Querétaro Football Club
The Querétaro Fútbol Club, popularly known as the Gallos Blancos de Querétaro, is a Mexican professional football club based in Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro. It was founded on July 8, 1950 and plays in the First Division of Mexico.
The traditional colors that identify the club are white, blue and black, these colors are represented on the shield, they are also used in the form of vertical stripes on their uniform. Los Gallos use the colors printed in their logo, which were taken from the state coat of arms, which represents an eclipse of the sun.
The team plays its home games at the Corregidora Stadium, which has a capacity for 35,575 people.
In 2014, Grupo Imagen became the owner of the franchise which, in turn, is owned by the Ángeles Business Group. For the 2020 Clausura Tournament, Querétaro became the property of Grupo Caliente, along with the Club Tijuana and Dorados de Sinaloa teams. In June 2020, Grupo Caliente sold the club to a group of investors led by Gabriel Solares and Greg Taylor.
History
Foundation and beginnings
In 1949, the Mexican Football Federation proposed the creation of the Second Division of Mexico. At that time, Alfonso "Pachín" Niembro, president of the Querétaro Football Association, received an invitation for Querétaro to host a place in the new tournament to be created. He, along with other members of the association, agreed to hold a Primera Fuerza tournament in the city of Querétaro and the winning team would be the representative team in the second division. The champion was 'Piratas', which became Club Querétaro A.C., to be one of the founders of the Second Division along with Irapuato, Zacatepec, Toluca, Morelia and La Piedad.
On July 8, 1950, the Querétaro Fútbol Club was officially founded. Querétaro's first participation in the second division was the 1950-1951 season. In 1950 a completely white uniform was used and only with a "Q" square as a shield.
In 1954, the team received the nickname 'Gallos Blancos', at the suggestion of Lic. Herrera Pozas 'El Periquín'. Being the coach Don Felipe “La Marrana” Castañeda, in company with Don Ezequiel Rivera, they got 11 White Roosters and before going out onto the field, they gave one to each player, continuing with the joke, Don Ezequiel also brought a white pig (in allusion to the nickname of Don Felipe), and that is how the souvenir photograph was taken
First disappearance
The team navigated between the Second and Third Division, and in the 1976-1977 season, after a great tournament, they lost the promotion final by an aggregate score of 3-6 against Club de Fútbol Atlante on June 5, 1977. At the end of the match, a pitched battle broke out caused by Atlanticist mockery.
In the late 70s, the team was purchased and merged with Atletas Industriales y Estudiantes. The name was changed to Atletas Campesinos. In its first season, it was made up of young people. The coach of Atletas Campesinos was Antonio Ascencio, but Armando Presa considered bringing someone with more experience. It was when he thought of Antonio Carbajal that he offered a good amount of money if he joined Campesinos. On June 22, 1980, the Campesinos faced the Gray Bears in the second leg, who had drawn the first leg in the municipal match. The Campesinos managed to win 2 to 1 with goals from Carlos Cerritos and Jorge Gaspar and They won the championship. Already in the top circuit, the team soon began to lose and soon the team was sold to the Ciudad Madero Oil Tankers Union.
Return (1981-1999)
The team resurfaced in 1981 with the name Gallos Blancos de UAQ and remained in the second division. In the 1983-1984 season, the team was promoted from Second Division "B" to Second Division "A". On February 13, 1985, the Gallos Blancos of the UAQ played their first game at the Corregidora Stadium. In the 1986-1987 season, the team was runner-up in the Second Division after losing to Correcaminos de Tamaulipas in three games. The first leg ended 0-0. Just before the second leg, on May 10, 1987, the team suffered a fatal car accident in which Agustín Jiménez, René Montalvo and Genaro "Pillo" Orona. On June 20, Gallos Blancos of the UAQ and the Correcaminos of the UAT played the return duel at the Corregidora stadium with a tie of one goal per side, forcing a third match at the Azteca stadium. The Coloso de Santa Úrsula saw the last chapter of the 1986-1987 final of the Second Division close on June 23. After a very close match, Queretaro and Tamaulipas had to decide promotion in the penalty shootout where Correcaminos won with a score of 5-3.
