2021 Ecuadorian Serie A

The 2021 Campeonato Ecuatoriano de Fútbol Serie A, known as the LigaPro Betcris 2021 for sponsorship purposes,^[1] was the 63rd season of the Serie A, Ecuador's top tier football league, and the third under the management of the Liga Profesional de Fútbol del Ecuador (or LigaPro). The season began on 19 February and ended on 12 December 2021.^[2]

LigaPro Serie A

Season	2021
Dates	19 February – 12 December 2021
Champions	Independiente del Valle (1st title)
Relegated	Manta Olmedo
Copa Libertadores	Independiente del Valle Emelec Universidad Católica Barcelona
Copa Sudamericana	9 de Octubre LDU Quito Mushuc Runa Delfín
Matches played	240
Goals scored	654 (2.73 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jonathan Bauman (26 goals)
Biggest home win	Mushuc Runa 6–1 Delfín (17 July) Dep. Cuenca 5–0 Olmedo (26 September) Ind. del Valle 5–0 Olmedo (31 October)
Biggest away win	Mushuc Runa 2–6 U. Católica (9 May) Manta 0–4 Emelec (18 July)
Highest scoring	Mushuc Runa 2–6 U. Católica (9 May)
← 2020 2022 →

Independiente del Valle were the champions, winning their first league title by defeating Emelec in the finals by a 4–2 aggregate score.^[3] Barcelona were the defending champions, having won the previous season.

Format

On 1 January 2021, LigaPro president Miguel Ángel Loor confirmed that the 2021 season would be contested by 16 teams and the competition would be played under the same format as the previous season.^[4] Three stages were played, with the first and second ones to be played as single round-robin tournaments with all teams playing each other once for a total of 15 matches per stage. The first stage fixture was reversed for the second stage, and the top teams at the end of each stage qualified for the final stage as well as the Copa Libertadores group stage. The finals were a double-legged series between the winners of both stages with a penalty shoot-out deciding the champion in case of a tie in points and goals scored. In case a team won both stages of the season, the finals would not be played and that team would win the championship.

An aggregate table including the matches of both the first and second stages was used to decide international qualification and relegation, with the best two teams (other than the stage winners) qualifying for the Copa Libertadores, the next best three teams qualifying for the Copa Sudamericana, while the remaining Copa Sudamericana berth would be awarded to the champions of the 2021 Copa Ecuador, which was eventually cancelled.^[5] The bottom two teams of the aggregate table at the end of the season will be relegated to Serie B.

Teams

16 teams competed in the season. LDU Portoviejo and El Nacional were relegated after finishing in the bottom two places of the aggregate table of the previous season, being replaced by 2020 Serie B champions 9 de Octubre and runners-up Manta.

Stadia and locations

Ambato

Manta

Delfín

Deportivo Cuenca

Guayaquil

Independiente del Valle

Olmedo

Orense

Quito

Quito teams:
Aucas
LDU Quito
Universidad Católica
Ambato teams:
Macará
Mushuc Runa
Técnico Universitario
Guayaquil teams:
9 de Octubre
Barcelona
Emelec
Guayaquil City

Locations of the 2021 Serie A clubs.

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity
9 de Octubre	Guayaquil	Modelo Alberto Spencer Herrera	42,000
Aucas	Quito	Gonzalo Pozo Ripalda	21,689
Barcelona	Guayaquil	Monumental Banco Pichincha	57,267
Delfín	Manta	Jocay	17,834
Deportivo Cuenca	Cuenca	Banco del Austro Alejandro Serrano Aguilar	18,549
Emelec	Guayaquil	Banco del Pacífico Capwell	40,020
Guayaquil City	Guayaquil	Christian Benítez Betancourt	10,152
Independiente del Valle	Sangolquí	Banco Guayaquil	12,000
LDU Quito	Quito	Rodrigo Paz Delgado	41,575
Macará	Ambato	Bellavista	16,467
Manta	Manta	Jocay	17,834
Mushuc Runa	Ambato	COAC Mushuc Runa	8,200
Olmedo	Riobamba	Olímpico	7,233
Orense	Machala	9 de Mayo	16,456
Técnico Universitario	Ambato	Bellavista	16,467
Universidad Católica	Quito	Olímpico Atahualpa	35,258

