Who Are Ya? | Ten Things You Didn't Know About...Deportivo Tachira

From the city depths of San Cristobal, Venezuelan football is often overlooked by those outside of South America, but it has a host of weird and wonderful clubs with passion to rival any other across the globe. Here we cast our eye on Deportivo Tachira.

1-      In 1970, Italian Gaetano Greco founded an amateur club called Juventus in San Cristóbal, named after the famous giants of his homeland Juventus FC. In 1974, Greco noticed that there was no professional football club in Táchira, so he decided to found a club in the region based on the amateur Juventus club established four years previous. He and twelve other people founded the club on January 11 of that year, which they named San Cristóbal Fútbol Club.

2-      Initially, the club's colours were blue and white, similar to the Italian national football team kits, keeping in line with the founders’ homeland theme. In January 1975, the club changed its colours to yellow and black, because those colours better represented the Táchira state and were the preferred choice of the Uruguayan manager José "Pocho" Gil, as they were the colours of his native team Peñarol.

3-      Throughout their first twenty or so years of existence, Tachira switched names five times before finally settling on the name we know today. As mentioned they were formed as San Cristobal Futbol Club before they changed a year adding Deportivo. In 1978 they changed again to the name we know today, Deportivo Tachira Futbol Club. This initially only lasted eight years where they opted to change to Union Atletico Tachira before finally reverting to their current name in 1999 which has remained ever since.

4-      Tachira are the most popular club in Venezuela and currently play at their home stadium of Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo which holds 42,500. The ground is one of the best in the country and in 2007 hosted four Copa America matches, three of which were games involving Venezuela, the other was played between Bolivia and Uruguay.

5-      With the great support came great successes for Tachira. They have won no less than eight Primera Division Venezolana’s, their first coming in 1979. They followed that up in the 1980’s by taking three honours before fourteen years without any silverware. In 2000 they won the first division of the millennium and went on to have a great seven years from 2007/08 to 2013/14 winning a further three titles.

6-      It’s not just domestically that Tachra have been dominant in at times, but also continentally. They have featured in the Copa Libertadores more times than any other Venezuelan side having made a grand total of 21 appearances in the prestigious competition.

7-      Although one of the top clubs in the country, Tachra have stayed loyal to their home country and continent. This is evident when looking at the squad and manager, not one of them has come in from outside of South America. Club’s in Europe are inundated with foreign players which has hit the national teams hard, especially in England. But these players stick to the style and passion of South America and it’s clear to see why football on the continent is so good.

8-      South America is a hot bed for some of the fiercest rivalries in the world with pride and passion often spilling over, Venezuela is no different. Their main rivals are Caracas FC and Estudiantes de Merida in the Clasico Moderno and Clasico Andino respectively where supporters from all sides come out in droves for the bitter face-off.

9-      Tachra supporters are one of the most passionate fans in all of South America. There is a sea of yellow wherever they play and the displays in the stands are legendary. However, they have been cause of some controversy over the years. They made headlines in 2000 in a math against rivals Caracas. When the sides drew 2-2 and Caracas won the title and supporters reacted with violence, amongst those acts was the Caracas team bus being set alight by Tachra supporters.

10-   Deportivo have some real legends at the football club that will always be remembered by those connected. Their record appearance maker is Gerzon Chacon who turned out 418 times, he was also capped 21 times by his country. The club’s record goalscorer is William Mendez who played throughout the 1980’s and 90’s. He scored 135 goals for the club and was a full international.

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