The first quarter of the year ends i The Ecuadorian clubs played for only three days from professional leaguequalifying tournament in the country for international cups to which Ecuadorian teams come “at a disadvantage” every year.

Aucas, Barcelona SC and Independiente del Valle await the formation of the 2023 Copa Libertadores groups and theirs The trip was short, which directly affects his preparation and performance with the goal of an international event.

Copa Libertadores 2023: Independiente del Valle in Pot 1, Barcelona SC in Pot 2 and Aucas in Pot 3 for group stage draw

For the Copa Sudamericana, rivals Emelec and Liga de Quito, who reached the preliminary stage with only two Pro League games, await them.

They were out of competition Nacional and Universidad Católica, who made their Libertadores debut this season before the Pro League. Deportivo Cuenca and Delfín lost to the Blues and Albos in the first phase of the South American competition.

With this scenario,teams are at a disadvantage compared to other clubs on the continent who come with a higher order of matches compared to usbut we have to adapt and keep working to correct these situations,” complained Santiago Morales, sports manager of Independiente del Valle.

The previous local tournament ended on 13 November 2022 with a second final clash and Aucas as champions, just three months later (24 February) the 2023 season started.

Liga Pro consists of a total of 30 matches in two phaseswith the additional option of two finals if the winners of each stage are different, this is recorded as the first factor according to which the format would havewho directly affects the course of clubsas Morales explained in a dialogue with The world of sports.

Although there is still a “but”, because “if we started the tournament earlierwe would still finish in October and What will we do the rest of the year? said Morales who emphasized that “The worst mistake in the Pro League was in its composition: the increase to 16 teams in Serie A”when until 2018 the national championship was played with 12 clubs.

He August 21, 2018, leadership of 24 clubs state championship met to define quotas for the nascent Pro Leaguewhere it is proposed to increase to 16 teams in series A and reduce to 10 places in series B, without relegation.

Since the inception of the tournament, there have been opposing opinions. 15 clubs voted for the A Pro League option, five of them abstained: “Nacional, Independiente, Deportivo Cuenca, Macará and Delfín, two supported the alternative presented by Barcelona, ​​​​and Liga de Quito was the only team without a representative at the event,” reported Diario EL UNIVERSO.

After the meeting, there was talk of a “broken union” in the leadership, even “threats” for opposing the fact that from 2019, 16 teams play in Serie A and 10 in Serie B.

“We think it is not convenient to change the rules in the current championship. Most of the B teams want to increase to 16 teams, these are fair aspirations. But we withdrew (from the meeting) because We do not agree that the rules of the game are being broken. It had to be done at the beginning of the championship, not when we are already more than halfway through it,” he commented after the meeting in Guayaquil. Michel Deller, leader of the stripes.

WITH four seasons in the same formatSantiago Morales indicated: “ABefore, the tournament was more competitive, we had a more extensive tournament, with 44 dates and it was more fair to the winners. Now we have 30 dates and 15 games played, there is already a place for the Copa Libertadores, too big a prize. These are things that need to be analyzed. there is chaos and less competition than we had in the previous format. Only in relation to Brazil, their teams play five tournaments a year,” Morales pointed out. (D)