The is controlled by the
Federación Peruana De Fútbol . The team competes with the other nine nations in the
CONMEBOL conference within the
FIFA . Historically speaking, Peru has had difficulty competing with
Brazil and
Argentina in
World Cup qualifying rounds.
Between
1970 and
1982 , a Golden Generation of
Peru vian footballers qualified for three out of four FIFA World Cups and won the
Copa América in
1975 .
Teófilo Cubillas was the star of the side, scoring five goals in two different finals, and his attacking flair and skill became synonymous for the world with Peru's football team in the
70s . Unfortunately, five straight qualification failures since then have plagued the once proud side.
The
Preliminaries for
Korea/Japan were certainly not any respite from that, as the team finished eighth in the group with just four wins in eighteen matches. The fact that they only managed to score 14 goals in that many matches demonstrates how far the attack had fallen since the days of Cubillas. Particularly low points of the qualifying tournament included a 3-0 loss at
Venezuela and defeats in over half of their home matches -- to
Uruguay ,
Ecuador , Argentina,
Colombia and Brazil.
The campaign to reach
France 1998 was thwarted only by the goal difference tiebreaker, as they finished even on points with
Chile but had to watch as their southern neighbours go to the world's biggest stage that year.
After making their FIFA World Cup debut at Uruguay
1930 , Peru next made an impact on the finals at
Mexico 1970 where they beat
Bulgaria and
Morocco to start off the tournament with a surprising bang. The Brazil of
Rivelino ,
Tostao ,
Jairzinho and
Pelé put an end to that adventure 4-2 in the quarter-finals. The
Argentina 1978 finals also saw Peru emerge from their opening group, as they managed to beat
Scotland and
Iran , then drew with the eventual finalist, the
Netherlands .
Once into the second round in 1978 - a second group stage - they did not live up to their promise, falling rather dismally to Brazil,
Poland , and Argentina without scoring a goal. By
Spain 1982 , the magic was pretty much done, as the team fell at the opening hurdle, drawing with
Cameroon and
Italy before getting crushed by Poland 5-1. The
2004 Copa América , which they recently hosted, brought more of the same and saw them crash out in the quarter-finals against Argentina, sparking a wave of criticism against former Peru's coach
Paulo Autuori and his squad.
