Let’s look at the good news in a field that attracts so much: football. There is not much doubt (or is there?) that in the last 15 years (almost?) we have reached, globally, the third place in South America, of course, far behind Brazil and Argentina.

The facts. Our selection ranked (since 2006) 3 out of 5 world championships. The others? Only Uruguay surpasses us (4 out of 5). Obviously, we need a new breakthrough at the World Cup: we reached the round of 16 only once (in 2006) and in that we were surpassed by Uruguay (semi-finals in 2010) and others. Tri U-20 have just qualified for their third consecutive World Cup, having finished third in the previous one, ahead of only Uruguay (third and fourth in 2007 and 2017 respectively) and Venezuela (second in 2017). And Tri’s under-17s have just qualified for their second World Cup in a row and in style (second in South America). All very well!… And the teams? Similar. LDU de Quito, winner of the Libertadores, Sudamericana (plus another final). IDV, two victories of the South Americans and the final of the Libertadores. Let’s remember the past, in the 70s we had Barcelona and LDU Quito in several semi-finals and Barcelona in two finals in the 90s. Which country gives us team fights? Only Colombia with 4 finals (6 of us). Uruguay: 1 individual final.

(…) globalization has expanded borders, competitions, rewards and incentives…

We add, subtract, check and balance, I think the overall result of the national teams and teams is clear: we fight with Uruguay (beat them?), and we beat Colombia.

Reasons? Very diverse. Starting with something casual: before only 3 teams from the continent qualified for the world championships, now there are 4 or 5, the difference is huge, it increased the odds (we were on the verge of qualifying for 1966, strange arbitrations and we lost the playoff against Chile). Cultural problem: the regional struggles that led to the selection of players based on their geographical location and the teams subsided, not necessarily the best, but those who balanced (or, worse, unbalanced) regionalism, and for this reason we did not take advantage of the height of Quito (not decisive, but important). Vision: Drašković encouraged us 30 years ago to take advantage of the Afro-Ecuadorian biotype, combining strength and speed with better technical work. Global Issue: Globalization has expanded borders, competitions, rewards and incentives, circulation of players, and especially after the Bosman Law in Europe that opened borders more. A better market: businessmen took over teams, invested, improved the organization, they were motivated by the love of football, but above all to turn them into profitable and permanent companies, i.e. now the teams have “owners” who can empower them, ownership creates the possibility of taking over risks. Strategy: There is a very clear focus on empowering young people, because this improves the game, but also expands financial opportunities, so we have several young people on the edge of big European teams. And maybe other reasons… And, strangely enough, all this in the middle of a rather weak championship (I watch a lot of matches on TV or in the stadium): tight and excessively difficult matches, endless cuts, bad referees, questionable quality, LigaPro management committee … Let’s keep up the demand to keep growing! (OR)