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
9 de Octubre	Juan Carlos León	Jasa Evolution	GolTV Play
Aucas	Héctor Bidoglio	Umbro	Cooperativa San Francisco Ltda.
Barcelona	Fabián Bustos	Marathon	Pilsener
Delfín	Horacio Montemurro	Baldo's	Banco del Pacífico
Deportivo Cuenca	Guillermo Sanguinetti	Lotto	Chubb Seguros
Emelec	Ismael Rescalvo	Adidas	Tubos Pacífico
Guayaquil City	Pool Gavilánez	Astro	Cooperativa San Francisco Ltda.
Independiente del Valle	Renato Paiva	Marathon	Chery Banco Guayaquil
LDU Quito	Pablo Marini	Puma	Banco Pichincha
Macará	Paúl Vélez	Boman	Cooperativa San Francisco Ltda.
Manta	Fabián Frías	Astro	Atún Isabel
Mushuc Runa	Geovanny Cumbicus	Boman	Cooperativa Mushuc Runa
Olmedo	Héctor González	Boman	Cooperativa Daquilema
Orense	Andrés García	Elohim	Banco de Machala
Técnico Universitario	José Eugenio Hernández	Boman	Cooperativa San Francisco Ltda.
Universidad Católica	Miguel Rondelli Omar Andrade (caretakers)	Umbro	Banco Pichincha

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
First stage
Delfín	Horacio Montemurro	End of caretaker spell	19 December 2020	Pre-season	Paúl Vélez	27 December 2020[6]
Mushuc Runa	Ricardo Dillon	End of contract	19 December 2020		Geovanny Cumbicus	24 December 2020[7]
Independiente del Valle	Miguel Ángel Ramírez	Resigned	20 December 2020[8]		Renato Paiva	25 December 2020[9]
Olmedo	Geovanny Cumbicus	End of contract	20 December 2020		Pablo Trobbiani	27 December 2020[10]
Macará	Paúl Vélez		21 December 2020[11]		Eduardo Favaro	25 December 2020[12]
Aucas	Darío Tempesta	Sacked	14 March 2021[13]	10th	Héctor Bidoglio	16 March 2021[14]
Deportivo Cuenca	Guillermo Duró	Promoted to sporting director	18 May 2021[15]	12th	Guillermo Sanguinetti	18 May 2021[15]
Orense	Patricio Lara	Sacked	31 May 2021[16]	14th	Andrés García	6 June 2021[17]
LDU Quito	Pablo Repetto	Mutual consent	16 June 2021[18]	7th	Pablo Marini[i]	25 June 2021[20]
Olmedo	Pablo Trobbiani	Resigned	13 July 2021[21]	16th	César Ramos (caretaker)	14 July 2021[22]
Second stage
Delfín	Paúl Vélez	Mutual consent	31 July 2021[23]	8th	Horacio Montemurro	4 August 2021[24]
Macará	Eduardo Favaro	Sacked	3 August 2021[25]	15th	Paúl Vélez	5 August 2021[26]
Olmedo	César Ramos	End of caretaker spell	5 August 2021	16th	Luis Espinel	5 August 2021[27]
	Luis Espinel	Resigned	28 September 2021[28]		Nelson Brito	28 September 2021[28]
Universidad Católica	Santiago Escobar		25 October 2021[29]	4th	Miguel Rondelli Omar Andrade[ii]	25 October 2021[29]
Olmedo	Nelson Brito	Mutual consent	1 November 2021[30]	16th	Héctor González	1 November 2021[31]

Notes

1. Gabriel Di Noia was caretaker manager during the 2021 Supercopa Ecuador.^[19]
2. Caretaker managers until the end of the season.

First stage

The first stage began on 19 February and ended on 19 July 2021.^[32]

Standings

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Emelec	15	10	4	1	29	14	+15	34	Advance to Finals and qualification for Copa Libertadores group stage
2	Barcelona	15	9	4	2	31	13	+18	31
3	Independiente del Valle	15	8	3	4	27	18	+9	27
4	Universidad Católica	15	7	4	4	29	18	+11	25
5	Mushuc Runa	15	7	4	4	29	21	+8	25
6	LDU Quito	15	6	7	2	22	19	+3	25
7	Macará	15	6	5	4	17	17	0	23
8	9 de Octubre	15	6	2	7	22	21	+1	20
9	Aucas	15	5	4	6	27	26	+1	19
10	Delfín	15	4	6	5	19	25	−6	18
11	Deportivo Cuenca	15	4	4	7	14	18	−4	16
12	Manta	15	4	4	7	18	25	−7	16
13	Técnico Universitario	15	3	4	8	11	17	−6	13
14	Orense	15	3	3	9	14	24	−10	12
15	Guayaquil City	15	2	4	9	11	30	−19	10
16	Olmedo[a]	15	2	6	7	13	27	−14	9

Source: LigaPro, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) Goal difference, 3) Goals for, 4) Away goals for, 5) Head-to-head record, 6) Drawing of lots.
Notes:

1. Olmedo were deducted three points as punishment for failing to pay their creditors.^[33]

Results

Home \ Away	9OC	AUC	BSC	DEL	CUE	EME	GUA	IDV	LDQ	MAC	MAN	MUS	OLM	ORE	TEC	CAT
9 de Octubre	—	1–3	0–1	—	2–1	—	4–0	—	—	—	2–0	1–2	2–0	—	—	1–0
Aucas	—	—	—	3–3	2–0	2–3	3–0	3–4	—	—	—	—	1–3	—	0–2	—
Barcelona	—	3–0[a]	—	2–1	—	1–1	—	2–2	—	3–0	—	—	4–0	2–0	3–0	—
Delfín	2–2	—	—	—	1–1	—	1–1	—	1–1	2–0	—	—	2–4	1–1	—	—
Deportivo Cuenca	—	—	1–0	—	—	—	3–0	—	2–2	—	—	1–2	—	1–0	1–0	0–1
Emelec	0–1	—	—	1–0	4–1	—	1–0	0–0	1–1	—	—	—	—	—	2–0	—
Guayaquil City	—	—	0–3	—	—	—	—	—	2–2	3–1	0–3	0–0	—	4–1	—	1–2
Independiente del Valle	2–1	—	—	2–0	0–0	—	3–0	—	3–1	—	—	2–0	—	—	—	2–3
LDU Quito	4–2	1–3	2–2	—	—	—	—	—	—	2–1	1–0	0–0	—	2–1	—	2–1
Macará	3–2	1–0	—	—	1–0	1–1	—	3–1	—	—	—	—	—	1–0	1–1	—
Manta	—	1–1	2–3	1–2	1–0	0–4	—	2–1	—	1–1	—	—	—	—	0–2	—
Mushuc Runa	—	1–3	2–2	6–1	—	1–2	—	—	—	0–0	4–2	—	4–0	—	—	2–6
Olmedo	—	—	—	—	2–2	2–3	0–0	1–3	0–0	0–2	1–1	—	—	—	—	—
Orense	3–1	2–2	—	—	—	2–3	—	2–0	—	—	0–1	0–2	0–0	—	—	0–3
Técnico Universitario	0–0	—	—	0–1	—	—	3–0	0–2	0–1	—	—	1–3	0–0	1–2	—	—
Universidad Católica	—	1–1	2–0	0–1	—	2–3	—	—	—	1–1	3–3	—	3–0[b]	—	1–1	—

Source: LigaPro, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

1. Match ended after 20 minutes of play and awarded 3–0 to Barcelona by walkover due to the withdrawal of Aucas player Johan Lara by injury, leaving the team below the minimum number of players required per tournament regulations (seven). The score at the time of suspension was 2–0.^[34]
2. Match awarded 3–0 to Universidad Católica due to a breach of the competition's financial regulations and lack of cleared players by Olmedo.^[35]

Second stage

Standings

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Independiente del Valle	15	10	4	1	29	9	+20	34	Advance to Finals and qualification for Copa Libertadores group stage
2	Emelec	15	9	3	3	30	15	+15	30
3	9 de Octubre	15	9	3	3	25	17	+8	30
4	Universidad Católica	15	8	5	2	25	15	+10	29
5	LDU Quito	15	6	5	4	27	22	+5	23
6	Delfín	15	6	4	5	25	20	+5	22
7	Técnico Universitario	15	5	7	3	13	9	+4	22
8	Aucas	15	5	5	5	20	17	+3	20
9	Barcelona	15	6	2	7	20	20	0	20
10	Guayaquil City	15	6	2	7	16	18	−2	20
11	Orense	15	4	7	4	14	13	+1	19
12	Deportivo Cuenca	15	4	4	7	25	24	+1	16
13	Mushuc Runa	15	4	4	7	12	21	−9	16
14	Macará	15	3	4	8	18	29	−11	13
15	Manta	15	2	6	7	11	21	−10	12
16	Olmedo	15	0	1	14	9	49	−40	1

Source: LigaPro, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) Goal difference, 3) Goals for, 4) Away goals for, 5) Head-to-head record, 6) Drawing of lots.

