Ecuador. The usual 3-stage championship with promotion and relegation at the end of the first stage.
Second Division:
Delfin (Manta) won the 1st stage of the championship and was promoted to First Division for the rest of the season.
Juvenstus (Esmeraldas) won the 2nd stage of the championship and thus was the Second Division champion, but since there was no promotion at the end of the season, the team remained in Second Division.
First stage – Primera etapa. Standard league championship of 22 rounds. The top 4 teams qualified to the final stage of the season, earning bonus to carry to it. The last in the table was relegated.
Audaz Octubrino (Machala) finished last with 14 points and was relegated.
Above them, hoping for better turn of fate in the second stage: Tecnico Universitario – 11th with 17 points, LDU (Portoviejo) – 10th with 18 points, Deportivo (Cuenca) – 9th with 19 points, Filanbanco (Guayaquil) – 8th with 19 points, Aucas (Quito) – 7th with 21 points, LDU (Quito) – 6th with 21 points, Macara (Ambato) – 5th with 24 points, and at the top the teams qualified to the final stage:
Deportivo (Quito) – 4th with 25 points. 0.5 to the final stage.
Emelec (Guayaquil) – 3rd with 26 points. 0.5 to the final stage.
Barcelona (Guayaquil) – 2nd with 28 points. 1 point to the final stage.
El Nacional (Quito) won the first stage with 30 points: 14 wins, 2 ties, 6 losses, 40-25 goal-difference. They got 1 point to carry to the final stage.
Second stage – Segunda etapa. The 12 teams (including the promoted team from Second Divison) were divided in 2 groups, which winners qualified to the final stage. As usual, teams already qualified in the first stage did not put too much effort now.
Group A:
Deportivo (Cuenca) – last with 8 points.
Emelec – 5th with 9 points, El Nacional – 4th with 10 points,
Delfin (Manta) – 3rd with 11 points.
Aucas (Quito) – 2nd with 11 points.
Macara won Group A on better goal-difference – Aucas ended with 17-15, Macara with 20-13. Their 11 points came from 4 wins, 3 ties, 3 losses. 0.5 to the final stage.
Group B.
LDU (Portoviejo) – 6th with 6 points.
Tecnico Universitario (Ambato) – 5th with 8 points.
Barcelona – 4th with 10 points.
Deportivo (Quito) – 3rd with 11 points.
LDU (Quito) – 2nd with 12 points.
Filanbanco (Guayaquil) – winner of Group B with 13 points: 6 wins, 1 tie, 3 losses, 21-14 goal-difference. 0.5 points to the final stage.
Final stage – Liguilla final. The 4 teams qualified in the first stage plus the group winners of the second stage, all teams starting with the bonus points earned previously. After 10 rounds (thus, the top 6 teams played a total of 42 championship games – pretty much more than in any other league in both South America and Europe) the final table proclaimed the new champion.
Filanbanco (Guayaquil) – last with 6.5 points.
Macara (Ambato) – 5th with 7.5 points.
El Nacional (Quito) – 4th with 10 points.
Deportivo (Quito) – 3rd with 12.5 points.
Emelec (Guayaquil) – 2nd with 13.5 points. As often happened in Ecuador, the ‘smart’ team saving strength during the year for the final stage lost the battle for the title – on bonus-point. Emelec won most games in the final stage – 6, and scored most goals – 19, but it was not enough.
Barcelona (Guayaquil) clinched the title with 14 points. Like their rivals, they earned 13 points in the final stage: 5 wins, 3 ties, 2 losses, 15-9 goal-difference. But they started the final stage with 1 bonus point and Emelec with 0.5. This was the whole difference at the end in favour of Barcelona. However, they were stronger than Emelec during the whole season – 2nd in the first stage, where Emelec was 3rd; 4th in Group B of the second stage – Emelec was 5th in Group A. Emelec seemingly saved its strength for the final stage, but Barcelona saved a bit of strength only in the second stage, yet overall was a bit better than Emelec. After all, without bonus points, they still would have been ahead of Emelec – on better goal-difference. Not an easy victory, but very enjoyable 9th title, equalizing El Nacional as all-times leading teams – both with 9 titles.