Ecuadorian Serie A

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Liga Pro Ecuador Serie A

Founded 1957; 66 years ago

Country Ecuador

Confederation CONMEBOL

Number of teams 16

Level on pyramid 1

Relegation to Serie B

Domestic cup(s) Copa Ecuador

Supercopa Ecuador
 International cup(s) Copa Libertadores

Copa Sudamericana

Recopa Sudamericana

Current champions Aucas (1st title)

Most championships Barcelona (16 titles)

Most appearances Carlos Javier Caicedo (670)

Top goalscorer Ermen Benítez (191)

Website Official webpage

Current: 2023 Serie A season

The Liga Pro Bet593, simply known as the Liga Pro, or the Serie A, is a

professional football league in Ecuador. At the top of the Ecuadorian football
league system, it is the country's premier football competition. Contested by
sixteen clubs, it operates a system of promotion and relegation with the Serie B,
the lower level of the Primera Categoría. The season runs from February to
December and is usually contested in multiple stages.
While initially not a league, the Serie A has its roots in the national championship
between the top teams of Ecuador's two regional leagues. For the first nine
editions, teams from Guayaquil and Quito qualified to the competition through their
professional regional leagues. It abandoned the qualification format to form a
proper league in 1967. Since the first edition in 1957, the tournament has been
held annually (except 1958 and 1959); the 2005 season had two champions. It was
ranked by IFFHS as the 11th strongest football league in the world for 2022, and
the 4th strongest league in South America.[1]
Eleven clubs have been crowned Ecuadorian champions, but four teams have a
combined total of 54 championships. The most successful club is Barcelona with
sixteen titles. Aucas are the defending champions.

Format[edit]
The format for the Serie A national championship changes consistently. The most
common format is a two-stage tournament, in which teams qualify to a mini-league
(Spanish: Liguilla) to determine the champion. The current format was introduced
for the 2010 season and consists of three stages. The First and Second Stages
each follow the double round-robin format. The winners of each stage play against
each other in the Third Stage for the championship. A third-place match also takes
place in the Third Stage between the next two-best teams in the aggregate table. If
the same team wins both the First and Second Stage, they are automatically the
champion. In this case, the second and third best teams in the aggregate table play
against each other for runner-up.
Relegation takes place after the Second Stage and is determined using an
aggregate table of the first two stages. As well as playing to win the championship
and avoid relegation teams also compete for places in the following season's Copa
Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana.

History[edit]
All football in Ecuador was played at amateur level until 1950 when the Guayas
Football Association (Spanish: Asociación de Fútbol del Guayas [AFG]) turned
professional and held its first professional tournament for affiliated clubs (for clubs
in Guayaquil). The Professional Football Championship of Guayaquil
(Spanish: Campeonato Professional de Fútbol de Guayaquil) was first held in 1951
and was won by Río Guayas. In 1954, the football association in Pichincha (current
the Asociación de Fútbol No Amatur de Pichincha [AFNA]) decided to turn
professional and hold a professional tournament of their own for their affiliated
clubs (for clubs in Quito & Ambato). The first Inter-Andean Professional
Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Professional Interandino) was held in 1954
and was won by LDU Quito.
The two tournaments were the top-level football leagues in Ecuador, but the
champion of each could not claim to be the national champion. That changed in
1957 when a national football tournament was organized for the winners the two
leagues. The first Ecuadorian Football Championship was contested between the
champion and runner-up of the 1957 Campeonato Professional de Fútbol de
Guayaquil of (Emelec & Barcelona, respectively) and the champion and runner-up
of the 1957 Campeonato Professional Interandino (Deportivo Quito and Aucas,
respectively). Emelec won the tournament and became the first national
champions of football in Ecuador.
No championship was held in 1958 and 1959. The tournament returned in 1960
using the same format as in 1957. This time the field grew from four teams to eight
teams. This format continued until 1967 when a number of changes occurred: 1)
the regional tournaments were discontinued after the 1967 season; 2) teams
contesting the national championship from 1968 onwards were now part of the
Primera Categoría; and 3) a second level of Ecuadorian football (Segunda
Categoría) was put into play and a system of relegation and promotion began in
1967.
In 1971, the Primera Categoría was divided into two Series: Serie A & Serie B.
Serie A was to be the top level of club football, while Serie B was the second, and
Segunda the third. Between, 1983–1988, Serie B was merged into the Segunda,
but the Serie A continued. Serie B was brought back in 1989, and has stayed as
the second level since.
In 2005, the Campeonato Ecuatoriano was divided into two tournaments to crown
two champions in one year. The two tournaments were called Apertura and
Clausura. The tournament returned to its year-long format in 2006.

Clubs[edit]
A total of 55 clubs have competed in the Serie A since the first season in 1957.
Although Barcelona is the only club to have never been relegated, no club has ever
played in every season. This anomaly is due to the fact that for the 1964
competition, teams from Guayaquil (including Barcelona and Emelec) declined to
participate in the national championship.
The following sixteen clubs will compete in the Serie A during the 2022 season.