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| Organising body | FPF |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1943; 82 years ago (1943) |
| First season | 1943 |
| Country | Peru |
| Confederation | CONMEBOL |
| Number of clubs | 18 |
| Level on pyramid | 2 |
| Promotion to |  Liga 1 |
| Relegation to |  Liga 3 |
| Current champions | Cajamarca (2025) |
| Most championships | Carlos Concha Ciclista Lima Deportivo Municipal Guardia Republicana Mariscal Sucre Sport Boys Unión Callao Unión Huaral (3 titles each) |
| Current:2025 season | |
TheLiga 2, known asLiga 2 Caja Cusco for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in thePeruvian football league system. Founded in 1943 as theSegunda División, it is a professional and promotional division organized by thePeruvian Football Federation. Since 2026, it has been contested by 18 teams, with promotion to theLiga 1, and relegation to theLiga 3.
ThePeruvian Segunda División was the second division of Peruvian football from 1912 to 1925. It allowed promotion to the Primera Division for the starting seasons and was not a professional tournament. In the inaugural1912 season, the First and Second Division were put together with 8 teams each. It was dissolved in 1925 after thePeruvian Football Federation was formed. The tournament was restarted in 1926, under the organization of the FPF, with the name of "Intermediate Tournament", the first champion was Association Alianza, after that in 1935 the championship was renamed "Ascenso División de Honor" where it granted promotion to teams fromLima andCallao. It would later be replaced by the current Segunda Division, now known as the Liga 2, in 1936. Despite being founded in 1936, the league did not have its first season up until1943, whereAtlético Telmo Carbajo won the tournament.
For decades after it was first formed in 1943, only clubs from theDepartment of Lima participated in the annual tournament where the winner gets promoted to theCopa Perú. From 1988 to 1990, the winner got promoted to the Torneo Metropolitano Regional. It was not until 1992 when Peruvian football federation expanded the tournament to other regions, expanding it to theIca andCallao.
From 1993 to 1997 the winner was promoted directly to thePrimera División. From 1998 it was established that the champion of this tournament would play a revalidation match with the team that finished second to last in the decentralized championship of the same year. In 2002, following the FPF's policy of increasing the number of teams in the first division, the champion of this tournament was immediately promoted. In 2004 and 2005 the format changed, establishing that the champion and runner-up of the second division would be integrated into Region 4 of theCopa Perú.
In 2006, the Second Division was moved up to the second tier once again, where the winner gets promotion to the First Division. As a result, the Copa Peru was moved down to the third tier. It was only in 2006 that it was decided to decentralize this tournament (until then reserved for teams fromLima andCallao), the championship began to be played with teams from different departments of Peru that obtained the category. However, despite the decentralist spirit of this measure, some articles were established in the regulations that obliged teams of a certain distance fromLima to pay the tickets of rival teams. It should be said that with this, the duality of promotion to the First Division occurred because the Copa Perú, the traditional amateur football tournament, was also of a national nature, a situation that does not happen in any country worldwide and where it was seen that the Second Division should remain as the only way to promotion to the First Division. However, while it was nominally Second Professional, it was officially promotional.
In 2019, the Peruvian Football Federation announced the creation of theLiga 3, which replaced the Copa Peru as the third tier, moving the Copa Peru down to the fourth tier in 2024.
| Year | Level | Promotion to | Relegation to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1943–1950 | 2 | Primera División | Liga Regional de Lima y Callao |
| 1951–1955 | 2 | Primera División | Liga Provincial de Lima Liga Provincial del Callao |
| 1956–1972 | 2 | Primera División | Liga Provincial de Lima Liga Provincial del Callao Liga de los Balnearios del Sur |
| 1983 | 2 | (None)[note 1] | Copa Perú Ligas Departamentales Ligas Provinciales Ligas Distritales |
| 1984–1987 | 3 | División Intermedia[note 2] | |
| 1988–1990 | 2 | Primera División | |
| 1991 | 2 | Torneo Zonal[note 3] | |
| 1992–2003 | 2 | Primera División | |
| 2004–2005 | 2 | Copa Perú (National stage)[note 4] | |
| 2006–2018 | 2 | Primera División | |
| 2019–2023 | 2 | Liga 1 | |
| 2024–present | 2 | Liga 1 | Liga 3 |
Since 2006, the winner of the tournament is promoted to theFirst Division, while the last two teams are relegated from the tournament to theDepartamental Stage of theCopa Perú. Their places are taken by the two relegated clubs from the First Division, and the team that finishes second place in the Copa Perú. From 2018 to 2023, the Liga 2 would adopt a new format, where the top ranking team throughout the whole season would win the tournament and be automatically promoted, and the next six teams compete in a bracket Ligiulla stage, with the winner also being promoted.
