The Liga 2 de Fútbol Profesional (English: "League 2 of Professional Football"), known as Liga 2, and Liga 2 Caja Cusco for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Peruvian football league system. Founded in 1943 as the Segunda División, it is a professional and promotional division organized by the Peruvian Football Federation. Since 2026, it has been contested by 18 teams, with promotion to the Liga 1, and relegation to the Liga 3.
History The Peruvian 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 inaugural 1912 season, the First and Second Division were put together with 8 teams each. It was dissolved in 1925 after the Peruvian 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 from Lima and Callao. 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 until 1943, where Atlético Telmo Carbajo won the tournament.
For decades after it was first formed in 1943, only clubs from the Department of Lima participated in the annual tournament where the winner gets promoted to the Copa 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 the Ica and Callao.
From 1993 to 1997 the winner was promoted directly to the Primera 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 the Copa 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 from Lima and Callao), 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 from Lima 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 the Liga 3, which replaced the Copa Peru as the third tier, moving the Copa Peru down to the fourth tier in 2024. Relegation from the Liga 2 was since changed to the Liga 3. In 2026, with the creation of the Copa de la Liga, teams from the Liga 2 compete alongside teams from the Liga 1 for the domestic cup competition.
Division levels Year Level Promotion to Relegation to 1943–1950 Primera División Liga Regional de Lima y Callao 1951–1955 Primera División Liga Provincial de Lima Liga Provincial del Callao 1956–1972 Primera División Liga Provincial de Lima Liga Provincial del Callao Liga de los Balnearios del Sur 1983 (None) Copa Perú Ligas Departamentales Ligas Provinciales Ligas Distritales 1984–1987 División Intermedia 1988–1990 Primera División 1991 Torneo Zonal 1992–2003 Primera División 2004–2005 Copa Perú (National stage) 2006–2018 Primera División 2019–2023 Liga 1 2024–present Liga 1 Liga 3
Competition format and sponsorship
Since 2006, the winner of the tournament is promoted to the First Division, while the last two teams are relegated from the tournament to the Departamental Stage of the Copa 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 the 2024 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 created Liga 3.
+Number of clubs in Segunda División throughout the yearsPeriod (in years) of clubs19434 clubs19445 clubs19456 clubs1946–19478 clubs19487 clubs1949–19508 clubs1951–196910 clubs197011 clubs197110 clubs197211 clubs198314 clubs198412 clubs19859 clubs1986–198720 clubs
+Number of clubs in Segunda División throughout the yearsPeriod (in years) of clubs198822 clubs1989–199020 clubs199118 clubs1992–199612 clubs199714 clubs199811 clubs199912 clubs200013 clubs2001–200216 clubs200313 clubs2004–200612 clubs200711 clubs200810 clubs200912 clubs
+Number of clubs in Segunda División throughout the yearsPeriod (in years) of clubs2010–201210 clubs201314 clubs201416 clubs201512 clubs201616 clubs2017–201815 clubs201912 clubs202010 clubs202112 clubs202213 clubs202314 clubs202416 clubs202515 clubs202618 clubs
Sponsorship 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.
Criticisms 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.
Team count 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.
Artificial turf Several stadiums used in the second division have artificial grass installed for the so-called massification of sport. 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 the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Cup; however, more artificial turf was installed in other stadiums after the U-17 World Cup concluded. These turfs are criticized for having a negative influence on the game and for the injuries which they cause to players.
Clubs 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 of Juan Aurich, Deportivo Municipal and Unión Huaral.
Ciclista Lima, Unión Huaral, Deportivo Municipal, Mariscal Sucre, Unión Callao, Sport Boys, Alcides Vigo and Carlos Concha are the most successful clubs (three titles each). Universidad César Vallejo, Total Clean (now Total Chalaco), Cobresol, José Gálvez, Los Caimanes, Comerciantes Unidos, Cienciano, Alianza Atlético, Atlético Grau, Cusco, Alianza Universidad and Cajamarca are the only clubs outside the metropolitan area of Lima to have won a Segunda Division championship. In addition, Atlético Chalaco, Centro Iqueño, Defensor Lima, Deportivo Municipal, Mariscal Sucre, 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, 21 of the 25 regions have had representative teams in the Segunda División/Liga 2. The only four regions that have never had a representative are Amazonas, Huancavelica, Madre de Dios, and Tumbes.
Stadia and locations
Team City StadiumMost stadiums are owned by the Instituto Peruano del Deporte (IPD). CapacityAcademia Cantolao Callao Miguel Grau 17,000ADA Jaén Víctor Montoya Segura9,000Alianza Universidad Huánuco Heraclio Tapia 25,000AyacuchoAyacuchoLas Américas6,400 Bentín Tacna Heroica Tacna Jorge Basadre 19,850BinacionalJuliacaGuillermo Briceño Rosamedina20,030Carlos A. Mannucci Trujillo Mansiche 25,036Comerciantes Iquitos Max Augustín 24,576 Deportivo Llacuabamba Huamachuco Municipal de Huamachuco5,000Estudiantil CNIIquitosMax Augustín24,576Pirata Chongoyape Municipal de la Juventud2,500 San Marcos Huaraz Rosas Pampa18,000 Santos NazcaMunicipal de Nasca10,000Sport Huancayo II Huancayo Huancayo 20,000Unión Comercio Nueva Cajamarca IPD de Nueva Cajamarca12,000Unión MinasCerro de PascoDaniel Alcides Carrión12,000Universidad César VallejoTrujilloCésar Acuña Peralta2,000Universidad San Martín Lima Villa Deportiva USMP1,249
Champions 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.
For the period 1912–1925, see Segunda División (1912–1925) For the period 1926–1934, see División Intermedia For the period 1935–1940, see Ligas Provinciales de Lima y Callao For the period 1941, see 1941 Segunda División Regional de Lima y Callao For the period 1942, see 1942 Primera División Regional de Lima y Callao For the period 1973, see Octogonal de Ascenso For the period 1974, see Reclasificatorio Regional For the period 1975–1982, see Liga Mayor de Fútbol de Lima / Región IX Metropolitana (Copa Perú) Note: For coaches who have won the 2nd division championship, see: RSSSF