In 1988, a team emerged parallel to the UAQ Gallos called Querétaro FC. Querétaro FC reached the First Division at the beginning of the 90s, when the capital businessman José Antonio García, with the intention of maintaining top circuit football in the city and after the relegation of Atlante, which had moved to headquarters in the 1989-1990 campaign, acquired the Tampico Madero franchise to transform it into Querétaro FC starting with the 1990-1991 season. García Rodríguez hired the Argentine Ricardo La Volpe to lead a squad made up mostly of former Petrojaibos players such as Mario Zúñiga, the Chilean Carlos Fredy Soto, Francisco Fernández, Ricardo Ortega, as well as former members of the Potros de Hierro such as Rubén Omar Romano, Guadalupe Cruz, Miguel Herrera, Sergio Bueno, among others.
The debut in the first division occurred on September 29, 1990 with a 2-1 defeat against Puebla Fútbol Club at the Cuauhtémoc Stadium; The scorer of the team's first goal in the top circuit was José de Jesús Mendizábal, who scored in the 12th minute of the duel against the Camoteros. Querétaro's first victory occurred on October 7, beating Club de Fútbol Monterrey 3-1. at the Corregidora Stadium. Querétaro's debut campaign was quite irregular, finishing in third-to-last place with 30 points only above Club Santos Laguna and the relegated Club Deportivo Irapuato. For the following season, with the return of Atlante to the First Division, José Antonio García sent the strategist Ricardo La Volpe to the Barça team as well as Romano, Cruz, Herrera and Wilson Graniolatti, in addition, he could not retain the Uruguayan Jorge Cabrera and the scorer Sergio Almaguer, a situation that left the team diminished.
In the middle of that 1991-1992 season, García Rodríguez sold the team to the Vázquez Mellado brothers, who made the decision to modify the light blue shirt to one with blue and black stripes that recalled the missing Atletas Campesinos, but their The main bet was to hire Tomás Boy as coach, who had saved this same franchise from relegation two years earlier when he played as Tampico Madero. The "Boss" Boy did a good job by beating the Ciudad Juárez Cobras in the fight for non-relegation; However, Tomás could not repeat the good results the following season, despite the fact that the scorer Felipe del Ángel Malibrán remained on the team, and reinforcements such as the Uruguayan Santiago Ostolaza arrived, as well as the forwards Marco Antonio Ruiz and Eduardo de la Torre, formerly of Guadalajara.
In the 1993-1994 season, Querétaro started under the command of Rubén Matturano, but after getting only one point in the first four games, the board decided to dismiss him and offer the technical direction to Carlos de los Cobos, who decided to retire. as a team player to start as a coach, despite the complicated situation in the percentage table. The Querétaro squad fought until the last day to achieve permanence in the First Division, but could not achieve it when they lost as a visitor against the Club Universidad Nacional, remaining one point behind the Leones Negros of the University of Guadalajara. The relegation was a hard blow for the franchise, as it moved two categories away from the Maximum Circuit, since it could not join the newly created First A, a circuit that was integrated by invitation to the teams.
In 1996 Pedro González Rivas sold the franchise to businessmen from Hermosillo Sonora. In 1999, Gallos de la UAQ merged with Querétaro FC in Santiago de Querétaro, taking the nickname "Gallos Blancos" and the original name of Querétaro FC.
New Century (2000-2010)
In 2002, the team spent two seasons in the First Division of Mexico after acquiring the La Piedad franchise, until in 2004, the Federation decided to reduce the number of teams from 20 to 18, sacrificing Irapuato FC and the Querétaro. This occurs amidst the suspicion that the team belonged to organized crime in central Mexico, which led to an investigation by the Attorney General's Office and thus, the Mexican Football Association Federation decided to end the suspicions and disappear the team., paying around ten million dollars to its owners, whose real identity was never known.
When it seemed that the team would disappear, businessman Juan Antonio Hernández moved the Leones de Morelos (previously Zacatepec) to play as Querétaro in the Primera A. The team was a protagonist to the point of winning the first title in the history of The franchise then won the 2005 Clausura against Club León, although it was unable to return to the top circuit after losing the promotion final against San Luis. The team changed ownership when it was acquired by Leonese businessman Axel Bulle, who found the coach in Salvador Reyes Jr. to return Querétaro to the First Division after winning the 2006 Clausura championship, in which he was crowned for the second consecutive year and for first time at home by defeating Club Indios 4-2 on penalties, after tying 3-3 on aggregate. In the final for promotion, Querétaro beat Club Puebla with an aggregate score of 5-1 and thus achieved its return to the First Division.
