Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano

Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano is the top-flight professional football (soccer) league in Bolivia. It started in 1977, though football had been played in Bolivia since the early 1900s, specifally in La Paz and Oruro.
An amateur league (which became semi-pro in 1950) started in La Paz in 1914, the LPFA (La Paz Football Association, which is currently called the Asociacion de Futbol de La Paz), the first association of soccer in Bolivia. The LPFA was considered for many years the top soccer tournament in the country.
Founded in 1925, the Federación Boliviana de Fútbol didn't organize a national championship until 1960. These championships included representatives of all regional associations, although the LPFA had also included representatives of Oruro and Cochabamba in its championships. Despite this cup being considered the top Bolivian football championship, the LPFA league was still considered the most competitive one.
The creation of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano ended the distinction. It also resulted in the creation of three separate entities: the FBF's role was restricted to the international representation of Bolivia in the sport, the newly created LPFB became the organizer of the sole 1st Division tournament, and the LPFA, together with the rest of the regional associations, became the organizer of the Second (and lower) division regionalized tournaments.
It's the first and currently the only professional sports league in the country.
==Overview==
The championship format has changed over the years. Beginning in 1977, the league ran with sixteen clubs divided into two series, but switched to fourteen clubs in two series playing two tournaments each year beginning in the mid 80's and economical problems with some teams led to another cut in the number of participants to twelve in 1991. Another change came in 2005 when teams decided to adapt to the International FIFA calendar, meaning the season would be played from August to June rather than from February to December, in order to avoid problems defining which teams would qualify for international tournaments. The league played a short tournament from February to June in 2005, and the official 2005-06 season started in August. This led to yet another problem — second division teams weren't keen on the idea of putting off relegation until June 2006. After negotiations, the league determined that relegation of the lowest standing club would take place after the completion of the Apertura tournament, making the Bolivian league an odd tournament where teams were relegated in the middle of the season. But this decision was overturned in November 2006 and the league switched back to a calendar-year season in 2007 starting with the Apertura tournament in March 2007.
Historically, teams from La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz have dominated the league. Until 2007 only San José won the league in 1995, but since then teams from the "big three" have struggled to win the league again and 3 teams from smaller cities have won it (Real Potosí, San José and Universitario).
Three teams share the record of never been relegated to "La Simón Bolivar" (2nd division): The Strongest, Oriente Petrolero and Bolívar (although they were relegated in 1969 before the LPFB era).
==Current Competition System==
For the 2008 season, and for the first time, three tournaments were played instead of the usual two. The Apertura tournament was played from March to July on a Round-Robin system; the Clausura tournament played from August to October where the teams were divided into two series of 6 teams each, Group A composed of all western teams (plus Universitario) and Group B composed of all eastern teams (plus Wilstermann and Aurora), the top two teams of each group advanced to the semifinals and the finals. The newly instated Play-off tournament consisted of home-away matches (and with away goals rule used for the first time).
An average points from the previous two seasons determines relegation, with the last placed teams being directly relegated to its regional division and replaced by the winner of the Liga Nacional B. With the 11th placed team playing a promotion play-off with the runner-up of the Liga Nacional B
==Current teams ==
 
Team 	Home city 	Home stadium
Aurora 	Cochabamba	Félix Capriles
Blooming 	Santa Cruz	Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera
