Puebla F.C.

Puebla F.C.

Club de Fútbol Puebla is a Mexican football club based in the city of Puebla, Mexico, competing in the Liga MX. The team's white home jersey features its iconic blue sash, which crosses the chest diagonally from the right shoulder to the waist (see uniform diagrams, at right).

Since 1904 the city of Puebla has practiced football. First in 1904 with club Puebla A.C. founded by Englishmen who integrated into the Mexican football league during the amateur era. In 1944 and 1949, Puebla F.C. gained second, third and three fourth-place finishes in league play; in the 1944-45 season, they won their first Copa México, thereby paving the road for one of the great football clubs in Mexico. During the 1953-54 season, they managed their second Copa México title. Puebla took home their first league title in the 1982-83 season after defeating Guadalajara on penalty kicks. A third Copa México was accomplished after the 1987-88 season, and in the 1989-90 season they won both their fourth Copa México and their second league title after beating Universidad de Guadalajara. This feat (winning both the league and the Copa México championships) earned the team the right to be counted among the exclusive "Campeónísimo" club. In 1991, they defeated Police F.C. from Trinidad and Tobago for their first CONCACAF championship.

The team was relegated to Primera A at the end of the Clausura 2005. The team won the Apertura 2006 tournament in an exciting match against Salamanca. On May 26, 2007, Puebla won back the right to play in Mexico's premier league by defeating Dorados de Sinaloa in a packed Cuauhtémoc Stadium with more than 45,000 fans. Celebrations all around the city of Puebla ensued, reminding of the celebrations in 1983 and 1990 when the team won the league championship. Puebla eluded relegation again in the Clausura 2009, but the team went much further in the tournament than anybody anticipated; managing to reach the semifinal stage of the Liguilla where they performed admirably against the team that would be champion, U.N.A.M., which was able to reach the finals only because of their better position in the tournament standings.

Throughout more than sixty years of professional football, Puebla has counted on notable international players, mainly from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Spain, Uruguay and other locations in Africa and Europe.