Deportivo Cali guide - history, logo, titles, stadium map
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Full Name: Asociación Deportivo Cali Official Website: deporcali.com Description:Deportivo Cali have a proud history as one of the oldest football clubs in Colombia as well as one of its most successful. The Verdiblanco (The Green and White) have won the Colombian championship eight times and reached the final of the Copa Libertadores twice, though they have yet to walk away with the title. With roots in the educated Cali elite and a lineage dating back to the first organized football match in the the city and the paint freshly dried on their brand-new stadium, Deportivo Cali remains firmly planted in future as well as the past. History:In the early decades of the 20th century the wealthy elite of Cali sent some of their best and brightest sons to Europe to attend university. Along with an education, these boys returned with one of Europe's most popular obsessions - football. Calling themselves The Cali Football Club, a group of these boys put together the first public football match in the city of Cali in 1912. The club was split into two teams, one wearing red and another wearing green. It was decided that the colors of the winning team would be adopted as the official sporting colors of the city of Cali and the greater Cauca Valley. The green team lost and green and white became the color of The Cali Football Club and its successor Deportivo Cali.
The Cali Football Club survived until 1927. The following year a team named Deportivo Cali A was put together to represent Cali in the Colombian Juegos Deportivos Nacionales (a kind of national Olympics for Colombia). Deportivo Cali A continued to represent Cali in this tournament throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1943 two smaller multi-sports clubs in Cali - Los Penguins and Sol y Aire - began discussions on merging to create a stronger club. These discussions were concluded in 1945 and the two clubs merged under the banner of Atlético Cali with a football section called Deportivo Cali A.
Just a few years later Deportivo Cali A were involved in the formation of Colombia's first professional football league - the Dimayor Primera A. Their first match in the competition took place on August 15, 1948 and unfortunately ended in defeat, 2-0 at Barranquilla club Atlético Junior. Deportivo Cali A continued competition in the Dimayor until the end of the 1955 season, when they withdrew and were effectively wound up for finanacial difficulties. Two years later another Cali club, Boca Juniors, left the Dimayor but with an agreement that they could return to the league in two years. At the end of 1958 Boca Juniors were unable to resolve their own financial problems and effectively ceded their place to a newly refounded Deportivo Cali.
The Verdiblanco have never been outside the Dimayor since and have claimed the championship eight times, placing them fourth in the all-time table. Deportivo Cali have also reached the final of the Copa Libertadores twice, losing to Boca Juniors (1978) and Palmeiras (1999). Additionally Depor were losing finalists in the 1998 Copa Merconorte to fellow Colombians Atlético Nacional.
Besides the fairly obvious Verdiblanco (Green and White) nickname Deportivo Cali are known as the Azucareros - the sugar-makers. Sugar plantations have long played an important part in the economy of Cali and the greater Cauca Valley. The club are sometimes also referred to simply as Cali.
The battle for supremacy in the Cauca Valley is contested at least twice annually with bitter rivals América de Cali in the Clasico Vallecaucano - The Cauca Valley Classic. For decades the match had taken place at the Estadio Olímpico Pascual Guerrero in the heart of Cali. However beginning in 2009 at least one of these matches will take place in the brand-new Estadio Deportivo Cali that the club have built on the northwestern perimeter of Cali. This makes Deportivo Cali the first major club in Colombia to own their own stadium. Estadio Deprtivo Cali:
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 11 February 2010 18:12 |
