The 1996 Torneo Descentralizado was the 81st season of the top category of Peruvian football. A total of 16 teams competed in the tournament.

Sporting Cristal Club Sporting Cristal S.A., shortened to Sporting Cristal, is a Peruvian sports club located in the city of Lima, best known for its association football, soccer team. It was founded on 13 December 1955 in the Rímac District, Rímac district by e ...

won its 13th first division title, completing a string of 3 consecutive titles starting in 1994. The feat is known as a ''tricampeonato'' and was only accomplished before by

Alianza Lima Club Alianza Lima, more commonly known as simply Alianza Lima, is a Peru, Peruvian professional sports club based in La Victoria District, Lima, La Victoria District of Lima, Peru. The club was founded under the name of Sport Alianza on February ...

Changes from 1995

*The tournament would be played like in 1994, where the champion was crowned after the first stage of the tournament and the second berth to the Copa Libertadores was determined by an end-of-season Liguilla featuring 4 teams. *Four teams were relegated instead of the customary two. Two teams from the

Copa Perú The Copa Perú is a association football, football tournament in Peru and the fourth-highest division of the Peruvian football league system. Despite its name, it is not entirely an elimination-cup competition involving all Peruvian clubs, but ra ...

and the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

in their place.

Teams

Team changes

Stadia locations

First stage

The first stage of the season was played as a double

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

as champions qualified for the 1997 Copa Libertadores.

directly advanced to the end-of-season Liguilla and received a bonus point for placing second. The teams that placed 3 to 8 advanced to a preliminary round.

Results

Pre-Liguilla

Universitario, Deportivo Pesquero, and Cienciano qualified for the Liguilla.

Liguilla Pre-Libertadores

All matches were played in Lima.

References

External links

RSSSF Peru 1996 by Eli Schmerler, José Luis Pierrend
{{Torneo Descentralizado

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

Peruvian Primera División seasons