In the 2007 Clausura tournament, they lost the category after the defeat in the last league match against Atlas and the victory of Santos Laguna, their closest rival in relegation, over Cruz Azul, leaving the ratios of 1.0808 of Querétaro against 1,147 from Santos.
In the 2008 Apertura tournament, they emerged champion, beating Club Irapuato by a 2-0 aggregate score, with this they won the right to play in the promotion final to the First National Division against Mérida, champion of the 2009 Clausura tournament. On May 30, 2009, he became promotion champion, after defeating the Venados 7-6 on penalties, which gave him a pass again to the First Division of Mexican soccer.
Current Events (2010-present)
In the 2010 Bicentenario tournament Querétaro F.C. They avoided relegation after having a good campaign and adding 21 points, surpassing Tigres and Indios de Ciudad Juárez in percentage, the latter being relegated.
In 2011, after a season worthy of memory for the featherweight institution, in which they managed to beat their own points record with 26 and 8 wins for only 2 draws and 7 losses. Gallos, led by debutant coach José Saturnino Cardozo in Mexico, qualified for his first league. Later they managed to surprisingly eliminate one of the Big 4 of Mexican soccer, Guadalajara, by winning 2-1 in the first leg and draw 0-0 in the second leg in a match; In the first leg of the semifinal against Club Tigres de la UANL they tied 0-0 and in the second leg they lost 1-0.
Once again they managed to save the category in the 2012 Clausura tournament, after beating two teams from Guadalajara, Atlas and Estudiantes Tecos, the latter relegated.
In the Clausura 2013, the "Gallos" was in the dispute for non-relegation at the beginning of the season against the Atlas de Guadalajara team; but due to the great step of the "Rojinegros" In the tournament, the Querétaro team fought day after day to save itself. Despite having perhaps had one of their best tournaments in their history as a franchise during their time in the MX League, on matchday 16 after the 1-1 draw for Puebla (their direct rival in relegation) against Atlas de Guadalajara In the last minutes of the match, the Gallos Blancos del Querétaro would be relegated for the third time in their history, despite having defeated the Chivas Rayadas del Guadalajara 2-1, which took away the possibility of having played for the second time in their history the league for the title (he finished the tournament in 8th place, but due to regulations he could not play it because he was relegated and his place was occupied by Monterrey who finished 9th in the general table) His last game of that tournament was May 4, 2013 at the Corregidora Stadium in front of his fans and saying goodbye with a painful defeat against Puebla by a score of 2-3.
On May 20, 2013, the Jaguares de Chiapas club was sold to Grupo Oceanografía, whose owner was Amado Omar Yáñez Osuna. The club at the owners' meeting announced, through Decio de María, president of the FMF, that Jaguares would cease to exist and would be transferred to Querétaro, this despite the criticism received by both the press and soccer fans, since that through money the Querétaro team, despite being relegated, remained in the first division. Therefore, the franchise that originally relegated was not sold to anyone and disappeared. In that same year the shield was modified by changing the third stripe from black to orange because it is the lucky color of the owner.
After a forgotten relegation problem, during the draft the Gallos acquired players such as Luis Pérez, Esteban Paredes, Edgar Hernández, George Corral, Yasser Corona, Leandro Gracián, Alan Zamora, using as a base the Jaguars players they acquired with the purchase of the franchise. Players like Diego de la Torre, Apodi, Pablo Gabas were bought by the board. For the 2013 Apertura, the Gallos won 4 consecutive victories, beating Chivas, Cruz Azul, Puebla and Atlante, a streak that the Gallos had never achieved in the first division. They achieved their first victory at the C.U stadium with a 0-3 victory with goals from Esteban Paredes and Wilberto Cosme. After a great tournament, the Gallos Blancos qualified for the league on the last day, beating Pachuca 0-1 at the Hidalgo stadium with a last-minute goal from Wilberto Cosme. They would later be eliminated in the quarterfinals by Santos after losing 3-2 in the first leg and 3-1 in the second leg.
For the Apertura 2014 the team changes owners due to the financial problems the club had. It currently belongs to Olegario Vázquez Aldir, owner of Grupo Imagen.
In September 2014 the board announced the hiring of the Brazilian star, Ronaldinho.
