Cusco Football Club: The New Name for Real Garcilaso

The Real Garcilaso will be renamed Cusco Football Club starting next season, taking the name of the historic and touristic city in southern Peru, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire.

The club announced in a statement their new denomination to carry the name of Cusco "with great pride and responsibility, due to what it represents in terms of historical and cultural richness."

The new name was supported by 70% of the participants in various surveys promoted by the institution, although the number of respondents was not specified.

With this change, the now Cusco Football Club avoids the confusion that it sometimes caused with Deportivo Garcilaso, a historic Cusco club that plays in Peruvian amateur football but competes in local popularity with Cienciano, the city's reference club.

Incidentally, there will be a Cusco derby next season, as Cusco and Cienciano, the only international champion in Peruvian football with victories in the Copa Sudamericana (2003) and the Recopa (2004), will both compete in the top division, with Cienciano recently promoted.

Cusco will be led next season by Peruvian coach Javier Arce, who led Binacional to victory in the Torneo Apertura last season. In the first phase of the upcoming Copa Sudamericana, Cusco will face Chilean team Audax Italiano.