Copa Perú

Copa Perú
Founded	1967; 57 years ago
First season	1967
Country	Perú
Number of teams	50 (National Stage)
Level on pyramid	3
Promotion to	Liga 2 (2 Spots)
Relegation to	Ligas Departamentales
Current champions	ADA (1st title) ; (2023)
Most championships	Atlético Torino (5 titles)
TV partners	DirecTV
	Current: 2024 Copa Perú

The Copa Perú is a football tournament in Peru. Despite its name, it is not entirely an elimination-cup competition involving all Peruvian clubs, but rather a series of league tournaments leading to an elimination tournament, with regional league clubs as participants. It guarantees its winner promotion to the professional Liga 2.

History

In 1966, the First Division was named Descentralizado; teams from outside the capital of Lima were allowed to participate in the professional first division. The following year, the Copa Perú began, in which all non-professional teams in Peru were allowed to compete, with the winner to gain promotion to the First Division. After playing many elimination rounds, once six teams were left in the competition, they played in a final round-robin tournament in Lima.^[1]

In 1974, the tournament ended at the Regional Stage and no Final took place. The departamental champions qualified for the 1974 Reclasificatorio Regional with the last teams from the 1973 Torneo Descentralizado that had to revalidate the category. At the end of the 1974 Reclasificatorio Regional, the teams Alfonso Ugarte, Barrio Frigorífico, Carlos A. Mannucci, Deportivo Junín, Piérola, Unión Huaral, Unión Pesquero and Walter Ormeño were promoted to the 1974 Torneo Descentralizado.

In 1984, the First Division grew from 16 to 44 teams: after the first stage of the season, a Regional Championship qualified the teams for the Decentralizado, with 16 to 18 teams. The Copa Perú qualified teams for the Regional competition. Following this the tournament declined; 1987 was the last year in which a final was contested. The competitions was suspended as a result of the lack of interest and general economic crisis going on during President Alan García's first term. In 1992 the First Division returned to its normal format (16 teams). In 1993 the Copa Perú was returned as a competition for the Second Division, but only for teams outside of Lima. Since 1993, there has also been a Second Division for teams competing that are based in Lima.

In 1998, a major change took place: eight teams from the regional stage qualified for the Finals stage. This was played as a traditional cup tournament with home and away legs being played. The winner gains promotion to the First Division. In 2004, the tournament widened to 16 teams, so that teams from Lima could also compete. The winner and runner-up of the Second Division played in the Round of 16 of the Copa Peru. However, in 2006 this format was abolished as now the winner of the Second Division is promoted to the First Division. In 2008, the National Stage was modified. The four teams that qualified for the semi-finals played in a final group stage; the top two were promoted to the First Division.

In 2009, the Peruvian Football Federation officialized the creation of the Ligas Superiores del Peru. The Ligas Superiores will group to a select group of clubs of each department, that will be faced only among itself and will throw a champion and a runner-up that will agree directly, for now, to play a home run against the clubs that remain first and second in the Departmental Stage. For 2009, nine Departmental Confederacies had adopted them: Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Huánuco, Lambayeque, Pasco, Piura, Puno and Tumbes.

On August 23, 2022, it was announced that from 2023, the Copa Perú would only give promotion to Liga 2 due to the reforms of Peruvian football by the FPF.^[2]

Format

The tournament has 5 stages. The first stage of the tournament is the District Stage (Spanish: Etapa Distrital), played from February to May. Districts hold a small league tournament to determine its winners which will qualify for the next stage. The second stage is the Provincial Stage (Spanish: Etapa Provincial), played in June and July. The District winners play in groups and the winners qualify for the next stage. The third stage is the Departmental Stage (Spanish: Etapa Departamental), consisting of another league tournament, between July and September.

Starting in 2015 under the leadership of the new Peruvian Football Federation president Edwin Oviedo, all the Regions of Peru are represented in the National Stage, which is played under Regional using the POT System, intellectual property of MatchVision company. The new National Stage starts in the first week of September.

