Association football is a national sport in Bolivia, where the first modern set of rules for the sport were established in 1923, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. Boliva has over 2,000 football clubs.
Bolivia is home to, amongst others, one of the oldest football clubs (Oruro Royal) in South America. Today top domestic league, the Liga Professional de Futbol Bolivia, is one of the most important leagues in the South America.
It has traditionally been a male-dominated sport, but women’s football has become increasingly prominent in recent years.
Clubs who do well in either the La Liga, Copa Aerosur or Copa Simon Bolivar can qualify to compete in various CONMEBOL-organised South America-wide competitions in the following season.
The number of Bolivian clubs playing in South America in any one season can range from six to eight, depending on the qualification scenarios or one of the Bolivian team who wins the Copa Libertadores or Copa Sudamericana.
Bolivian Football League System
La Liga
The La Liga was founded in 1977 after Copa Simón Bolívar’s top clubs broke away from the Football League in a successful effort aimed at increasing their income at the expense of clubs in the lower divisions. Links with The La Liga were maintained, and each season the bottom each two clubs are relegated the bottom club directly and the second last plays a play-off against the runner-up of the second division.
La Liga is contested between 12 clubs each season (there was 16 club between 1977-1991). The current champions are Club Oriente Petrolero. Each club in La Liga in any given season owns one twentieth of a share in the league itself, meaning that they are all supposedly equal owners with equal rights and responsibilities.
Copa Simon Bolivar
Although the oldest league in Bolivia, Copa Simón Bolívar now ranks second in the hierarchy of Bolivian football since the split of Bolivia’s top clubs in 1977 to form the La Liga.
The Copa Simon Bolivar has 18 member clubs evenly divided among three group, to qualify for this cup club from Primera A (champions and runner-up). Despite the organisational split, promotion and relegation of clubs still takes place between the Primera A and the Primera B.
Bolivia at the Olympics
Bolivia first participated at the Olympic Games in 1936. The nation has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since 1964, except when they participated in the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics. The nation has also participated in the Winter Olympic Games on several occasions since 1956, but not since 1992.
As of 2011, no athlete from Bolivia has ever won an Olympic medal, however, the National Sub-15 Football team has won the first gold medal for the country at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore 2010.
The National Olympic Committee for Bolivia was created in 1932 and recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1936.