In the Clausura 2015, Ignacio Ambriz was dismissed from the technical direction after only achieving 1 victory in 7 games, taking his place the Technical Director Víctor Manuel Vucetich who after taking command of the team when it was in penultimate place of the general table, manages to qualify the team to the league after finishing sixth place with 26 points in the regular season. After beating Veracruz in the quarterfinals by an aggregate score of 4-3. Thus they reached the semifinal, facing Pachuca, advancing to the final due to the best position in the table (2-2 overall). They reached the final by first time in its history, facing Santos. In the first leg of the final Santos beat them 5-0 and although in the second leg they managed to win the match 3-0, Santos were proclaimed champions of the Clausura 2015 with the overall score of (5-3) leaving the Gallos as Runners-up.
During the 2015 Apertura the team had multiple ups and downs in the League throughout the campaign and despite the fact that Emanuel Villa was crowned Goal Champion with 13 goals, they could not qualify for the Liguilla, finishing in eleventh place, but in the Concacaf Champions League They managed to overcome the group stage, thus advancing to the next round where they would face DC United in the quarterfinals.
On November 2, 2016, the Gallos Blancos team played against Club Guadalajara in the final of the Copa MX, at the Corregidora Stadium in Querétaro. These teams entered the final match, after having defeated Club Toluca and Club América respectively, in penalty shootouts in both cases. The match ended with a goalless draw in regulation time, and was then decided through a penalty shootout. Club Guadalajara shot first and Club Querétaro did second. In an excellent performance, Club Querétaro goalkeeper Tiago Volpi saved two penalties, and the fifth hit the post, the official result was Gallos Blancos 3 to 2 for the visiting Club Guadalajara. In such a way that this was the first official championship obtained by the Querétaro Club during its time in the first division of Mexican soccer.
Later, the following year, they would also win the 2017 MX Super Cup by defeating América 2-0 (this club took the place of Guadalajara, who were the champions of the 2017 Copa MX Clausura, however, they were also league champions, and they had to compete for the 2017 Champion of Champions on the same day, so the Águilas, being the club that accumulated the most points in the 2016-17 Cup season, took the place).
Later, in the Apertura 2019, the Gallos once again surpassed themselves, and reached a new record of points (31) and finished in fourth position overall, this being their best tournament so far, however, in the league, fell 6-2 on aggregate against Rayos del Necaxa.
Stadium
The Corregidora Stadium, also known as the Coloso del Cimatario due to its geographical position on the slopes of Cerro del Cimatario in the City of Querétaro, is the home of the Querétaro Fútbol Club. It is the ninth stadium with the largest soccer capacity in Mexico and is considered by many fans to be one of the most comfortable since it is possible to enjoy the game from every corner of the property in addition to its accessibility in terms of road infrastructure.[citation required] It was named in honor of the heroine of the Independence of Mexico, Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, wife of the mayor of Querétaro, Miguel Domínguez. It has capacity for 35,575 spectators.
Clothes
- Local uniform: Celeste and black vertical striped t-shirt, trousers and black stockings.
- Uniform visitor: Celeste t-shirt with white details, white trousers and celestial stockings.
- Alternative uniform: White t-shirt with grey and blue details, trousers and white stockings.
     First Uniform |      Second Uniform |     Third uniform |
Previous uniforms
- 2021-2022
     First Uniform |     Second Uniform |      Third uniform |
- 2020-2021
     First Uniform |      Second Uniform |     Third uniform |
- Closure 2020
     First Uniform |     Second Uniform |
- Opening 2019
     First Uniform |      Second Uniform |
- 2018-2019
    First Uniform |      Second Uniform |      Third uniform |
- 2017-2018
     First Uniform |     Second Uniform |      Third uniform |
- 2016-2017
     First Uniform |     Second Uniform |      Third uniform |
- 2015-2016
     First Uniform |     Second Uniform |     Third uniform |     Uniform 65th Anniversary |
- 2014-2015
    First Uniform |     Second Uniform |     Third uniform |
- 2013-2014
     First Uniform |      Second Uniform |      Third uniform |
- 2013
    First Uniform |      Second Uniform |     Third uniform |
- 2012-2013
     First Uniform |      Second Uniform |    Third uniform |
- 2011-2012
    First Uniform |     Second Uniform |      Third uniform |
Evolution of the uniform
- House: Black and blue jersey, pants and black stockings.
- Visit: White Jersey with red lines and pink stockings
    1950 |    1969 |  1970 |    1974 |  1992 |  1994 |  2005 | 2006 |  2011 |