This new phase features the 50 teams that qualified from the Departmental Stage. Each team plays 3 games at home and 3 games away, for a total of 6 games against 3 different geographical rivals. The departmental stage winners only play against departmental runners-up, and vice versa. All the teams are positioned in one general table. After 6 matches, the team in places 1 to 8 are qualified directly to the Round of 16, while the teams in places 9 to 24 will play the Repechage phase. The teams in places 25 to 50 are eliminated.

The teams play a bracket tournament up to the Semi-finals. All four teams qualified to the semi-finals play a final group stage known as La Finalísima in Lima. The winner of the final group stage and the runner-up of the final group stage will be promoted to the Liga 2.

Division levels

Year	Level	Promotion to	Relegation to
1967–1973	2	Primera División	Ligas Departamentales Ligas Provinciales Ligas Distritales
1974	3	Reclasificatorio Regional
1975–1990	3	Primera División
1991	3	Torneo Zonal
1992–2022	2	Primera División Segunda División
2023–2024	3	Liga 2
2025	4	Liga 3

Champions

Ed.	Season	Champion	Runner-up
1	1967	Alfonso Ugarte de Chiclín	Octavio Espinosa
2	1968	Carlos A. Mannucci	Sport Chorrillos
3	1969	Carlos A. Mannucci	Melgar
4	1970	Atlético Torino	Melgar
5	1971	Melgar	Unión Tumán
6	1972	Atlético Grau	León de Huánuco
7	1973	Sportivo Huracán	Cienciano
–	1974	No champion crowned. It was only played until the Departamental Stage.^[A] (See: 1974 Reclasificatorio Regional)
8	1975	Atlético Torino	Sportivo Huracán
9	1976	Coronel Bolognesi	Pesca Perú
10	1977	Atlético Torino	Juventud La Palma
11	1978	Juventud La Palma	Pesca Perú
12	1979	ADT	Comercial Aguas Verdes
13	1980	León de Huánuco	Unión Gonzáles Prada
14	1981	UTC	Juventud La Palma
15	1982	Atlético Torino	Atlético Grau
16	1983	Sport Pilsen	Deportivo Cañaña
17	1984	Los Espartanos	Alianza Atlético
18	1985	Hungaritos Agustinos	Tejidos La Unión
19	1986	Deportivo Cañaña	Félix Donayre
20	1987	Libertad	Capitán Clavero
–	1988–1992	No champions crowned. It was only played until the Regional Stage.^[B] (See: 1992 Torneo Zonal)
21	1993	Aurich–Cañaña	Aurora
22	1994	Atlético Torino	Aurora
23	1995	La Loretana	Sportivo Huracán
24	1996	José Gálvez	UTC
25	1997	Juan Aurich	Deportivo UPAO
26	1998	I.M.I.	Coronel Bolognesi
27	1999	Deportivo UPAO	Alfonso Ugarte
28	2000	Estudiantes de Medicina	Coronel Bolognesi
29	2001	Coronel Bolognesi	Universidad Cesar Vallejo
30	2002	Atlético Universidad	Atlético Grau
31	2003	Universidad Cesar Vallejo	Deportivo Educación
32	2004	Sport Áncash	Deportivo Municipal
33	2005	José Gálvez	Senati
34	2006	Total Clean	Hijos de Acosvinchos
35	2007	Juan Aurich	Sport Águila
36	2008	Sport Huancayo	CNI
37	2009	León de Huánuco	Tecnólogico
38	2010	Unión Comercio	Alianza Unicachi
39	2011	Real Garcilaso	Pacífico
40	2012	UTC	Alfonso Ugarte
41	2013	San Simón	Unión Huaral
42	2014	Sport Loreto	Unión Fuerza Minera
43	2015	Defensor La Bocana	Academia Cantolao
44	2016	Sport Rosario	Deportivo Hualgayoc
45	2017	Binacional	Atlético Grau
46	2018	Pirata	Alianza Universidad
47	2019	Carlos Stein	Deportivo Llacuabamba
–	2020	No completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
48	2021	ADT	Alfonso Ugarte
49	2022	Deportivo Garcilaso	Comerciantes
50	2023	ADA	San Marcos
51	2024

Footnotes

A. ^ In this year the tournament ended at the Departamental Stage and no Final took place. The departamental champions qualified for the 1974 Reclasificatorio Regional with the last teams from the 1973 Torneo Descentralizado that had to revalidate the category. At the end of the 1974 Reclasificatorio Regional, the teams Alfonso Ugarte, Barrio Frigorífico, Carlos A. Mannucci, Deportivo Junín, Piérola, Unión Huaral, Unión Pesquero and Walter Ormeño were promoted to the 1974 Torneo Descentralizado.