Bolívar 	La Paz 	Hernando Siles
Guabirá 	Montero 	Gilberto Parada
La Paz 	La Paz 	Hernando Siles
Nacional Potosí 	Potosí 	Estadio Víctor Agustín Ugarte
Oriente Petrolero	Santa Cruz	Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera
Real Mamoré 	Trinidad 	Estadio Gran Mamoré
Real Potosí 	Potosí 	Víctor Agustín Ugarte
San José 	Oruro 	Jesús Bermúdez
The Strongest 	La Paz 	Hernando Siles
Universitario 	Sucre 	Olímpico Patria
==List of champions==
Season	Champion (title count)	Runner-up 	Third Place
1977 	The Strongest (1) 	Oriente Petrolero	Bolívar
1978 	Bolívar (1) 	Jorge Wilstermann	Oriente Petrolero
1979 	Oriente Petrolero (1) 	The Strongest 	BloomingBolívar
1980 	Jorge Wilstermann (1) 	The Strongest 	Petrolero Cochabamba
1981 	Jorge Wilstermann (2) 	Blooming 	GuabiráDeportivo Municipal
1982 	Bolívar (2) 	Jorge Wilstermann	BloomingOriente Petrolero
1983 	Bolívar (3) 	Oriente Petrolero	BloomingThe Strongest
1984 	Blooming (1) 	Bolívar 	Oriente PetroleroThe Strongest
1985 	Bolívar (4) 	Real Santa Cruz 	Jorge Wilstermann
1986 	The Strongest (2) 	Oriente Petrolero	No third-place awarded
1987 	Bolívar (5) 	Oriente Petrolero	No third-place awarded
1988 	Bolívar (6) 	The Strongest 	No third-place awarded
1989 	The Strongest (3) 	Oriente Petrolero	No third-place awarded
1990 	Oriente Petrolero (2) 	Bolívar 	No third-place awarded
1991 	Bolívar (7) 	San José 	Oriente Petrolero
1992 	Bolívar (8) 	San José 	Jorge Wilstermann
1993 	The Strongest (4) 	Bolívar 	Blooming
1994 	Bolívar (9) 	Jorge Wilstermann	The Strongest
1995 	San José (1) 	Guabirá 	Bolívar
1996 	Bolívar (10) 	Oriente Petrolero	The Strongest
1997 	Bolívar (11) 	Oriente Petrolero	Blooming
1998 	Blooming (2) 	Jorge Wilstermann	The Strongest
1999 	Blooming (3) 	The Strongest 	Bolívar
2000 	Jorge Wilstermann (3) 	Oriente Petrolero	The Strongest
2001 	Oriente Petrolero (3) 	Bolívar 	The Strongest
2002 	Bolívar (12) 	Oriente Petrolero	The Strongest
Season	Season 	Champion (title count)	Runner-up 	Third Place
2003 	Apertura 	The Strongest (5) 	Bolívar 	Jorge Wilstermann
2003 	Clausura 	The Strongest (6) 	Jorge Wilstermann	Bolívar
2004 	Apertura 	Bolívar (13) 	Aurora 	Jorge Wilstermann
2004 	Clausura 	The Strongest (7) 	Oriente Petrolero	Real Potosí
2005 	Adecuación	Bolívar (14) 	The Strongest 	Oriente Petrolero
2005 	Apertura 	Blooming (4) 	Bolívar 	Oriente Petrolero
2006 	Apertura 	Bolívar (15) 	Real Potosí 	Universitario
2006 	Clausura 	Jorge Wilstermann (4) 	Real Potosí 	Oriente Petrolero
2007 	Apertura 	Real Potosí (1) 	Bolívar 	La Paz F.C.
2007 	Clausura 	San José (2) 	La Paz F.C. 	Blooming
2008 	Apertura 	Universitario (1) 	La Paz F.C. 	San José
2008 	Clausura 	Aurora (1) 	Blooming 	La Paz F.C.Real Potosí
2009 	Apertura 	Bolívar (16) 	Real Potosí 	San José
2009 	Clausura 	Blooming (5) 	Bolívar 	The Strongest Oriente Petrolero
2010 	Apertura 	Jorge Wilstermann (5) 	Oriente Petrolero	Aurora
2010 	Clausura 	Oriente Petrolero (4) 	Bolívar 	Aurora
==Titles by team (professional era: 1977-present)==
Team 	Nº of titles	Years/Tournaments Won
Bolívar 	16 	1978, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2004 Apertura, 2005 Adecuación, 2006 Apertura, 2009 Apertura.
The Strongest 	7 	1977, 1986, 1989, 1993, 2003 Apertura, 2003 Clausura, 2004 Clausura
Jorge Wilstermann	5 	1980, 1981, 2000, 2006 Clausura, 2010 Apertura
Blooming 	5 	1984, 1998, 1999, 2005 Apertura, 2009 Clausura
Oriente Petrolero	4 	1979, 1990, 2001, 2010 Clausura
San José 	2 	1995, 2007 Clausura
Real Potosí 	1 	2007 Apertura
Aurora 	1 	2008 Clausura
Universitario 	1 	2008 Apertura
==Notes==
==List of all-time topscorers==
This is the list of the 15 all-time topscorer since the Bolivian league was established in 1977. Goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of February 2009.
# 	Name 	Nationality	Career 	Goals
1. 	Víctor Hugo Antelo 	 	1983–2000 	350
2. 	Juan Carlos Sánchez 	 	1979–1992 	263
3. 	Luis Fernando Salinas 	 	1980–1993 	201
4. 	Jesús Reynaldo 	 	1977–1993 	196
5. 	Raúl Horacio Baldessari	 	1977–1989 	161
6. 	Limberg Gutiérrez 	 	1997–present	157
7. 	Joaquín Botero 	 	1997–present	144
8. 	Cristino Jara 	 	1998–present	141
9. 	Silvio Edmundo Rojas 	 	1977–1992 	140
10.	Luis William Ramallo 	 	1982–1999 	138
11.	Juan Berthy Suárez 	 	1990–2000 	135
12.	Erwin Romero 	 	1977–1992 	134
13.	Carlos Fernando Borja 	 	1977–1995 	129
= 	Arturo García 	 	1983–1999 	129
15.	Jorge Hirano 	 	1986–1992 	124
==External links==
*Official website 
*RSSSF List of Champions
*RSSSF Topscorers
Category:Leagues