In the late 1890s William Paats brought soccer to Paraguay, when it was then played at an Asunción teacher's college. Escuela Normal de Maestros.[2][3]
In 1906, five existing Paraguayan football teams (Olimpia, Guaraní, Libertad, General Díaz, and Nacional) created the governing body of football in Paraguay, the Paraguayan Football League.[2] In 1998 it adopted its current name.[2] On June 18, 1906,[4] the representatives of the five existing football teams in Paraguay at that time (Olimpia, Guaraní, Libertad, General Díaz, and Nacional) met to establish the Paraguayan Football League, named Liga Paraguaya de Football Association.[5] The first match was played on a Sunday, July 8, 1906.[6] Adolfo Riquelme, who was a well known Paraguayan journalist, was the organization's first president.[2]
In 1941 it changed its name to Liga Paraguaya de Football and in 1957 the name was Hispanicized as Liga Paraguaya de Fútbol.[9]
On December 3, 1998, its name was changed to its current denomination, Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol,[2][5] which coincidentally is one of the names that had been adopted by a dissident football association that brought together some teams, which would later join the League, and which organized championships between 1911 and 1917.[4]
FIFA World Cup 8 participations — 1930, 1950, 1958, 1986, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010[2]
The Paraguay national team appeared in the World Cup finals eight times, reaching the quarter-finals in the world FIFA event in South Africa (2010), losing to the eventual tournament victor, a Spanish team.[2]
The football in Paraguay has four levels in men's tournaments (five in the interior of the country) and one division in women's tournaments.[19] The Paraguayan Football Association with an affiliated association called the Interior Football Union (UFI) -which consists of 17 federations, one for each department of the country, excluding the city of Asunción-, organizes the different championships.[20]
The Supercopa Paraguay is a national cup played since 2021.[22] It is single match, on a neutral field that faces the champion of Primera División and the champion of Copa Paraguay, a competition created in 2018 with teams of all categories, including the federations that belong to UFI.[23]
There is also a category for the reserve of the football teams called Categoría Reserva[24] and then the formative divisions from 14 to 19 years.[25] The women's division also has a U-18 category.[26]
Since 2024 there are four women's tournaments: the one division league -called Campeonato Anual FEM-, Copa EFE, Copa Paraguay FEM and Supercopa FEM.[27][28]
Regarding futsal, it is organized in four categories: a premium league, the Honor Category, Primera and Intermedia.[29][30] There is also a category for women.[31]
The APF also organizes two beach soccer championships, the Tournament of Stars[32] and the Women's Beach Soccer Tournament.[33]
Controversy
The freedom of players to be contractually released and transfer between clubs and negotiate contracts (commonly called a "buyout clause") has been controversial, and subject to both scholarly inquiry and legal proceedings.[34][35][36][37]
^Antonio, Miguel; Zunini, Laterza. "El "Caso Pitta" y la (in)ejecutabilidad automática de las "cláusulas de rescisión" en el fútbol paraguayo" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022. With the current regulations of the Paraguayan Football Association (APF) it is impossible the automatic execution of the compensatory clauses due to anticipated contractual breakdown (buy-out clauses), because with the simple opposition of the employer club, the exit operation of a player it is extended in time and is subject to the decision of a judge outside the parties. Therefore, this work will attempt to demonstrate the imperative need to have aspecific federative regulation to implement a summary administrative procedure to materialize the automatic release of players who are in a position to execute clauses of this type.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
Callary, Bettina; Gearity, Brian (2019). "Voices From the Field: Q&A With Coach Developers Around the World". International Sport Coaching Journal. 6 (3): 366–369. doi:10.1123/iscj.2019-0070. S2CID204633721.
Campomar, Andreas (May 2014). Golazo!: The Beautiful Game from the Aztecs to the World Cup: The Complete History of How Soccer Shaped Latin America (E-book). Penguin books.