Results

Home \ Away	9OC	AUC	BSC	DEL	CUE	EME	GUA	IDV	LDQ	MAC	MAN	MUS	OLM	ORE	TEC	CAT
9 de Octubre	—	—	—	1–0	—	2–2	—	1–0	4–1	1–1	—	—	—	3–1	0–1	—
Aucas	1–1	—	1–0	—	—	—	—	—	1–0	2–4	3–0	1–1	—	0–0	—	1–2
Barcelona	1–3	—	—	—	3–2	—	2–1	—	0–2	—	2–0	4–0	—	—	—	1–1
Delfín	—	1–2	4–1	—	—	1–2	—	0–0	—	—	2–1	3–0	—	—	1–1	0–2
Deportivo Cuenca	3–1	2–1	—	2–3	—	0–1	—	1–1	—	1–1	1–0	—	5–0	—	—	—
Emelec	—	2–2	2–1	—	—	—	—	—	—	3–0	4–0	2–0	4–0	1–0	—	2–2
Guayaquil City	0–1	1–0	—	2–1	2–1	0–1	—	0–2	—	—	—	—	4–2	—	1–0	—
Independiente del Valle	—	1–0	1–0	—	—	3–2	—	—	—	4–0	1–1	—	5–0	3–2	1–1	—
LDU Quito	—	—	—	1–1	3–3	3–2	3–1	0–2	—	—	—	—	4–0	—	1–0	—
Macará	—	—	1–1	2–3	—	—	0–2	—	2–1	—	1–2	1–1	3–2	—	—	1–2
Manta	1–3	—	—	—	—	—	1–1	—	2–2	—	—	0–0	3–0	0–0	—	0–1
Mushuc Runa	1–2	—	—	—	1–0	—	1–0	0–2	1–3	—	—	—	—	0–0	0–1	—
Olmedo	1–2	1–4	0–2	1–3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2–5	—	0–2	0–0	0–3
Orense	—	—	1–0	2–2	1–1	—	2–0	—	1–1	2–1	—	—	—	—	0–0	—
Técnico Universitario	—	1–1	1–2	—	3–1	1–0	—	—	—	2–0	0–0	—	—	—	—	1–1
Universidad Católica	2–0	—	—	—	3–2	—	1–1	1–3	2–2	—	—	0–1	—	1–0	—	—

Source: LigaPro, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Finals

The finals (Third stage) were played by Emelec (first stage winners) and Independiente del Valle (second stage winners). The winners of the double-legged series were the Serie A champions and earned the Ecuador 1 berth in the 2022 Copa Libertadores, and the losers were the Serie A runners-up and earned the Ecuador 2 berth in the 2022 Copa Libertadores. By having the greater number of points in the aggregate table, Emelec played the second leg at home.

5 December 2021 (2021-12-05)

20:00 UTC−5

Independiente del Valle	3–1	Emelec
Sornoza 22', 53' (pen.) Bauman 74'	Report	S. Rodríguez 90+9' (pen.)

Estadio Banco Guayaquil, Sangolquí

Referee: Luis Quiroz

---

12 December 2021 (2021-12-12)

19:00 UTC−5

Emelec	1–1	Independiente del Valle
Arroyo 45+8'	Report	Schunke 8'

Estadio George Capwell, Guayaquil

Referee: Augusto Aragón

Independiente del Valle won 4–2 on aggregate.

Aggregate table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Emelec	30	19	7	4	59	29	+30	64	Qualification for Copa Libertadores group stage
2	Independiente del Valle (C)	30	18	7	5	56	27	+29	61
3	Universidad Católica	30	15	9	6	54	33	+21	54	Qualification for Copa Libertadores second stage
4	Barcelona	30	15	6	9	51	33	+18	51	Qualification for Copa Libertadores first stage
5	9 de Octubre	30	15	5	10	47	38	+9	50	Qualification for Copa Sudamericana first stage[a]
6	LDU Quito	30	12	12	6	49	41	+8	48
7	Mushuc Runa	30	11	8	11	41	42	−1	41
8	Delfín	30	10	10	10	44	45	−1	40
9	Aucas	30	10	9	11	47	43	+4	39
10	Macará	30	9	9	12	35	46	−11	36
11	Técnico Universitario	30	8	11	11	24	26	−2	35
12	Deportivo Cuenca	30	8	8	14	39	42	−3	32
13	Orense	30	7	10	13	28	37	−9	31
14	Guayaquil City	30	8	6	16	27	48	−21	30
15	Manta (R)	30	6	10	14	29	46	−17	28	Relegation to Serie B
16	Olmedo[b] (R)	30	2	7	21	22	76	−54	10

Source: LigaPro
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) Goal difference, 3) Goals for, 4) Away goals for, 5) Head-to-head record, 6) Drawing of lots.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Since the 2021 Copa Ecuador was cancelled due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador, the spot awarded to its champions (Copa Sudamericana first stage) was passed over to the aggregate table fourth best-placed team not qualified for the Copa Libertadores.^[5]
2. Olmedo were deducted three points as punishment for failing to pay their creditors.^[33]

Top scorers

Rank	Name	Club	Goals
1	Jonathan Bauman	Mushuc Runa / Independiente del Valle	26
2	Jhon Cifuente	Delfín	17
3	Lisandro Alzugaray	Universidad Católica	15
4	Diego Dorregaray	Deportivo Cuenca	14
5	José Fajardo	9 de Octubre	12
	Francisco Fydriszewski	Aucas
7	Facundo Barceló	Emelec	10
	Jhonny Quiñónez	Aucas
	Sebastián Rodríguez	Emelec
	Joao Rojas	Emelec

Source: FEF