Football in Peru
[3][4][5] During the War of the Pacific (1879 - 1883), the destruction of various Peruvian towns and cities, including the raid of Lima, brought the spread of sport in Peru to a momentary stop.
The first fielded team was built largely of players from Alianza Lima and Universitario de Deportes, the former being composed of working-class men and the later of white university students.
[24] The time that followed saw the appearance of a group of excellent Peruvian football players that would help further expand the popularity of the sport not only in Peru, but also in other countries of South America.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Peruvian clubs made a series of international tours across South America due to the high demand of the skill of their players in places such as Colombia,[25] Venezuela,[26][27] and in Chile.
In Colombia, the appearance of Ciclista Lima Association allegedly made the Colombian crowds "vibrate with excitement" as they anticipated much skill from the Peruvian squad.
[30] In 1928, the Peruvian club Atlético Chalaco made a tour in Chile and defeated seven Chilean teams they faced and only lost to Colo-Colo.[28] In 1933 Alianza Lima made a tour in Chile and, with Peruvians such as Teodoro Fernandez and Alejandro Villanueva, delighted the audiences with their skill and defeated a series of important Chilean clubs of that time such as Club Deportivo Magallanes, Santiago Wanderers, Audax Italiano, and Colo-Colo.[31][32] In Peru, Alejandro Villanueva is often remembered as one of the finest exponents of that nation's association football and as the player that amazed the crowds with his bicycle kicks which the people of Lima at first thought was his invention when he executed it in 1928 and it was called "tiro caracol" and, later, upon learning of its roots in Callao, once again called chalaca.
This and several other incidents on the field, such as the first-minute goal by Romania, soon led to the World Cup's first player dismissed, the Peruvian Plácido Galindo.
Largely with the squad of the 1930s, but with a new group of young stars, Peru made a great start by defeating the Finland national football team with a margin of 7–3.
Still, the team formally withdrew due to problems with the German government's intervention causing the International Olympic Committee to nullify Peru's victory against Austria and ordering a re-match.
As a result of these many titles, victories, and important showings, the early years of Peru's football history went extraordinarily well, and the team was able to effectively build its game along with the increasing competition of the CONMEBOL region.
Nonetheless, due to a series of internal problems, Peru's football years after this first golden generation did not involve any other major accomplishments.
During the 1960s Peru began to slowly show signs of improvement as the team won the Bolivarian Games of Barranquilla and qualified for the 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome.
Meanwhile, in the World Cup qualifiers, the team was not able to even get close to reaching another FIFA tournament until 1998, but that dream was also thwarted by a goal difference with Chile.
As the years kept going, Peruvian football once more started to give signs of vitality as local teams from the league began doing rather well in international competitions.
Meanwhile, in 2007, the football fans of Peru received another great surprise as the national U-17 squad qualified and reached the quarterfinals (for their first time) of their FIFA World Cup.
Nonetheless, the possibilities of Peru securing a CONMEBOL place for the 2010 FIFA World Cup have completely vanished since the team has tumbled to the bottom of the qualification table.
[68] In early 2015, businessman Edwin Oviedo became FPF president, succeeding Burga, who two years later faced charges of racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering in a football corruption trial in the United States.