B. ^ From 1988 to 1992, no Final tournaments were held. Regional champions entered the Peruvian Primera División’s Regional tournaments.

Titles by club

Rank	Club	Titles	Runners-up	Seasons won	Seasons runner-up
1	Atlético Torino	5	—	1970, 1975, 1977, 1982, 1994	—
2	Coronel Bolognesi	2	2	1976, 2001	1998, 2000
	León de Huánuco	2	1	1980, 2009	1972
	UTC	2	1	1981, 2012	1996
	ADT	2	—	1979, 2021	—
	Carlos A. Mannucci	2	—	1968, 1969	—
	José Gálvez	2	—	1996, 2005	—
	Juan Aurich	2	—	1997, 2007	—
3	Atlético Grau	1	3	1972	1982, 2002, 2017
	Juventud La Palma	1	2	1978	1977, 1981
	Melgar	1	2	1971	1969, 1970
	Sportivo Huracán	1	2	1973	1975, 1995
	Deportivo Cañaña	1	1	1986	1983
	Universidad César Vallejo	1	1	2003	2001
	Deportivo UPAO	1	1	1999	1997
	ADA	1	—	2023	—
	Alfonso Ugarte de Chiclín	1	—	1967	—
	Atlético Universidad	1	—	2002	—
	Aurich–Cañaña	1	—	1993	—
	Binacional	1	—	2017	—
	Carlos Stein	1	—	2019	—
	Defensor La Bocana	1	—	2015	—
	Deportivo Garcilaso	1	—	2022	—
	Estudiantes de Medicina	1	—	2000	—
	Hungaritos Agustinos	1	—	1985	—
	I.M.I.	1	—	1998	—
	La Loretana	1	—	1995	—
	Libertad	1	—	1987	—
	Los Espartanos	1	—	1984	—
	Pirata	1	—	2018	—
	Real Garcilaso	1	—	2011	—
	San Simón	1	—	2013	—
	Sport Ancash	1	—	2004	—
	Sport Huancayo	1	—	2008	—
	Sport Loreto	1	—	2014	—
	Sport Pilsen	1	—	1983	—
	Sport Rosario	1	—	2016	—
	Total Clean	1	—	2006	—
	Unión Comercio	1	—	2010	—

Titles by region

Region	Nº of titles	Clubs
La Libertad	8	Carlos A. Mannucci (2), Alfonso Ugarte de Chiclín (1), Los Espartanos (1), Libertad (1), Sport Pilsen (1), Deportivo UPAO (1), Universidad César Vallejo (1)
Piura	8	Atlético Torino (5), Atlético Grau (1), I.M.I. (1), Defensor La Bocana (1)
Lambayeque	6	Juan Aurich (2), Deportivo Cañaña (1), Aurich–Cañaña (1), Carlos Stein (1), Pirata (1)
Arequipa	5	Melgar (1), Sportivo Huracán (1), Atlético Universidad (1), Total Clean (1), Binacional (1)
Ancash	4	José Gálvez (2), Sport Áncash (1), Sport Rosario (1)
Junin	3	ADT (2), Sport Huancayo (1)
Cajamarca	3	UTC (2), ADA (1)
Cusco	2	Real Garcilaso (1), Deportivo Garcilaso (1)
Huánuco	2	León de Huánuco (2)
Tacna	2	Coronel Bolognesi (2)
Ucayali	2	La Loretana (1), Sport Loreto (1)
Ica	1	Estudiantes de Medicina (1)
Lima	1	Juventud La Palma (1)
Loreto	1	Hungaritos Agustinos (1)
Moquegua	1	San Simón (1)
San Martín	1	Unión Comercio (1)