A year and six days after the inaugural match, the Copa Ecuador, organized by the Ecuadorian Football Federation, comes to an end with the consecration of Liga de Quito who will receive $200,000, as the title prize.
Meanwhile, Delfin will take home $125,000.
The final of the nascent Copa Ecuador was disputed by both representative teams of the LigaPro Serie A, who began their participation in the third phase by playing the round of 16.
Liga de Quito was crowned champion and will take home $505,000 for their performance throughout the tournament, distributed according to the criteria indicated in the annexes of the Copa Ecuador regulations: $30,000 for reaching the round of 16, $50,000 for reaching the quarterfinals, $100,000 for reaching the semifinals, $125,000 for reaching the final, and $200,000 for winning the title.
However, the amount can increase if the Ecuadorian Football Federation indicates how much each team received for their presence in the third phase. In Annex 1 of the Copa Ecuador regulations, it is stated that Serie A clubs were classified by assignments. Thus, those in the first quartile received $18,000 each; those in the second quartile, $16,000 each; those in the third quartile, $14,000 each; and those in the fourth quartile, $12,000 each.
The Copa Ecuador started on the morning of November 10, 2018, with the match between Everest (national champion in 1962) and F.C. Insutec, in Guayaquil, at the Alejandro Ponce Noboa Stadium (Fertisa) in the first leg of the fifth round. The result was 0-3 in favor of Insutec, who would go on to advance to the next phase with an aggregate score of 6-2.
The tournament was played with a total of 50 participating clubs: 16 Serie A clubs, 10 Serie B clubs, 20 second category clubs (qualified), 2 amateur teams, and 2 invited clubs.
A total of $3,600,000 in prizes will be distributed.
A spot in an international cup for the champion in 2020
Article 17 of the Copa Ecuador regulations states the following:
The champion of the Copa Ecuador will obtain the fourth spot to participate in the Copa Sudamericana, a tournament organized by Conmebol, in the following year's edition of the championship. In case the champion of the Copa Ecuador has achieved spot "Ecuador" 1, 2, 3 or 4 in the 2020 Conmebol Libertadores or spot "Ecuador" 1, 2 or 3 in the 2020 Copa Sudamericana, due to their position in the Serie A Ecuadorian Football Championship, their spot will be taken by the vice champion of the Copa Ecuador. In case the vice champion of the Copa Ecuador has achieved spot "Ecuador" 1, 2, 3 or 4 in the 2020 Conmebol Libertadores or spot "Ecuador" 1, 2 or 3 in the 2020 Copa Sudamericana, due to their position in the Serie A Ecuadorian Football Championship, their spot will be taken by the third best-placed team in the Copa Ecuador standings. No club will be able to qualify for both the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana in the same season.
However, with Independiente del Valle winning the Copa Sudamericana 2019 and earning a direct spot in the group stage of the 2020 Copa Libertadores as a prize for their continental achievement, an extra spot for Ecuador was generated in the 2020 Copa Libertadores, and in turn, the team from Sangolqui freed up a spot in the Copa Ecuador qualification table (aggregate table) of the LigaPro. In theory, El Nacional was benefiting from Independiente's international success, but on November 13th, FEF vice-president Jaime Estrada announced that the vacancy (the fourth spot in the Copa Sudamericana 2019) would be disputed "in the playoffs between the ninth-place team in Serie A and the champion of Serie B".
This situation will finally be resolved in the next meeting of the FEF Board of Directors, as stated by Amilcar Mantilla, director of the National Amateur Football Commission and Women's Football. (D)