F?tbol/football in the DR
I could write a very, very long post on this.
Let me say for the sake of brevity, that 34 years ago there wre 12 teams in our First Division until as real a$$hole named Enrique Marchena (since banned from all Olympic activities and from sports in general) forced the universities and educational institutes to leave the league.
The UASD, UNPHU and PUCMM all had good teams and ISA was scouring the campo looking for good local talent. The teams played full league and cup series , and every Sunday there were games in Santo Domingo San Cristobal, Santiago, Moca, La Vega, Villa Tapia, San Francisco de Macoris, San Pedro or Haina.
The really great thing was the development of tremendous rivalries, which, of course, brought more fans to see the games. It was not unusual to see ten or twelve bus loads of students from one or other of the universities travel to the "away" games.
When the do-do hit the fan in 1975, football, as a national sport fell, and IMO, it has never recovered. The games are attended by a few family and friends. I mean, who can root for a team calle Bancreditcard?? Or Escuela Jorge Bauger.
At one time Pel? and the New York Cosmos were here, and so was Cerro from Uruguay. Played to full stadiums, too!.
The DR participated in the CONCACAF, Olympic and World Cup eliminations-never went far, of course, against professional teams-but there was a presence.
There is a phone number in the book for the
Federaci?n Dominicana de F?tbol in Santo Domingo , but frankly, I washed my hands a long time ago..
HB


