Football in Guatemala

Football is the most popular sports in Guatemala and is run by the Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala. The association administers the national football team, as well as the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala.

The first clubs of the country were established in the capital Guatemala City, where a second football club was founded with Olympic FC at the beginning of the 20th century. These two teams started the first competition with the Copa Centroamericana between the 28th August and the 30th October 1904, and they were conceded exclusively between these two teams, who competed ten times against each other. With six wins and a draw against three defeats, the younger Olympic FC won this first match. The second competition took place between October 1905 and February 19066 and was contested by a total of three teams. Once again, Olympic FC went through, but the Guatemala FC "defended" second place in front of the newly added team of the Gay SC. After that, other tournaments were played out as of 1911 under the new name Copa Manuel Estrada Cabrera. The first tournament won the Gay SC, but in the years 1913 and 1914 the Guatemala FC finally entered the winner list

Soon the football reached also the second largest city in the country, Quetzaltenango, where the Quetzaltenango FC was founded in May 1906.

Already in 1919 the League Capitalina was launched and the first Campeonato Nacional won, which was won by the Hércules FC

With the establishment of the Campeonato de Liga for the season 1942/43, the professional football was introduced in Guatemala. Since then the country's football has been dominated by the two major rivals from Guatemala City, CSD Comunicaciones and CSD Municipal, who have won the championship title 59 times already (until the end of the 2015/16 season, Comunicaciones was successful 30 times, Municipal 29 Times). In the third place follows by a long distance the Aurora FC, which also lives in the capital, and between 1964 and 1992/93 a total of eight times came to champions. Best team outside the capital is with five titles the Club Xelajú MC from the second largest city in the country, Quetzaltenango

CSD Municipal won the biggest successes in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 1974. Four years later, the archrival Comunicaciones F.C. was also delighted with this triumph, although he was only one of three season winners. However, because the tournament of the year 1978 was not carried out anymore, all three teams were declared as equivalent tournament champions.