FEF and its ‘hell’ with six DTs of the Ecuadorian team: debts, lawsuits and million-dollar ‘mistakes’

“I talked to Gustavo Alfaro to find out about Ecuador,” Ricardo Gareca revealed on February 13 in an interview with the network ESPNwhen Tiger he was the main candidate for the coach of the national team. Gareca also stated that he is “one step away from reaching an agreement” with Francisco Egas. But the arrival of the former coach from Peru did not materialize.

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What did Alfaro say to Gareca? Did he tell you that he plans to file a complaint with FIFA against the Ecuadorian Football Association? Has he revealed to you that he has problems with his salary? Perhaps Gareca knows that the FEF has not otherwise closed a working relationship with any coach of the bigger Tricolor since the end of the era of Reinaldo Rueda, who won the ticket to the World Cup in 2014.

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From the farewell of the Colombian Rueda, 2014, until the end of the process of the Argentine Alfaro, after the elimination in Qatar 2022, the FEF abounds with cases of debts, payment agreements that must be respected, announcements of salary cuts that are not such, lawsuits, salaries of the coach who did not lead nor the trainings, those “mistakes” that cost the Federation millions of dollars.

“In Ecuador, they didn’t care, Ricardo Gareca asked them for silver,” says a journalist from Peru

History includes the administrations of Luis Chiriboga, Carlos Villacis and Francisco Egas. In the decade with the last six starting strategists leading the senior team, there have been contractual issues, which are detailed below.

‘FEF owes Gustavo Alfaro, but not millions of dollars, and will collect when FIFA pays out the 2022 World Cup qualification awards.’

Reinaldo Rueda, ‘high sum’

On 16 January 2015, a semester after Ecuador’s group stage bye at the 2014 World Cup, it was revealed that FEF owed Rueda, with whom it was not renewed. Carlos Velasco, former physical trainer of Tricolor, told this on the radio Meshfrom Quito: “Unfortunately, yes, the Federation owes us, with the coaching staff of Professor Reinaldo Rueda.”

According to Velasco, the payment obligation was agreed with the FEF on July 25, 2014, after the World Cup, but these agreements were not fulfilled. “We were in constant contact and (the managers) always agreed to make the payments on the relevant dates. But we don’t know what happened because they haven’t been implemented yet,” Velasco recounted in 2015. He explained that Rueda and his associates did not want to go to legal instances “because they are talking to big people”. It is a high sum.”

48 hours after the complaint, Luis Chiriboga reacted, with a confusing explanation. On 18 January 2015, the president of the FEF accepted that there were outstanding merits for canceling Rueda and his staff, but he said: “there is no debt because it will be paid”. According to the Federation’s economic report, the amount claimed by Rueda and his team was $475,359. Ecuafútbol has planned meetings with its creditors to finalize payment agreements.

Gustavo Quinteros, in TAS

In November 2019, FIFA declared “inadmissible” a lawsuit filed by Gustavo Quinteros against the FEF for $1.5 million. In September 2017, Carlos Villacís, the president of the Federation (he succeeded Chiriboga, who resigned after being accused of corruption by regular courts), decided that DT would be relieved of his command of the selection two dates before the end of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. Jorge Célico will take over as a temporary in the remaining matches as well.

Quinteros accused Villacís of unilaterally and unjustifiably terminating the contract and appealed FIFA’s ruling before CAS. In June 2022, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ordered Ecuafútbol to pay the former Tricolor coach $391,750 in damages. For Francisco Egas, this debt was an ‘inheritance’ from his predecessor. For Quinteros, his departure from the national team was “a bad decision by an incompetent president (Villacís) who did a lot of damage to Ecuadorian football.”

Hernán Gómez, just a ‘mistake’

“When my presidency ends (in 2019), they will tell me: Carlos, there has been a total change in the FEF.” This erroneous prediction was made by Carlos Villacís when he gave his first performance report as FEF President, in January 2017.

Villacís has been criticized for promoting the second coming Roll Hernan Dario Gomez as DT tricolor. The return of the Colombian became official on 1 August 2018, with Villacís having just five months left as FEF boss. In other words, the incoming directory ‘inherited’ a technician who was not elected by the officials who were elected.

Last February, Villacís admitted it was a “mistake” to hire Villacís, who was sacked by Egas in July 2019 after Ecuador’s massive failure at the Copa América. Villacís’ “mistake” cost national football several million dollars (the settlement as compensation, after the mutual termination of employment by both parties, amounted to $1,0362,324).

“Hernán Darío Gómez has ceased to be the coach of Ecuador. We reached a mutual agreement (with Roll), I think in good terms… it more or less reaches 30% of the total buyout clause (which was $4.5 million). Now we have no risk of demand, we said goodbye on the best terms, explained Francisco Egas, president of the FEF, announcing the solution to Villacís’ mistake.

Jordi Cruyff never directed

Egas’ first coach, as FEF president, was a Dutchman whom he introduced on January 13, 2020. For a change, like his predecessors in office, Jordi Cruyff experienced a stormy split. From a discreet background as a DT in China and Israel, did you sign just because you are European and because of your famous surname? Cruyff intended to turn Ecuador “into a world power,” Egas said.

On July 23, 192 days after the presentation, Ecuafútbol confirmed the end of the unproductive Cruyff era. “We inform the public that the selector has communicated his resignation to the FEF president,” it was announced on social networks. Cruyff did not even direct during training. However, on March 13, 2020, he went to Spain to be with his family during the coronavirus pandemic.

Carlos Galarza, head of the FEF, stated that the trip was made without the permission of the board of directors. But Cruyff assured that he agreed with whom he considered his bosses: Francisco Egas and Antonio Cordón. He gave two dates for his return from Barcelona, ​​but instead of Ecuador, Cruyff moved to Tel Aviv to visit friends despite the pandemic.

To counter the widespread rejection of Cruyff’s absence, Egas claimed in April 2020 that there would be a pay cut “for the coaching staff and other workers”. But on April 24, a letter signed by six members of the FEF board refuted Egas. It was explained that what Cruyff and his colleagues had agreed was a restructuring of the salary payment flow, but not “their alignment”.

In an interview with EL UNIVERSO, Cruyff said in August 2020 that it hurts him to be called a “thief” because he did not receive six months’ salary as a coach from Ecuador, but “less than two” (almost a month). and a half, according to a FEF source, who requested the confidentiality of his identity).

Gustavo Alfaro. million debt?

According to the FEF economic report, at the regular congress last January, Gustavo Alfaro should pay $290,000 to close any debt with the coach who qualified for Qatar 2022 with the Tricolor.

But on February 27, Argentinian journalist César Merlo (the first to report that Alfaro would not renew his contract with Ecuador) asserted that DT had intimidated the FEF “into paying him a debt of one million dollars which includes arrears of wages and bonuses for him and his coaching staff. If they don’t, a lawsuit will follow in FIFA.”

“We will have to see what Alfaro is looking for and if it has contractual support. The problem is happening because FIFA has not paid yet and everything is late. As far as I know, this is not the case (ten times more than the $290,000 that FEF admits). You have to pay the qualification prize (for Qatar 2022) and that comes from the money that FIFA has to cancel to play the World Cup. If (the money) has not arrived, there is nowhere to continue the draw. As soon as FIFA makes the transfer, the postponement will be respected”, explained to EL UNIVERSO a source who requested the reservation of his name and was familiar with the negotiations that the Federation conducted regarding the debt with Alfaro. (D)