia GuabiráVenezuela PortuguesaColombia América de Cali

Performances

By club
Team Won Runner-up Years won Years runner-up
Venezuela Deportivo Galicia1119711970
Colombia Santa Fe101970
—
Colombia Millonarios101972
—
Peru Defensor Lima101974
—
Colombia América de Cali101975
—
Peru Alianza Lima101976
—
Colombia Atlético Nacional01
—
1971
Venezuela Deportivo Portugués01
—
1972
Venezuela Portuguesa01
—
1974
Venezuela Estudiantes de Mérida01
—
1975
Bolivia Guabirá01
—
1976

By country
Country Won Runners-Up Winning Clubs Runners-Up
 Colombia31América de Cali (1); Millonarios (1); Santa Fe (1)Atlético Nacional (1)
 Peru20Alianza Lima (1); Defensor Lima (1)
—
 Venezuela14Deportivo Galicia (1)Deportivo Galicia (1), Deportivo Portugués (1), Estudiantes de Mérida (1), Portuguesa (1)
 Bolivia01
—
Guabirá (1)
 Ecuador00
—
—

See also

References
  1. Copa Simón Bolívar Files
  2. "Cup for Defensor" (in Spanish). El Tiempo. 1975-01-21.
  3. "The official competitions of CONMEBOL". conmebol.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2015-08-19.
  4. "Meet Colombian Champions in Tournaments in the Americas" (in Spanish). Gol Caracol. Retrieved 2014-12-01.
  5. "A day like today Alianza Lima won its only international title" (in Spanish). La República. Archived from the original on 2019-08-22. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  6. "Table of official titles of Colombian teams" (in Spanish). Pulzo. 2019-12-07.
  7. "Millonarios, champion and super champion!" (in Spanish). El Espectador. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  8. "America de Cali celebrates '84 springs and four winters'" (in Spanish). Win Sports. Archived from the original on 2019-11-07. Retrieved 2015-02-13.
  9. "Millonarios and the Simón Bolívar Cup 1972" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2015-09-26. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  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)
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