Universitario Tarija

Universitario Tarija spent the 2015-16 season in the Copa Simón Bolívar, the second tier of Bolivian football. It came to nothing, but for a club whose honours otherwise stop at the departmental border, it stands out precisely because it went further than the rest.

The club carries the name of the Universidad Autónoma Juan Misael Saracho, whose students and staff it represents. Locally it is also known as El Decano and, more plainly, as the Azulgrana, after the blue and garnet stripes it has always worn. Those colours have counted for more in Tarija itself than in the national game: the club won the departmental championship in 1983, 2001 and 2003, the last two without losing a match, the 2003 title coming under coach David Vargas.

Home games are played at the Estadio IV Centenario, which holds 16,586 — a jump from the 15,000 to 18,000 capacity older records had given it, and a reminder that the ground itself has kept changing shape under the club rather than around it.

Universitario returned to the Copa Simón Bolívar in 2024 and again in 2026, still working under the same aim that has defined it since that 2015-16 run.