60 years of Colombian Professional Football

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On 7 July 1948, the assembly of the recently founded Major Division of Colombian Football, Dimayor, created by the representatives of the clubs that had acquired the status of professionals (that is, the ones where the footballers received a salary to carry out their activity), determined that since August, they would hold an annual football championship of first division in Colombia, with the participation of teams coming from the most important cities in the country.

Dimayor, whose first President was Alfonso Sénior, and Vice President Humberto Salcedo Fernández (managers of Millonarios and America, respectively), set the inscription quota for each club in ONE THOUSAND COLOMBIAN PESOS. To this first sport event, the inscribed teams were Santa Fe, Millonarios, Atlético Municipal, Independiente Medellín, Deportivo Cali, América, Deportes Caldas, Once Deportivo, Atlético Junior and Universidad – that initially played in Pereira and later in Bogotá-. 

Because of the enormous distances that separate the Colombian cities and to the precarious infrastructure of highways that existed at that time, the presidents of the clubs signed an agreement with the airline Avianca so that it provided the transport by air every weekend, with a 45% discount on the ordinary price of the tickets. 

The rules of the competition were set, as well as the championship system, in the traditional league way, with nine games at home and nine games as visitor, so the champion would be the one that was in the first place of the positions table at the end of the 18th round. The best paid player of this championship was Julio Chonto Gaviria, goalkeeper of Santa Fe, whose wage was agreed in one thousand Colombian pesos a month.  

The first round was scheduled for August 15, 1948. Due to the fact that the games in Medellín had to be played in a stadium that was at the same time a horse race track (San Fernando) and in the afternoons there were horse races, the first match in the history of our tournament was played at 11 in the morning of that memorable Sunday: Atlético Municipal vs. Universidad. The first goal of the Colombian Professional Football was scored by Rafael Serna – of Municipal-, by penalty kick, in the 15th minute of the first half. At the end, the score was 2-0, winning the “paisa” team that later became the Atlético Nacional.

In afternoon hours, the other games were played, with the following results: América 4 – Independiente Medellín 0; Santa Fe 1 – Deportes Caldas 1; Millonarios 6 – Once Deportivo 0; Junior 2 – Deportivo Cali 0.

Since that day and until the present, football has been one of the best palliatives against the difficulties of the day-by-day life of the Colombians. Thus, in the 1950’s, football fans enjoyed the show offered by the shinning foreigner stars of "El Dorado" (The Colombian golden age of football) that enriched our championship, although at the same time the political violence was filling with mourning to millions of families. Then, the dictatorship put an end to that violence, but it brought the censorship and the repression to personal freedoms, so that football was a wonderful escape valve to this situation. Decades later, and when the country has been sunk in moments of tragedy and pain, either for the attacks of the terrorism –wherever it comes-, the economic and social crises or the natural disasters, football has always been there to make happier our souls.

These previous lines do not mean that the Colombian Professional Football has been exempt of problems. In several occasions, the bad habits of the high directing spheres, the politics’ cloudy handlings, the ones from the underworld and of the organized crime and even the bad behaviors adopted from other parts of the world, have stained our championship and they have put it in awful situations, as in 1989, when the tournament was suspended due to the murder of a referee, by a group of illegal betters.

But in spite of its good and bad times, the championship has literally been able to keep its head out of the water. 66 trophies have been given to same number of teams that have won the tournament, and several of them have represented the country with remarkable performances in different stadiums of the planet. Along these sixty years, Millonarios, América, Nacional, Cali, Santa Fe, Junior, Medellín, Once Caldas and Cúcuta Deportivo, have placed proudly the Colombian flag in foreign courts. This article is a sincere tribute to the players and the good directives of ancient times, many of them that have already left this world, as well as for those that are still with us in their retirement or in activity as managers, footballers and trainers. We wish we can have during many years the happiness of watching every weekend, and in peace, a good football game.

This article was originally published 12 July 2008 in equinoXio. Translated from Spanish by Rafa XII.

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