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Torneo Descentralizado
Season	1996
Champions	Sporting Cristal; 13th Primera División title
Relegated	Aurich–Cañaña; Ciclista Lima; Guardia Republicana; San Agustín
Copa Libertadores	Sporting Cristal; Alianza Lima
Copa CONMEBOL	Universitario
Top goalscorer	Waldir Sáenz (19)
	← 1995 1997 →

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 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.

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 and the Segunda División in their place.

Teams

Team changes

Promoted from 1995 Segunda División	Promoted from 1995 Copa Perú	Relegated from 1995 Primera División
Guardia Republicana (1st)	La Loretana (1st)	Unión Huaral (15th) León de Huánuco (16th)

Stadia locations

Alianza Lima
Ciclista Lima
G. Republicana
Municipal
San Agustín
Sporting Cristal
Universitario
Sport Boys

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Locations of the 1996 Primera División teams

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity
Alianza Atlético	Sullana	Campeones del 36	8,000
Alianza Lima	Lima	Alejandro Villanueva	35,000
Atlético Torino	Talara	Campeonísimo	8,000
Aurich–Cañaña	Chiclayo	Elías Aguirre	24,500
Ciclista Lima	Lima	Nacional	45,750
Cienciano	Cusco	Garcilaso	42,056
Deportivo Municipal	Lima	Nacional	45,750
Deportivo Pesquero	Chimbote	Manuel Gómez Arellano	25,000
Guardia Republicana	Lima	Nacional	45,750
La Loretana	Pucallpa	Aliardo Soria	15,000
Melgar	Arequipa	Mariano Melgar	20,000
San Agustín	Lima	Nacional	45,750
Sport Boys	Callao	Miguel Grau	18,000
Sporting Cristal	Lima	San Martín de Porres	15,000
Unión Minas	Cerro de Pasco	Daniel Alcides Carrión	8,000
Universitario	Lima	Nacional	45,750

First stage

The first stage of the season was played as a double round-robin tournament. Sporting Cristal as champions qualified for the 1997 Copa Libertadores. Alianza Lima 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.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sporting Cristal (C)	30	22	3	5	73	26	+47	69	1997 Copa Libertadores
2	Alianza Lima	30	17	9	4	68	23	+45	60	Liguilla Pre-Libertadores with 1 bonus point
3	Universitario	30	16	10	4	39	20	+19	58	Pre-Liguilla
4	Sport Boys	30	13	14	3	49	26	+23	53
5	Atlético Torino	30	14	7	9	33	33	0	49
6	Cienciano	30	11	8	11	32	36	−4	41
7	Deportivo Pesquero	30	9	10	11	27	33	−6	37
8	Unión Minas	30	9	10	11	35	42	−7	37
9	Deportivo Municipal	30	10	7	13	44	57	−13	37
10	La Loretana	30	11	4	15	39	59	−20	37
11	Melgar	30	9	9	12	36	35	+1	36
12	Alianza Atlético	30	10	6	14	40	51	−11	36
13	Aurich–Cañaña	30	9	6	15	30	37	−7	33	1997 Copa Perú
14	Ciclista Lima	30	6	11	13	36	51	−15	29	1997 Segunda División
15	Guardia Republicana	30	7	8	15	30	45	−15	29
16	San Agustín	30	4	4	22	27	62	−35	16

Updated to match(es) played on 1996. Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions

Results

Home \ Away	AAS	ALI	TOR	AUR	CIC	CIE	MUN	PES	GUA	LOR	MEL	AGU	SBA	CRI	MIN	UNI
Alianza Atlético		2–3	3–0	1–3	3–1	2–0	5–2	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–0	2–1	2–2	1–2	3–1	3–2
Alianza Lima	6–0		1–0	5–2	2–0	3–1	2–2	2–2	1–0	5–0	1–1	6–0	2–2	0–0	3–0	0–0
Atlético Torino	0–0	1–1		1–0	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–1	2–0	3–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	0–2	2–0	0–0
Aurich–Cañaña	1–0	0–1	1–2		1–1	1–0	1–2	0–1	0–0	0–1	1–2	2–0	2–2	2–1	1–1	0–1
Ciclista Lima	2–1	0–1	1–1	1–1		2–0	2–1	1–1	3–5	4–1	0–1	1–4	2–2	2–4	1–0	1–1
Cienciano	1–1	2–1	3–0	1–0	1–0		2–0	2–0	2–2	1–1	1–1	3–0	1–0	3–1	2–1	0–0
Deportivo Municipal	2–2	1–5	3–1	2–3	2–2	0–1		1–0	3–1	1–4	3–0	2–1	2–2	0–2	1–0	0–0
Deportivo Pesquero	2–1	0–2	2–1	1–1	0–0	2–1	0–1		0–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	3–0	1–1	0–3
Guardia Republicana	1–0	0–5	1–4	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–2	0–1		1–0	1–0	5–1	0–1	0–2	2–2	1–2
La Loretana	2–0	1–6	1–1	1–2	3–2	3–1	1–2	2–1	2–1		1–0	3–2	2–1	0–2	1–0	1–1
Melgar	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–2	4–1	1–1	5–1	0–0	3–1	4–0		2–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	0–1
San Agustín	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–2	1–1	2–0	1–2	1–2	1–3	4–3	2–1		1–1	0–3	0–0	1–2
Sport Boys	2–0	0–0	4–1	2–1	1–0	2–0	0–0	3–1	2–0	5–2	3–2	1–1		3–1	5–0	0–0
Sporting Cristal	4–1	2–1	2–0	2–0	6–2	6–0	5–2	3–1	1–0	2–0	3–0	3–1	0–0		7–1	1–2
Unión Minas	5–0	1–2	4–0	1–0	0–0	2–2	3–2	1–0	2–0	1–1	2–1	3–1	0–0	0–1		1–1
Universitario	3–1	1–1	0–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	2–1	1–0	2–1	3–1	3–1	3–0	1–2	0–2	2–0

Updated to match(es) played on 1996. Source: RSSSF Peru 1996
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Pre-Liguilla

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Unión Minas	0–3	Universitario	0–0	0–3
Deportivo Pesquero	3–1	Sport Boys	2–0	1–1
Cienciano	5–2	Atletico Torino	5–1	0–1

Universitario, Deportivo Pesquero, and Cienciano qualified for the Liguilla.^[1]

Liguilla Pre-Libertadores

All matches were played in Lima.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Alianza Lima	3	2	1	0	8	2	+6	8^[a]	1997 Copa Libertadores
2	Universitario	3	2	1	0	8	2	+6	7	1997 Copa CONMEBOL
3	Deportivo Pesquero	3	0	1	2	5	9	−4	1
4	Cienciano	3	0	1	2	3	11	−8	1

Updated to match(es) played on 1996. Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
Notes: