Ecuadorian Serie A

Liga Pro Ecuador Serie A

Founded	1957; 65 years ago (1957)
Country	Ecuador
Confederation	CONMEBOL
Number of teams	16
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Serie B
Domestic cup(s)	Copa Ecuador
International cup(s)	Copa Libertadores Copa Sudamericana
Current champions	Independiente del Valle (1st title)
Most championships	Barcelona (16 titles)
Most appearances	Carlos Javier Caicedo (670)
Top goalscorer	Ermen Benítez (191)
Website	Official webpage
Current: 2022 Serie A season

The Liga Pro Betcris, 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. The main sponsor is and it is known as Liga Pro Betcris.^[1]

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 18th strongest football league in the world for 2021, and the 5th strongest league in South America.^[2]

Ten 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. Independiente del Valle are the defending champions.

Format[]

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[]

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[]

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.

Ambato

Delfín

Deportivo Cuenca

Gualaceo

Guayaquil

Independiente del Valle

Orense

Quito

Quito teams:
Aucas
Cumbayá
LDU Quito
Universidad Católica
Ambato teams:
Macará
Mushuc Runa
Técnico Universitario
Guayaquil teams:
9 de Octubre
Barcelona
Emelec
Guayaquil City

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Locations of the 2022 Serie A clubs.

Champions by year[]

Barcelona has won 16 championships, followed by Emelec with 14 titles, El Nacional with 13, LDU Quito with 11 titles, Deportivo Quito with 5 titles, and Deportivo Cuenca, Olmedo, Delfin, Everest and Independiente del Valle with one title each. All the clubs that have won multiple titles have won back-to-back titles at least once. El Nacional and Emelec are the only two clubs to have won three titles in a row, El Nacional has done twice from 1976–1978 and 1982–1984, and C.S. Emelec from 2013-2015.

Season		Champion (Title count)	Runner-up	Third place	Leading goalscorer(s)[3]
1957		Emelec (1)	Barcelona	Deportivo Quito	Simón Cañarte (Barcelona; 4 goals)
1958-1959		No championship held
1960		Barcelona (1)	Emelec	Patria	Enrique Cantos (Barcelona; 8 goals)
1961		Emelec (2)	Patria	Everest	Galo Pinto (Everest; 12 goals)
1962		Everest (1)	Barcelona	Emelec	Iris López (Barcelona; 9 goals)
1963		Barcelona (2)	Emelec	Deportivo Quito	Carlos Alberto Raffo (Emelec; 4 goals)
1964		Deportivo Quito (1)	El Nacional	LDU Quito	Jorge Valencia (América (M); 8 goals)
1965		Emelec (3)	9 de Octubre	Barcelona	Helio Cruz (Barcelona; 8 goals)
1966		Barcelona (3)	Emelec	Politécnico	Pio Coutinho (LDU Quito; 13 goals)
1967		El Nacional (1)	Emelec	Barcelona	Tom Rodríguez (El Nacional; 16 goals)
1968		Deportivo Quito (2)	Barcelona	Emelec	Víctor Battaini (Deportivo Quito; 19 goals)
1969		LDU Quito (1)	América de Quito	Aucas	Francisco Bertocchi (LDU Quito; 26 goals)
1970		Barcelona (4)	Emelec	América de Quito	Rómulo Dudar Mina (Macará; 19 goals)
1971		Barcelona (5)	América de Quito	Emelec	Alfonso Obregón (LDU Portoviejo; 18 goals)
1972		Emelec (4)	El Nacional	Barcelona	(Barcelona; 24 goals)
1973		El Nacional (2)	Universidad Católica	Barcelona	Ángel Marín (América (Q); 18 goals)
1974		LDU Quito (2)	El Nacional	Deportivo Cuenca	Ángel Liciardi (Deportivo Cuenca; 19 goals)
1975		LDU Quito (3)	Deportivo Cuenca	Aucas	Ángel Liciardi (Deportivo Cuenca; 36 goals)
		El Nacional (3)	Deportivo Cuenca	Emelec	Ángel Liciardi (Deportivo Cuenca; 19 goals)
		El Nacional (4)	LDU Quito	Universidad Católica	Fabián Paz y Miño (El Nacional; 27 goals)
		El Nacional (5)	Técnico Universitario	Emelec	Juan José Pérez (LDU Portoviejo; 24 goals)
		Emelec (5)	Universidad Católica	Manta Sport	Carlos Miori (Emelec; 26 goals)
		Barcelona (6)	Técnico Universitario	Universidad Católica	Miguel Gutíerrez (América (Q); 26 goals)
		Barcelona (7)	LDU Quito	El Nacional	(LDU Quito; 25 goals)
		El Nacional (6)	Barcelona	LDU Portoviejo	José Villafuerte (El Nacional; 25 goals)
		El Nacional (7)	9 de Octubre	Barcelona	(Barcelona; 28 goals)
		El Nacional (8)	9 de Octubre	LDU Quito	Sergio Saucedo (Deportivo Quito; 25 goals)
		Barcelona (8)	Deportivo Quito	Filanbanco	Juan Carlos de Lima (Universidad Católica; 24 goals) Guga (Esmeraldas Petrolero; 24 goals)
		El Nacional (9)	Barcelona	Técnico Universitario	Juan Carlos de Lima (Deportivo Quito; 23 goals)
		Barcelona (9)	Filanbanco	Audaz Octubrino	Ermen Benitez (El Nacional; 24 goals) Hamilton Cuvi (Filanbanco; 24 goals) Waldemar Victorino (LDU Portoviejo; 24 goals)
		Emelec (6)	Deportivo Quito	No third-place awarded	Janio Pinto (LDU Quito; 18 goals)
		Barcelona (10)	Emelec	Deportivo Quito	Ermen Benítez (El Nacional; 18 goals)
1990		LDU Quito (4)	Barcelona	Emelec	Ermen Benítez (El Nacional; 33 goals)
		Barcelona (11)	Valdez	El Nacional	Pedro Varela (Delfín; 24 goals)
		El Nacional (10)	Barcelona	Emelec	Carlos Muñoz (Barcelona; 19 goals)
		Emelec (7)	Barcelona	El Nacional	Diego Herrera (LDU Quito; 21 goals)
		Emelec (8)	El Nacional	Barcelona	Manuel Uquillas (ESPOLI; 25 goals)
		Barcelona (12)	ESPOLI	El Nacional	Manuel Uquillas (Barcelona; 24 goals)
		El Nacional (11)	Emelec	Barcelona	Ariel Graziani (Emelec; 28 goals)
		Barcelona (13)	Deportivo Quito	Emelec	Ariel Graziani (Emelec; 24 goals)
1998		LDU Quito (5)	Emelec	No third-place awarded	Iván Kaviedes (Emelec; 43 goals)
1999		LDU Quito (6)	El Nacional	Emelec	Christian Botero (Macará; 25 goals)
2000		Olmedo (1)	El Nacional	Emelec	Alejandro Kenig (Emelec; 25 goals)
		Emelec (9)	El Nacional	Olmedo	Carlos Juárez (Emelec; 17 goals)
		Emelec (10)	Barcelona	El Nacional	Christian Carnero (Deportivo Quito; 26 goals)
2003		LDU Quito (7)	Barcelona	El Nacional	Ariel Graziani (Barcelona; 23 goals)
2004		Deportivo Cuenca (1)	Olmedo	LDU Quito	Ebelio Ordóñez (El Nacional; 24 goals)
2005	A	LDU Quito (8)	Barcelona	No third-place awarded	Wilson Segura (LDU Loja; 21 goals)
	C	El Nacional (12)	Deportivo Cuenca	LDU Quito	Omar Guerra (Aucas; 21 goals)
2006		El Nacional (13)	Emelec	LDU Quito	Luis Miguel Escalada (Emelec; 29 goals)
2007		LDU Quito (9)	Deportivo Cuenca	Olmedo	Juan Carlos Ferreyra (Deportivo Cuenca; 17 goals)
2008		Deportivo Quito (3)	LDU Quito	Deportivo Cuenca	Pablo Palacios (Barcelona; 20 goals)
2009		Deportivo Quito (4)	Deportivo Cuenca	Emelec	Claudio Bieler (LDU Quito; 22 goals)
2010		LDU Quito (10)	Emelec	Deportivo Quito	Jaime Ayoví (Emelec; 23 goals)
2011		Deportivo Quito (5)	Emelec	El Nacional	Narciso Mina (Independiente José Terán; 28 goals)
2012		Barcelona (14)	Emelec	LDU Quito	Narciso Mina (Barcelona; 30 goals)
2013		Emelec (11)	Independiente del Valle	Deportivo Quito	Federico Nieto (Deportivo Quito; 29 goals)
2014		Emelec (12)	Barcelona	Independiente del Valle	Armando Wila (Universidad Católica; 20 goals)
2015		Emelec (13)	LDU Quito	Independiente del Valle	Miller Bolaños (Emelec; 25 goals)
2016		Barcelona (15)	Emelec	El Nacional	Maximiliano Barreiro (Delfín; 23 goals)
2017		Emelec (14)	Delfín	Independiente del Valle	Hernán Barcos (LDU Quito; 21 goals)
2018		LDU Quito (11)	Emelec	Barcelona	Jhon Cifuente (Universidad Católica; 37 goals)
2019		Delfín (1)	LDU Quito	Macará	Luis Amarilla (Universidad Católica; 19 goals)
2020		Barcelona (16)	LDU Quito	Independiente del Valle	Cristian Martínez Borja (LDU Quito; 24 goals)
2021		Independiente del Valle (1)	Emelec	Universidad Católica	Jonathan Bauman (Mushuc Runa/Independiente del Valle; 26 goals)

Titles by club[]

Titles by Province[]

All-time top goalscorers[]

Ecuadorian Ermen Benítez is the league's all-time top-scorer, having scored 191 goals over 15 season. He is also holds the record for scoring the most goals for one team. The top active goalscorer is Ebelio Ordóñez.^[4]

Rank	Player	Club(s)	Years	Goals	Total goals
1	Ermen Benítez	El Nacional	1980–90	154	191
		Barcelona	1991–92	19
		LDU Quito	1993	1
		Green Cross	1994	12
		LDU Portoviejo	1995	5
2	Jorge Ron	El Nacional	1972–79	94	181
		Universidad Católica	1980–84	73
		Macará	1986	6
		Aucas	1987	8
3	Ebelio Ordóñez	Técnico Universitario	1996	13	159
		El Nacional	1997–2004; 2006–07	137
		Emelec	2005	0
		Deportivo Quito	2008; 2010	9
4		Emelec	1970–71	8	154
		Deportivo Cuenca	1972; 1974–77	132
		Barcelona	1978	14
5	Fabián Paz y Miño	El Nacional	1972–88	153	153

See also[]

• Ecuadorian Football Federation
• Ecuadorian football league system
• Football in Ecuador
• List of football clubs in Ecuador

References[]

External links[]

• Official webpage (in Spanish)
• Serie A on RSSSF