SA Blog Number 17: El Dorado: Hey, It Wasn’t Bad That League! Colombian Football’s Golden Era
23rd February 2010
The Premier League is probably world football’s epicentre right now. If Sky Sports are anything to go by then it is by far the greatest thing to happen in the history of the world – the world having begun in 1992, obviously.
But aside from the glory days of Serie A in the 90’s or La Liga in the early part of the last decade, there is probably only one other country that can seriously lay claim to having once carried the best league in world football.
If you can believe it, once upon a time the financial hub of the football world was none other than… Colombia! El Dorado (a wonderful term that has been forever destroyed thanks to the Skoda of British soap operas that followed a bunch of expats living somewhere in the Costa Del Sol) reigned from 1949-1954.
It all happened quite by accident. There was no advertising campaign to announce the dawn of a new era; no momentous new TV deal to provide clubs with huge cash injections (there was no TV at all, actually); there was no fancy soundtrack; no team of well dressed pundits assembled to keep fans interested over half-time breaks; no, there was none of that. Just a bizarre sequence of random coincidences that culminated in Colombia’s new football league becoming the place to be.
It all began back in 1948 with Colombia’s decision to professionalise their domestic game. Argentina had gone pro in 1931, Uruguay in 1932 and Brazil in 1933. It was only logical that Colombia do the same if they wanted to keep up with South American football’s heavy-hitters.
The new football Association, Dimayor (Division Mayor del Fútbol Colombiano) approached the existing amateur football association, Adefutbol, to discuss the transition to a professional game. Dimayor President Humberto Salcedo Fernandez was masterminding the new competition and had already arranged a number of provisions to help the clubs in their transition, including heavily discounted flights to charter the clubs to matches. He was to pick 10 clubs from the major cities to compete in the new Colombian championship.
The existing Amateur League association, Adefutbol, however, took a slight exception to the sudden formation of the new professional league association and a dispute between the two federations ended with Adefutbol persuading FIFA to suspend the new league’s FIFA affiliation indefinitely.
However, that would not deter Senor Fernandez and the new league was to go ahead without FIFA’s blessing. The ensuing suspension of Dimayor’s FIFA affiliation caused quite a fall-out - not least, the Colombian national team being suspended from international competition - however one club chairman spotted an opportunity and inadvertently ushered in what Bogota daily El Tiempo dubbed ‘El Dorado’(The Golden one), Colombian football’s ‘golden era’.
That opportunist was Alfonso Senior of Bogota based club Millonarios. He sent his Manager, Carlos Aldabe off to his native Argentina and told him not to return without a star. It seemed like a good time to poach some talent from one of the top leagues on the continent with Argentina in the midst of a footballing crisis with a nationwide player strike currently in progress.
The ‘star’ Aldabe brought back was none other than Adolfo Pedernera - famed for forming part of River’s infamous La Maquina (The Machine) frontline of the 1940’s alongside the likes of Alfredo Di Stefano, Juan Carlos Munoz and Jose Manuel Moreno. Upon their return to Bogota it quickly became apparent that because Dimayor was not a FIFA sanctioned league, it did not have to follow FIFA rules. As a result, this meant that no transfer fee was required. Millonarios has just picked up one of the finest players in the world…for free!
No transfer fees meant bigger wages. With a single stroke of luck, almost literally overnight, Colombian football became a city of gold. Initially, the other club chairman voiced concerns over how exactly Millonarios were going to pay their new player’s massive salary. An increased turnstile profit of about five times their usual takings quickly answered that question, as locals poured in to see the best player in the country. Other clubs quickly followed suit, hoovering up the finest players the continent had to offer, and before long, some even started as far as these British Isles. Cue a crazy supermarket-sweep-like chase for the best footballers on the continent.
Senior then sent Pedernera on a scouting mission back to Argentina to secure the best footballers the country had to offer and bring them back to Bogota. If you thought Aldabe had pulled off a coup on his trip, Pedernera went one better and brought none other than Alfredo di Stefano back with him.
The first official Colombian professional league championship registered 252 players, of which 222 appeared. Of those 222, there were 182 Colombians, 13 Argentines, 8 Peruvians, 5 Uruguayans, 2 Chileans, 2 Ecuadorians, 2 Dominicans and 1 Spaniard. Those numbers that would rapidly increase as word spread around the world that Colombia was paying big money to its footballers.
Millonarios are still nicknamed El Ballet Azul (The Blue Ballet) to this day after dominating El Dorado, winning four of the five league championships contested during that period, with a team that included no less than ten Argentines.
The Blue Bullet boasted di Stefano, Pedernera, Alfredo Castillo (who scored 133 goals during El Dorado), Nestor Rossi and a host of other top Argentine footballers. Neighbouring club Cucuta decided they would go with Uruguayans, recruiting no less than twelve of them, including numerous World Cup winners. Club Santa Fe opted for English imports, recruiting England centre-half Neil Franklin, Manchester United’s Charlie Mitten and Stoke’s City’s George Mountfood.
While the Colombians were having a wale of a time throughout 1950, FIFA and CONMEBOL were a little less thrilled with the situation and it is said that delegations from the two organisations made numerous trips to Colombia throughout the year to try and put an end to the madness. Eventually, Dimayor came to an agreement to join FIFA on the condition that their players could honour their Colombian contracts until 1954 when they would return to their previous employers.
And so, in 1954 El Dorado came to an end. The most captivating league in the history of South American football would return to its natural state. Players like di Stefano and Hector Rial went on to conquer Europe with Real Madrid, Ramon Alberto Villaverde joined Barcelona and ‘The Bogota Bandit’ Charlie Mitten returned to Manchester United, but football had captured the imagination of an entire country; the Colombian national team went on to achieve their best ever Copa America finish in 1957, earning fifth place in Peru.
It was short-lived, but for those five years, Colombian football can claim what few countries can - to have once boasted the best football league on the planet.
Rupert Fryer, SouthAmericanFootball.co.uk
Elsewhere on the continent
Ronaldinho is doing the business again
It´s hard work getting to away games in South America
Claudio Vivas ´wins´ the sack race
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Thomas
:::2010-02-25 12:56:34
I find it fascinating that this boom happened in the middle of the violencia period. How is it possible that all those footballers got on a gravy train to a country which was essentially a war zone. How was that even possible?
Rupert_SAF
:::2010-02-25 16:35:20
Hi Thomas, that´s a very good question.
While I am not an expert on the subject of ´La Violencia´ by any means, my research did inevitably lead me towards a slight refresher on the subject.
My understanding of the situation is that the majority of the conflict was restricted to the rural parts of the country. The clubs who went on to take part in El Dorado were owned by wealthy businessmen located in the cities.
President Mariano Ospina Perez saw the football fever that had swept the nation as a welcome distraction from all the bloodshed and did all he could do to keep up the new found enthusiasm for the sport.
Perez is actually said to have funded the clubs’ initial costs of signing these new players, as he was sure ticket sales would see a rapid return on his investment (and it was an investment, he is thought to have charged a considerable interest rate).
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