Ecuador. No escape from complicated formulas of championships… the Ecuadorian championship had 4 stages. The first was regular league formula: the 12 teams in top league played twice against all others. The top 4 teams qualified directly to Third stage – but still played in the Second stage. The last in the table was relegated to Second Division and the winner of the First stage of Second Division was promoted to the top league for the rest of the season. The 11th in the table was directly qualified to the relegation final stage.
Juventus (Esmeraldas) was last with 7 points and was relegated to play in Second Division for the rest of the season.
Universidad Catolica (Quito) won the First Stage of Second Division and was promoted to play the rest of the season in First Division. This was the first time Universidad Catolica won Second Division championship, for this stage was counted as somewhat separate championship due to the immediate promotion of the winner. So, a trophy was collected by Universidad Catolica.
Meantime, at the top of First Division First Stage ended: Emelec – 4th with 25 points (ahead of LDU Quito on better goal-difference), Deportivo Quito – 3rd with 26 points, Barcelona – 2nd with 26 points (ahead of Deportivo Quito on better goal-difference), and El Nacional was 1st with 34 points. They were absolutely great at this stage: 13 wins, 8 ties and only one lost match. Scored 47 goals, permitting only 18 in their own net.
The Second Stage divided the league into 2 groups of 6 teams each. Every team played twice against the other teams in its own group. The promoted Universidad Catolica played in this stage, replacing relegated Juventus. The top 2 teams in each group qualified to the Third Stage. Deportivo Quito won Group 1 with 17 points, followed by El Nacional with 15 points. Emelec finished 2nd in Group 2 with 12 points, topped by newcomer Universidad Catolica with 14 points. Thus, a team which started the season in the Second Division had a chance to finish it as champion of the country – something impossible anywhere else, but Eduador. Tecnico Universitario was penalized with 2-point deduction, but the final standings were unaffected by that – with full record the team would have been 3rd, now it was 4th.
Then the Third Stage? Not yet… 8 teams played in the Third Stage and the other 4 played in the Relegation Liguilla. 5 teams already qualified to the Third Stage in the previous stages. To determine the last three and those going to the relegation group (Macara already qualified for it in the First Stage) an aggregate table was made of First and Second Stages – that is, a table according to 32 games already played by each team. Except already relegated Juventus and already promoted Universidad Catolica, having 22 and 10 games at this moment. A table of 13 teams, not of the actual number of league teams which was 12. From this table only the middle part – from 5th to and including 10th position – mattered. The better placed 3 went to the Forth Stage of the championship, the worse placed – to the relegation group. Delfin – 5th, Deportivo Cuenca – 6th, and LDU Quito – 7th, qualified to the Third Stage. Tecnico Universitario – 8th, Filanbanco – 9th, and Aucas – 10th went to the relegation group. Here Tecnico Universitario was really punished – if they did not have 2 points deducted in the Second Stage, they would have qualified for next championship stage, but now were in risk of relegation.
Third Stage. It decided 2 things: the 4 teams qualifying to the Firth and final stage and the second relegated team for the season.
Relegation Liquilla. Here negative bonus points were included: Macara started with -1 point for finishing 11th in the First Stage (and perhaps also last in Group 1 of Second Stage). Aucas started with -0.5 point. Why Aucas got ‘a bonus’ is unclear – they were 10 th in the first stage and in the second stage wer 3rd in Group 2. Apart from that, the relegation group was played as regular round-robin tournament, every team playing twice against the others.
Aucas (Quito) was weak and finished last with 0.5 points – they lost 5 games and tied 1. Relegated, therefore.
Macara (Ambato), so weak until this stage and prime candidate for relegation, pulled itself together when it came to the question of life and death: they won 3 matches, tied 1 and lost 2. Their minus bonus placed them 3rd instead of 2nd, but they achieved their goal – avoided relegation.
Tecnico Universitario (Ambato) ended 2nd with 7 points.
Filanbanco (Guayaquil) finished 1st with 9 points. First, second… in this group the only point was not to finish last.