After the expansion to 18 for the2024 season, the format was changed to multiple stages. The first stage known as the Regional Stage would split the 18 teams into two groups of nine, called the Zona Norte and Zona Sur, based in the north and the south. The top six of each zone would advance to the Group Stage and bottom three into the Relegation Group. In the Group Stage, the 12 teams will be split into two groups of six with the top three teams advance to the Ligiulla stage, with the top team of each group in the semi-finals and rest in quarter-finals. The finalists of the Ligiulla stage will be promoted to the first division and the winners winning the league. In the relegation group, each team will play in a round-robin format. The lowest ranked team of each group gets relegated to the newly createdLiga 3.[1]
The Peruvian Second Division currently is sponsored by Caja Cusco.Movistar's Gol Perú has exclusive broadcasting rights. L1MAX, Nativa TV and FPF Play also broadcast the tournament.
The Segunda División has received numerous criticisms, chiefly due to the lack of stability in the process of competition and promotion, and the lack of professionalism.[2]
The Segunda División has changed the number of teams that operate in the league several times. Over the course of 74 years, the Segunda has had as few as four teams and as many as 16. The early Segunda División were played with an average number of teams ranging from 4 to 10. Prior to the current 12-club Segunda División, during the 2000s, the team count continued to fluctuate between 10, 12, 14, 16 and even a surprising 13. For example, 12 teams competed in 2009, 10 competed in 2008, 11 competed in 2007, and 12 teams competed from 2004 to 2006. The over-all goal of the organization is to have a stable league of 16 teams. It would be expanded to 18 in 2024.
Several stadiums used in the second division have artificial grass installed for the so-calledmassification of sport.[3] Most stadiums in Peru are owned by the IPD (Instituto Peruano del Deporte), which is the state group responsible for supporting the use of artificial turf. This has been severely criticized by top division teams and the media. At first, these artificial turfs were installed for the2005 FIFA U-17 World Cup; however, more artificial turf was installed in other stadiums after the U-17 World Cup concluded.[4] These turfs are criticized for having a negative influence on the game and for the injuries which they cause to players.
Currently, 18 clubs participate in Liga 2. There are currently no teams from the Lima Metropolitan area with all clubs representing cities from the country's interior. The number of clubs has fluctuated season by season from 10 to 18 teams participating in the tournament. The tournament was finally set to be 18 teams in 2024 but later moved to 15 after the suspension ofJuan Aurich,Deportivo Municipal andUnión Huaral.
Ciclista Lima,Unión Huaral,Deportivo Municipal,Guardia Republicana,Mariscal Sucre,Unión Callao,Telmo Carbajo,Sport Boys, Unión Gonzáles Prada, andCarlos Concha trail behind with 3 titles.Universidad César Vallejo,Total Clean,Cobresol,José Gálvez,Los Caimanes, andComerciantes Unidos are the only clubs outside the metropolitan area of Lima to have won a Segunda Division championship. In addition,Alianza Lima,Atlético Chalaco,Centro Iqueño,Defensor Lima, Municipal, Mariscal Sucre,San Agustín, Sport Boys, and Unión Huaral are the only teams that have been champions of the First and Second Division.
Since the Second Division became a nation-wide tournament in 2006, 20 of the 25 regions have had representative teams in the Segunda División/Liga 2. The only five regions that have never had a representative areAmazonas,Huancavelica,Madre de Dios,Pasco, andTumbes.
Peruvian Segunda División had amateur status since its foundation until 1987. In the course of this era, Telmo Carbajo, Ciclista Lima, Unión Callao, Carlos Concha and Mariscal Sucre shared the most titles. The first run from 1943 to 1987 featured clubs only from Lima and Callao.In 2006 expanded the league to the entire nation, beginning the Segunda División Nacional.
| Season | Champion | Runner-up | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Fase 1 | Sport Chavelines | Atlético Grau |
| Fase 2 | Unión Huaral | Unión Comercio | |
| 2022 | Apertura | Cusco | Unión Comercio |
| Clausura | Cusco | Unión Comercio | |
Agregó que de ninguna manera se cambiara el césped sintético a los demás estadios del país que tienen este tipo de gramado. 'Nosotros estamos para masificar el deporte y el pasto sintético es un tema apoyado por la FIFA.... Además sí se puede jugar al fútbol, como se juega en todos lados' subrayó Woodman.
Polytan Sportstättenbau GmbH, the German-based company, won the tender for installing 4 fields in Peru, all of which were used for the FIFA U-17 World Championship Peru 2005. This was the first time a FIFA Final tournament was played entirely on artificial turf.[dead link]
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