Universidad de Los Andes FC

ULA
	ULA
Basic data
Surname	Universidad de Los Andes Fútbol Club
founding	1977 ; 2006 (newly founded)
president	Pedro Rincón Gutiérrez
Website	ulafc.com
First soccer team
Head coach	Miguel Perdomo
Venue	Estadio Guillermo Soto Rosa
Places	16,500
league	Segunda Division B
2010/11	1st place, Tercera División ; Promotion
home	Away

Universidad de Los Andes Fútbol Club , also known by the abbreviation ULA , is a Venezuelan football club from Mérida . The club was founded in 1977 and plays its home games at the Estadio Guillermo Soto Rosa , which can seat 16,500 spectators. Universidad de Los Andes FC, which have won two Venezuelan championships so far, are currently playing in Segunda División B , the third-highest division in Venezuela .

history

Beginnings

The Universidad de Los Andes FC association was founded in 1977 under the name Universidad de Los Andes Mérida Fútbol Club in Mérida. The newly founded club was a university association, the University of Applied Sciences Universidad de los Andes is located in the immediate vicinity and was also eponymous. The founding members of ULA, as the association is abbreviated, chose the colors blue and white, which also corresponds to those of the university.

Most successful time

Universidad de Los Andes FC has won the Venezuelan football championship twice in its history. The club achieved their first victory in 1983. In the Primera División , a first place was achieved one point ahead of Portuguesa FC . With the championship title, the club was eligible to compete in the Copa Libertadores 1984 . At the tournament, ULA surprisingly survived the first group stage by taking first place in front of Sporting Cristal , Portuguesa and FBC Melgar . As a result, the second group stage was reached, where the two top Brazilian clubs Gremio Porto Alegre and Flamengo Rio de Janeiro came to an end. At the national level, however, the coming years were less successful for ULA, it took until the 1990/91 season before the club was able to celebrate another great success. In the mentioned season they finished first place with two points ahead of Marítimo Caracas after all game days and became Venezuelan champions in football for the second time. This time the Libertadores participation was less successful, it was already eliminated as the bottom of the group in the first round.

Decline and return

In 1998, just two years after winning the Venezuelan Cup, the Copa Venezuela, Universidad de Los Andes FC ran into severe financial difficulties. After three more years of playing in the top leagues of Venezuelan football, ULA had to sell the rights to the club in 2001 due to financial problems and join the Monagas Sport Club . This sealed the end of Universidad de Los Andes FC. Five years later, in 2006, ULA was able to be re-established and has been playing in Venezuela's lower leagues ever since. In the 2011/12 season, the club will play again in the Segunda División B Venezolano, the third highest division, after being promoted from the Tercera División in 2010/11.