Incredible! Copa Peru, a tournament with 20,000 teams!
The Peru Cup is one of the most incredible tournaments that exist. The award? Promotion to the first division
In football, there are exciting tournaments like the World Cup, historical tournaments like the Champions League and old tournaments like the FA Cup. However, none of these tournaments compares to the "Copa Peru", the tournament that changed the history of football tournaments. To begin, you have to understand that in Peru there are a total of 2 leagues, the first and second division. The third, fourth, or fifth divisions, technically do not exist. Actually, they do exist but in the form of a tournament, the Copa Peru.
It is a tournament where 20,000 teams participate. Yes, 20,000 teams. It is not an exaggeration. Any team (except first and second-division teams) can play in this tournament. It doesn't matter if it's an amateur team, a local team, or a professional team, literally any team can play in this tournament. That is, a person can invite 10 friends, register and officially play this tournament. Since there are so many teams, many knockout games are played to eliminate and reduce the number of teams.
The game system is complex; first, the teams compete to be the best in their district. The best of each district then competes to be the best provincial team and then the best departmental teams are defined. The departmental champions and runners-up (Peru is divided into 25 departments) qualify for the National Tournament, totaling 50 teams. The 50 teams are grouped into a single National Position Table. The teams ranked from 1 to 32 qualify for the next stage and will be eliminated successively in the round of 32, the round of 16, and the quarter-finals. The last 4 teams play a quadrangular to define the champion and runner-up.
The problem with this tournament is the level difference between each team. It is possible that in a game a team with a stadium, shirt, sponsor, and professional players plays against a team that barely has the necessary players to play. A few days ago the 22-0 win in the Copa Peru was a trend. Another curious detail is the names of the teams. Throughout history, there have been teams with funny, funny, unusual and strange names. An example is Peru San German (Paris Saint Germain), Rico Pollo (delicious chicken), and Independiente Bigote (Independent Mustache), among others.
There are 2 types of teams in Copa Peru, the teams with a lot of money that compete to win the tournament and be promoted to the First Division. On the other hand, some teams just play for pride and fun. Imagine being part of the best team in your town, because many teams play for that, for the honor.
Thanks to this impressive tournament, many unknown teams became popular in Peru. For example, Deportivo Binacional won this tournament in 2017 and thanks to that, they were promoted to the First Division. Two years later, he defeated a historic team like Alianza Lima and became the champion of Peru. Another case is Juan Aurich, who won the tournament in 2007 and 4 years later, he was already the champion of the first division.
The most winning team in Copa Peru is Club Atlético Torino, with 5 trophies. Currently, this team is fighting to win this tournament again and compete again at a professional level in Peru.
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