Chile Liga de Primera

The Asociación de Fútbol de Santiago (also known as AFS) was the first organization in Chile to organize football tournament. It was formed in 1903 and organized non-professional football in Santiago. Later on, it was the organization responsible for holding the national professional football league in Chile.

In 1933, eight big clubs at that time, namely, Unión Española, Badminton, Colo-Colo, Audax Italiano, Green Cross, Morning Star, Magallanes and Santiago National F.C., founded the Liga Profesional de Football de Santiago (LPF) on May 31, 1933. The newly formed body was recognized by the Football Federation of Chile on June 2, 1933. ^[]

The first edition of professional competition was contested by the eight founding teams and was won by Magallanes after defeating Colo-Colo in a decisive match. In the following year, according to the disposition of Federación de Fútbol de Chile, Liga Profesional returned to integrate with the AFS. As part of the negotiations for reunification, four teams from AFS, namely, Ferroviarios, Carlos Walker, Deportivo Alemán, and Santiago F.C., would join the 1934 professional competition. Moreover, it was also decided that the last six teams in the 1934 competition would be eliminated to form the new second division in 1935. The title of the expanded 1934 edition was again clinched by Magallanes, which won 10 out of the 11 matches that year.

Colo-Colo squad in 1937

In 1937, the Santiago Professional Football Association was born - which in 1938 would be renamed the Central Football Association (ACF) - being the first association completely unrelated to the amateur sector. The 1937 championship saw for the first time a team compete outside the capital, Santiago Wanderers, which had to play all its matches in Santiago and as a guest, which meant that no points were credited to it in the standings. The tournament was finally won by Colo-Colo, who under its number one star went undefeated.

In the 1940 championship, the traditional two-wheel system was restored and Universidad de Chile had a great squad under the leadership of Luis Tirado and with players such as Víctor Alonso, the tournament's top scorer with 20 goals, Abanés Passalacqua and goalkeeper Eduardo Simián, and was crowned professional champion for the first time after only three years in the top division.

In 1947, Colo Colo got their fifth star under the guidance of their coach Enrique Sorrel and who was awarded the title of host of the South American Championship of Champions (a tournament in which the champion clubs of the official leagues of the South American continent participated). In the 1948 tournament, historic Italian players such as goalkeeper Daniel Chirinos, defender Carlos Varela and strikers Juan Zárate and Domingo Romo once again led Audax Italiano to its third professional title.

In the 1950 championship, Everton de Viña del Mar was crowned champion for the first time in its history and in the process broke the capital's hegemony, becoming the first provincial champion, after defeating Unión Española in the final match with a solitary goal from its leading striker, René Meléndez. In addition, one of the founding clubs of the First Division, Badminton, merged with Ferroviarios to form Ferrobádminton.

In 1960, Colo-Colo won its eighth title, beating Santiago Wanderers by 6 points and its archrival, Universidad de Chile, by 9 points. That tournament also marked the beginning of the crisis for Magallanes, when it was relegated for the first time in its history. However, the Carabelero team suffered relegation, due to the average of the last three years.

In the 1961 tournament, Universidad de Chile and Universidad Católica tied in points and forced two final matches in which, after a draw in the first leg, the Cruzados team won the return leg by 3-2, with a penalty kick by Alberto Fouillioux at 85 minutes, a score that led it to obtain its third national title. That year, Audax Italiano made a big splash in the transfer market, by bringing in Brazilian national team player and World Cup player Zizinho, who scored only 3 goals in 16 games, and also his compatriot Ceninho, who scored only 8 goals (5 more than Zizinho).

In 1962, Universidad de Chile —the team that provided the most players to the Chilean national team in the World Cup held in Chile— took revenge and won the final match of that year's championship against Universidad Católica, semifinalist of the 1962 Copa Libertadores, equaling both with three titles up to that point. Thus, Chilean football was marked in that decade by parties and the Clásico Universitario.

The arrival of the 1970s saw Colo-Colo, in the national championship, obtain its tenth star after seven years, by beating Unión Española in a close final, counting on great figures such as Francisco Valdés, Carlos Caszely, Leonel Sánchez (who arrived as a reinforcement for Colo-Colo that year), Humberto Cruz, Juan Carlos Gangas, Víctor Zelada, the Uruguayan José María Piriz and the Brazilian Elson Beyruth.

In 1971, the tournament returned to the round-robin system, with the Unión San Felipe team, coached by Luis Santibáñez, winning the championship. After beating Universidad de Chile in the final stretch, it lifted its first and, to date, only title, holding to this day the record of being the only team to win consecutive Second Division and First Division tournaments, respectively.

The 1972 national tournament, with a total attendance of over 3,000,000, is the tournament with the largest attendance in the history of Chilean football. In this tournament, Colo-Colo won its eleventh title, after relegating Unión Española to second place, by three points in the general table, using almost the same squad that was champion in 1970, but with the technical figure of Luis Álamos, who became the technical director with the most First Division titles, to date. That year was also marked by Everton's relegation, finishing last in that tournament and the return of Palestino, who won the Second Division title, returning directly to the top flight, after 2 years of absence.

On February 10, 2021, during the 2020 Official Tournament, postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Universidad Católica won the first three-time championship in its history, obtaining the fifteenth title, and the fifth of the last seven official tournaments in Chile. They achieved this after obtaining 17 wins, 11 draws and 5 losses. At the bottom of the table, Colo-Colo had to play a match to stay in the top flight for the first time in its history, which it managed to overcome after beating Universidad de Concepción 1-0, with a goal from Argentine Pablo Solari, in a duel that was played on February 17, 2021, at the Estadio Fiscal de Talca.

The 2024 tournament is considered by fans and analysts as the best of the long tournaments, after a fierce fight between Colo Colo and Universidad de Chile (the first between the two since 1998) obtaining almost 20 points over the third place, which was the surprising Deportes Iquique of Miguel Ramírez (who was returning to the top flight and who snatched Chile 3 for the 2025 Copa Libertadores from Universidad Católica, which occurred on Saturday of the Telethon). The Cruzados team led by Brazilian Tiago Nunes and who lost at home 2-1 to Coquimbo Unido, had to settle for securing their ticket to the 2025 Copa Sudamericana. The only thing worth mentioning about the Cruzados team is that Argentine striker Fernando Zampedri not only became the top five scorer in the national tournament; but also the top historical scorer for the team from the stripe. The title finally fell to the side of the white team, led by the Argentine Jorge Almirón, after tying 1-1 on the last date as a visitor against the relegated Deportes Copiapó and given that the blue team led by his compatriot Gustavo Álvarez, could not win their home game against Everton, tying by the same score, which would have forced a final match. It was also marked by the relegation of Cobreloa, who had to return to the Primera B, after being only one year in the top category, being their second relegation in history, after having been relegated in mid-2015.