Copa Simón Bolívar

Copa Simón Bolívar

Founded	1957 1958–1976 (as Division One) 1989–2010 (as Division Two)
Number of teams	18
Level on pyramid	2
Promotion to	Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano
Relegation to	Bolivian Football Regional Leagues
International cup(s)	Aerosur Cup
Current champions	Nacional Potosí (2010 Copa Simón Bolívar)
Most championships	Enrique Happ (3 times)
Website	Site Official
2010 Copa Simón Bolívar

The old 2nd tier in the Bolivian Football pyramid consists of 9 regional leagues (one for each department), the number of participants varies depending on the department, It usually has between 8 and 12 teams. Both winner and runner-up of each league compete in the Copa Simón Bolívar, with the winner of such tournament gaining promotion to the 1st Division, and the runner-up playing a play-off match with the 11th placed team in the 1st Division. Until 1976 all 8 regional championships (Pando didn't have an organized tournament back then) were the top in the national football pyramid, with the winner of the Copa Simón Bolívar being crowned as national champion. In 2011 the Copa Simón Bolívar is replaced for Liga Nacional B.

The oldest regional championship is the one played in La Paz, it started in 1914 and it was considered for many years as the top Bolivian league, even more when it turned into a semi-pro tournament in 1950 and started including teams from Oruro and Cochabamba.

Copa Simón Bolívar

The tournament started in 1960, initially only champions from La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro and Santa Cruz participated, on later years teams from other associations started joining the cup, and the tournament eventually had also runner-up's participating.

Until 1976, due the lack of a nationwide league, the cup determined the national champion and representative teams for the Copa Libertadores. With the creation of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano, the Bolivian FA stopped organizing the tournament.

Finally in 1989 the tournament was resurrected, with the same format of having both champions and runner-up from each association, but this time each regional league was the 2nd tier on the football pyramid so the champion was supposed to be awarded a place in the professional league. Previously the last placed team in the 1st division was replaced by the regional champion of its departament. However that practice was kept until 1993 when finally the champion was awarded a spot in the top league.

The competition format changes frequently, in 2008, the team were divided in 3 groups of 6 teams each, to save costs, geographically close teams were teamed up and played on a home-away round-robin basis, with group 1 consisting of teams from La Paz, Oruro and Cochabamba; group 2 with teams from Potosí, Chuquisaca and Tarija, and group 3 with teams from Santa Cruz, Beni and Pando. The top 2 placed teams advanced to the next round, now playing play-offs on home-away basis, the 3 winners and the best loser advanced to the semifinals and then the final.

List of Champions

Torneo Nacional

As First Division Tournament

Season	Champion (title count)	Runner-up	Third Place
1958	Jorge Wilstermann (1)	Deportivo Municipal	San José
1959	Jorge Wilstermann (2)	Always Ready	Bolívar

Copa Simón Bolívar

As First Division Tournament

Season	Champion (title count)	Runner-up	Third Place
1960	Jorge Wilstermann (3)	Aurora	Deportivo Chaco
1961	Deportivo Municipal (1)	Aurora	Deportivo Chaco
1962	Deportivo Chaco (1)	The Strongest	Deportivo Municipal
1963	Aurora (1)	Deportivo Municipal
1964	The Strongest (1)	Aurora
1965	Deportivo Municipal (2)	Jorge Wilstermann	Oriente Petrolero
1966	Bolívar (1)	31 de Octubre	Jorge Wilstermann
1967	Jorge Wilstermann (4)	Always Ready	Blooming
1968	Bolívar (2)	Guabirá	Litoral
1969	Universitario (La Paz) (1)	Bolívar	Oriente Petrolero
1970	Chaco Petrolero (1)	The Strongest
1971	Oriente Petrolero	Chaco Petrolero	The Strongest
1972	Jorge Wilstermann (5)	Oriente Petrolero	Petrolero Cochabamba
1973	Jorge Wilstermann (6)	Deportivo Municipal	31 de Octubre
1974	The Strongest (2)	Jorge Wilstermann
1975	Guabirá (1)	Bolívar	Oriente Petrolero
1976	Bolívar (3)	Oriente Petrolero	Guabirá

As Second Division Tournament

Season	Champion (title count)	Runner-up	Third Place
1989	Enrique Happ (1)	Universidad de Santa Cruz
1990	Universidad de Santa Cruz (1)	Naval Mamoré
1991	Enrique Happ (2)	Guabirá
1992	Enrique Happ (3)	Universidad Católica
1993	Real Santa Cruz (1)	Estudiantes Frontanilla
1994	Stormers (1)	Always Ready
1995	Deportivo Municipal (1)	Chaco Petrolero
1996	Blooming (1)	Universidad de Santa Cruz
1997	Real Potosí (1)	Universitario (Cochabamba)
1998	Union Central (1)	Atlético Pompeya	Aurora Ciclón
1999	Atlético Pompeya (1)	Mariscal Braun	Litoral Universitario (Beni)
2000	Iberoamericana (1)	Aurora	Cooper Guarani
2001	San José (1)	Primero de Mayo	Ingenieros Litoral
2002	Aurora (1)	Fancesa	Deportivo Zuraca Primero de Mayo
2003	La Paz (1)	Real Santa Cruz	Universitario (Beni) Universitario (Tarija)
2004	Destroyers (1)	Primero de Mayo	ABB Esparta
2005	Universitario (1)	Guabirá	ABB Universidad de Santa Cruz
2006	Municipal Real Mamoré (1)	Ciclón	Guabirá
2007	Guabirá (1)	Nacional Potosí	Francesa Mariscal Braun
2008	Nacional Potosí (1)	Primero de Mayo	Ciclón Destroyers
2009	Guabirá (1)	Ciclón	Fraternidad Tigres Stormers
2010	Nacional Potosí (2)	Real America	García Agreda Primero de Mayo

• Note that:

NB: Enrique Happ (full name Escuela Enrique Happ) from Cochabamba were never promoted to the first division in spite of winning the cup three time, apparently because they are a special footballing school (like the better known Academia Tahuichi in Santa Cruz).

References

External links