So, Aucas was relegated and the Second Division got its second champion for the season:
Centro Juvenil (Esmeraldas) won the second part of Second Division championship and was promoted. Like Universidad Catolica, they won the Second Division for the first time, but were going to play First Division football in 1991.
Meantime the top 8 teams played the Third Stage of the championship divided in 2 groups again and the group winners qualified to the final Forth Stage. Top teams in the Second Stage carried bonus points to this stage: 1.5 points the group winners in the previous stage, 1 point – the second placed. Or so it looked like as explanation, but… Emelec and Universidad Catolica had 1 bonus point each; El Nacional and Deportivo Quito started with 1.5 bonus points each. A mystery, really… Deportivo Quito and Universidad Catolica were group winners in the Second Stage, but got different bonuses – so the other two teams.
Group 1.
A possible picture of Deportivo Cuenca – they ended last in the group with 4 points.
Deportivo Quito failed when mattered most – 3rd with 6.5 points.
LDU Quito was 2nd with 7 points and qualified to the final stage.
El Nacional won the group with 9.5 points and qualified to the final stage.
Group 2.
Universidad Catolica (Quito) finished last with 4 points. They did not won a single match at this stage – perhaps to confirm that a second level team can’t really surprise the elite.
Delfin (Manta) – 3rd with 5 points. So-so season so far and no surprise heroics at the end.
Barcelona – 2nd with 8 points and reaching the final stage.
Emelec – 1st with 9 points and qualified to the final stage.
Forth – or Final Stage. Again the qualified teams played a round-robin tournament. No bonus points were carried to the final, all teams starting with clear sheets.
El Nacional (Quito) finished last with 5 points. They collapsed at the end after having been so strong during the season. 1 win, 3 ties, 2 losses. However, complicated championships often provide ironic twists: El Nacional finished with the best scoring record in the Forth Stage: 11-8. Most goals scores and +3 goal-difference. All that because of their sole win – they destroyed Emelec 6-1.
Emelec (Guayaquil) was 3rd with 6 points: 2 wins, 2 ties, 2 losses, 6-9 goal-difference. They still had to play two more games: a play-off for 2nd place against Barcelona. Yet, they finished 3rd. As for their name, it is abbreviation and should be written as such: EMELEC from Empresa Electrica del Ecuador, the full name of the club, which after all is – or at least originally was – a company club.
Barcelona (Guayaquil) – 2nd with 6 points. 1 win, 4 ties, 1 lost match, 10-8. Their fantastic Copa Libertadores performance perhaps reduced their strength in the domestic championship. They were quite economical through the early stages, but even at the end they could not do much. Silver medals were secured only after a play-off against Emelec – Barcelona managed a 1-1 tie away and won 3-1 at home.
LDU (Quito) – Liga Deportiva Universitaria – won the final stage with 7 points. 3 wins, 1 tie, and 2 losses. Scoring record 7-9! The champions finished with negative goal-difference. Only Emelec di it worse than them. LDU won all home games in the final stage, but lost the away match against Barcelona 0-4. Yet, who cares? LDU won the title.
The champions were just one more case of teams playing wisely complicated championships: what was the point to spend much strength in the first and longest stage? In it LDU finished 5th – 9 points behind El Nacional. In the second stage they were 5th again in Group 1 – only Macara was behind them and that because of worse goal-difference. This time they were 12 points behind the group winner Deportivo Quito, winning just one match. Luck on their side in the aggregate table – they were 7th there, but only because Tecnico Universitario was penalized with deduction of 2 points. Barely qualifying to the Third Stage they accelerated at last and finished 2nd in Group 1. Enough to reach the final stage. And only here they played really strong, but compared to other teams, their strategy was perfect: Deportivo Quito did not reach the final stage at all, El Nacional fell apart after having been so strong earlier in the year. LDU was fresher when mattered most and prevailed. Thus, they won their 4th title – so far, not a club to be taken really as a leading one, for their successes were always after a long pauses: they waited 9 years for this one. This was also a success for the capital city, for Quito was losing the battle with Guayaquil already.