Barcelona SC will be the first team to participate; It will do so in phase 1 of the Copa Libertadores.
Time is short for the eight Ecuadorian clubs that have qualified to play the tournaments of the Conmebol, the Libertadores and Sudamericana cups, whose start-up is scheduled from the end of next January.
Independiente del Valle, Emelec, Barcelona, Universidad Católica, Delfín, Liga de Quito, Nueve de Octubre and Mushuc Runa They will represent Ecuador in regional tournaments organized by the South American Football Confederation.
Those teams, which recently concluded their participation in the national tournament (except Independiente and Emelec, who dispute the final of the championship), have not yet defined the squads with which they will face the Conmebol cups.
The Guayaquil club Barcelona will be the first to participate as of February 9, after reaching the ticket to the first qualifying round of the Libertadores play-off in Ecuador.
The president of the team, former Argentinean Ecuadorian naturalized soccer player Carlos Alfaro Moreno, recently specified that Barcelona will start the preseason on December 27, so he plans to ratify the current coach, his compatriot Fabián Bustos, or hire a new one in the coming days. .
Barcelona has also started with a process of purging its squad, which had a disastrous closure in the recent season and which, at times, jeopardized the team’s qualification for the Libertadores in 2022.
Alfaro Moreno assured that between five or six players will join the club, with whom they have advanced negotiations, in their desire to revalidate the acceptable participation of the team until the semifinals of the Libertadores in 2021.
For its part, the Catholic University of Quito will start in phase two of the Libertadores play-off, which will start on February 27.
The Catholic team will reappear after an excellent closing of the season, but in the midst of an economic crisis that, at the moment, has left the team without a coaching staff and several of its players are required by other clubs.
While Independiente del Valle and Emelec, who will dispute the title of the current season in Ecuador next Sunday, their future is much clearer from the group stage of the Libertadores.
The Valle team took advantage of the local title this season by beating Emelec yesterday, Sunday, in the first leg 3-1, under the command of Portuguese coach Renato Paiva.
Both Paiva and Spanish coach Ismael Rescalvo, who has a contract with Emelec until 2023, will continue to lead their respective teams.
On October 9, which qualified for the first local phase of the South American, he ratified his coach, the Ecuadorian Juan Carlos León, and began rearming his squad, since several of the players with whom he entered the South American tournament have advanced your ties to other teams.
Meanwhile, Delfín, from the port city of Manta, started the rearming with the hiring of Uruguayan coach Guillermo Sanguinetti, with whom he lost the final of the 2017 national tournament against Emelec from Guayaquil.
Liga de Quito ratified the coaching staff commanded by Uruguayan Pablo Marini, who fought to the end to go to the Libertadores, but had to settle for the ticket to the South American.
The squad has suffered casualties due to the departure of several players and their managers are looking for reinforcements in the midst of an economic crisis, the result of a deficit, which exceeds 15 million dollars, according to their main manager, Esteban Paz, recently.
The League will possibly suffer the losses of Paraguayan striker Luis Amarilla, because he will not be able to retain him financially, as Paz has warned, and midfielder Jordy Alcívar, on loan to Charlotte from the American League (MLS).
On his side, Mushuc Runa, who qualified for the second time in the South American, thanks to the great campaign of the first phase of the national tournament, when he had the Argentine striker Jonathan Bauman, who later went on to Independiente del Valle.
The managers of Mushuc Runa have announced that they will take “a reasonable amount of time” to reassemble the team. (D)
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
