Club Deportivo Futbolistas Asociados Santanecos, commonly known as FAS (pronounced "fas"), is a professional Salvadoran football club based in Santa Ana.
It competes in Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador, the country's top professional league. The team's nickname is Los Tigres (The Tigers). FAS was founded on 16 February 1947. The team plays its home games at the Estadio Óscar Quiteño, the third largest stadium in El Salvador.
The club has a long-standing rivalry with Águila and Alianza, and are the only three clubs to never have been relegated to the Second Division. Matches between them are known as Clásicos. FAS also plays a local derby against Isidro Metapán.
FAS is the most successful club in El Salvador football with the highest fan base. Domestically, the club has won a record nineteen national league titles. In international competitions, FAS have one FIFA recognized club trophies, tied with Alianza and Águila as the only club to achieve it. They have won one CONCACAF Champions' Cup/Champions League trophies, and finished runners up in the 1979 Copa Interamericana cup, and third place in the 1980 Copa Interclubes UNCAF.
History
The Beginning
Clubs from San Salvador had dominated Salvadoran football for many years. The municipal mayor of the Santa Ana district, Manuel Tomás Monedero, wanted to create a team from Santa Ana to end the dominance of the San Salvador clubs. Together with the help of Santa Ana mayor Waldo Rey, Monedero organized the union of all the clubs in Santa Ana (including Unión, Colegio Salesiano San José, Cosmos, RAL, Colón, Santa Lucía and Los 44).
On 16 February 1947, these teams united to form Futbolistas Asociados Santanecos, or FAS for short. Samuel Zaldaña Galdámez was named the club first president. It was originally proposed that the club should wear yellow and black, but Monedero settled on the more traditional choice of red and blue.
The First Steps
The club played its first match on 26 March 1947 against the previous year's champion Libertad FC at the Finca Modelo (which would be their home stadium for many years). The club's founding players were Juan Moreno and Óscar González, Goalkeeper; Tomás Morán, Jorge Brito and Guillermo Herrera, defenders; Manuel Padilla, Lino Medina, Moisés Jovel, Antonio Pérez and Eliseo Ramos, midfielders; Víctor Castro, Tomás Angulo, Antonio Mancía, Antonio Azucena, Mario (Capellan) y Jose (El Torro) González, strikers. Armando Chacón was the manager. The first match ended in a 4–1 defeat.
Early history (1948–1959) In 1948–49, FAS moved into the First Division for the first time, and have remained their ever since. Chacón was still the manager, and the team began on a winning note by defeating Juventud Olimpica 2–1. They recorded two more wins over Dragón and Santa Anita (3–0, 3–2 respectively) before losing 3–1 to Cusatleco. FAS would ultimately finish 3rd behind Libertad FC and champion Once Municipal.
In 1951–52, FAS won their first title. The manager was Victor Manuel "Pipe" Ochoa, who proceeded to lead the club to a second title in 1953–54. During the 1956–57 season, the club came close to relegation, which caused the owners to hire Argentinian coach Alberto Cevasco and bring in the reinforcements of foreign players, including Omar Muraco, Javier Novello, Héctor Marinaro, Héctor Dadeiro and Miguelito Álvarez. This move led the club to a third title in 1958–59.
1960–1992
In 1961–62, César Viccinio managed the team to its fourth title, while Raul Miralles led the team to another in 1962. At the beginning of the 1963, the club moved its headquarters to the newly built Estadio Santaneco.
The early history of that stadium was marked by tragedy, as goalkeeper Oscar Quiteño collapsed during a friendly match against Orión F.C. Efforts to revive him failed, and Quiteño died on the pitch. In his honor, the club renamed the stadium to Estadio Quiteño and wore black uniforms for two years.
Fans came to believe the club was cursed, as Quiteño's death was followed by a fifteen-year title drought. Adding to that frustration was that the club reached the finals in 1965, 1968, and 1969 and meet defeat all three times. Their tormentor was Alianza, known at that time as the "Orquestra Alba" for their harmony and skill.