Copa Simón Bolívar (Venezuela)

The Copa Simón Bolívar (English: Simon Bolivar Cup) was an official international football competition organized by the Venezuelan Football Federation.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] The idea of this competition was to create a tournament between the champions clubs of the countries liberated by Simón Bolívar. It was played six times from its first edition in 1970 to its last in 1976. Clubs from Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia participated. For its format it will be the precursor cup of the Copa Merconorte, played between the same Bolivarian countries or the Andean Community of Nations from 1998 to 2001.

Copa Simón Bolívar
The trophy awarded to champions
Organising bodyVenezuelan Football Federation
Founded1970
Abolished1976 (1976)
RegionSouth America
Number of teams11
Related competitionsCopa Merconorte
Most successful club(s)

The tournament was official as it was organized by a football federation, the Venezuelan federation and for having continuity for several years. Although the South American Football Confederation endorsed it at the time, so much so that the president of Conmebol Teófilo Salinas delivered the cup officially,[8] at present this is not mentioned on the website of the entity.[9] 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]

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
YearChampionCountRunner-upThird PlaceFourth Place
1970 Santa Fe1 Deportivo Galicia Junior Canarias
1971 Deportivo Galicia1 Atlético Nacional Canarias Deportivo Cali
1972 Millonarios1 Deportivo PortuguésN/A
1974 Defensor Lima1 Portuguesa El Nacional Atlético Nacional
1975 América de Cali1 Estudiantes de Mérida The Strongest LDU Quito
1976 Alianza Lima1 Guabirá Portuguesa América de Cali

Performances

By club
Team Won Runner-up Years won Years runner-up
Deportivo Galicia1119711970
Santa Fe101070
—
Millonarios101972
—
Defensor Lima101974
—
América de Cali101975
—
Alianza Lima101976
—
Atlético Nacional01
—
1971
Deportivo Portugués01
—
1972
Portuguesa01
—
1974
Estudiantes de Mérida01
—
1975
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. "Meet Colombian Champions in Tournaments in the Americas" (in Spanish). Gol Caracol. Retrieved 2014-12-01.
  3. "A day like today Alianza Lima won its only international title" (in Spanish). La República. Archived from the original on 2019-01-08. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  4. "Table of official titles of Colombian teams" (in Spanish). Pulzo. 2019-12-07.
  5. "Millonarios, champion and super champion!" (in Spanish). El Espectador. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  6. "America de Cali celebrates '84 springs and four winters'" (in Spanish). Win Sports. Archived from the original on 2015-09-26. Retrieved 2015-02-13.
  7. "Millonarios and the Simón Bolívar Cup 1972" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2015-09-26. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  8. "Cup for Defensor" (in Spanish). El Tiempo. 1975-01-21.
  9. "The official competitions of CONMEBOL". conmebol.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2015-08-19.
  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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