Club Alianza Atlético de Sullana, shorted to Alianza Atlético, is a Peruvian football club, located in the city of Sullana, Piura. The club was founded in 1920 and promoted to the Peruvian Primera División, where they currently participate, in 1988 and again in 2015. Alianza Atlético has a long-standing rivalry with Atlético Grau and Atlético Torino, other clubs in the Piura Department. They are one of the only Peruvian top-tier clubs not based in a state capital.
A group of brave and enterprising citizens of Sullana met on January 18, 1920 at the home of Don José Taboada More, located on the fourth block of Grau Street in the heart of the Norte neighborhood of Sullana, and founded a sports institution that over time would become one of the best in all of Northern Peru, which they called Club Sport Alianza. The name was the initiative of Don Félix Peralta, who was in charge of calling the meeting. Fernando Herrera Agudo was named the first president of the nascent institution.
The birth of Club Alianza Atlético was greeted with the whistle of the railroads, which later carried in their wagons all the players who made up the Sport Alianza teams when they played matches on the fields of Piura, Paita, Talara, Chiclayo and Trujillo.
On March 12, 1920, it merged with Club Atlético Sullana. Since that date, it began to be known as Club Alianza Atlético Sullana, or Alianza Atlético. This name has prevailed even when in 1986 the institution was registered in Public Records as Asociación Deportiva Alianza Sullana.
Golden era
The war cry "Long live Alianza de Oro" (Go Golden Alliance), which characterizes the 'Vendaval', was born from the so-called 'Golden Age' of Alianza Atlético, between 1943 and 1949. In this period, according to a compilation made by the newspaper El Tiempo some years ago, the Regional Championship won in Chiclayo in 1946 against the local Juan Aurich, the Alfonso Ugarte de Chiclín and the Octavio Espinoza of Ica, in a quadrangular that could be considered a kind of outline of what two decades later would be consolidated as the Copa Perú.
The golden age of the club came to a close with the title of a departmental quadrangular held in Talara, for the inauguration of the Estadio Campeonísimo, in 1949. The champions of four Piuran provinces participated: Gardel from Talara, Estrella Roja from Piura, Sport Arequipa from Negritos and Alianza Atlético, which won the cup thanks to its great figure of those years: the forward Mercedes Ubillús, better known as 'Negro Meche'.
Copa Perú campaign
In 1967, they won the departmental title of champion of the Copa Perú by defeating Juan de Mori from Catacaos at the Estadio Miguel Grau in Piura, which allowed them to reach the Regional Stage of the tournament. However, in the decisive match to qualify for the final, they were eliminated by Juan Aurich after being defeated 1-2.
In 1984, for the first and only time, they reached the final of the Copa Perú played in Lima, after defeating Capitán Clavero from Iquitos 1-0 in the final match. They faced Los Espartanos from Pacasmayo, Universitario from Tacna, Bella Esperanza from Cañete, Guardia Republicana and Deportivo Educación from Abancay. The churres, led by Roberto 'Titín' Drago, won three matches, tied one and lost just one, against the champion Los Espartanos. They were left with the runner-up title and no reward.
Promotion to the Primera División
Alianza Atlético would achieve promotion to Peruvian Primera División in 1987, after winning the Intermedia Norte. Thus, since 1988, Alianza Atlético played uninterruptedly for 23 years in Primera División, in which it debuted on May 29 of that year with a 2-2 draw against Deportivo Cañaña. Its first victory came a week later in Sullana against Carlos A. Mannucci (1-0), and its first defeat was also against the Carlist team: 1-0 in Trujillo on July 17 of the same year 1988.
After the end of the era of regional championships in the First Division, the Churres were generally placed in the last positions, with some exceptions such as when they managed to qualify for the Copa Sudamericana and some others. For this reason, in the 2011 season, after another campaign in which they did not have a good time, in addition to being a rather eventful tournament, the Sullanenses together with Colegio Nacional de Iquitos were relegated to the Peruvian Segunda División. Alianza Atlético was relegated after 23 years and lost the category for the first time.
In 2015, they gained promotion back to the Primera División because of a FIFA Resolution where they still participate.[1][2]
The home stadium of Alianza Atlético is Estadio Campeones del 36. The venue name, Champions of 1936, is misleading. No Peruvian League was actually played in 1936 as the national team was preparing itself to compete in the1936 Summer Olympics in Germany. Two main theories as of the origin of the name exist. The first is that Alianza Atlético won a special national tournament (representing their home state, Piura) governed by the Peruvian Football Federation, and the name stuck despite not being recognized officially as national champions thereafter. The second is that it was named as such for the heroic campaign of the Peru national football team at the 1936 Olympic football tournament over the controversial Peru vs. Austria quarterfinals match.
In 2024, with help from the Peruvian Football Federation, Alianza Atlético opened their own training ground in Sullana known as the Villa Deportiva Alianza Sullana.[3] It became one of the few Peruvian football club to have its own training ground. he training ground includes three playing fields and a gym. It is owned and used by the club but is also open to the public and smaller clubs. T
Rivalries
Alianza Atlético also has a long-standing rivalry with Atlético Grau and Atlético Torino, other clubs in the Piura department. These three clubs are among the largest in the north and in Piura. These rivalries are known as the
Although Alianza Atlético is the biggest team in Sullana, it has always faced Jorge Chávez as a bitter historical rival. There is a marked rivalry with the Aviador squad, which remains alive in the clashes in the Sullana District League, when the Alianza Atlético subsidiary squad faces the Aviador squad.
