It seemed that everything was peace and harmony within the FEF at the beginning of this 2020. And although the entity had been seriously hit by the scandalous management of Luis Chiriboga (suspended for life by FIFA for using the FEF for Money Laundering ), there seemed to be unity in Ecuaf Fútbol with Francisco Egas going into his second year in office as president.
After spending several months without DT in the National Team after the departure of Hernán Darío Gómez was agreed in 2019, the high command of Ecuaf Fútbol, led by Francisco Egas, presented Jordi Cruyf, son of the legendary Johan Cruyff, on January 13, as the person in charge of leading the All Team in the Copa América ‘Argentina-Colombia’ and the World Cup Qualifiers ‘Qatar 2022’.
And that would be the beginning of a novel that would lead to an attempted “coup” in the FEF and the subsequent departure of Jordi Crtuyff, without directing a single training session for the National Team, since the start of the Qualifiers , agreed for March, would be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic that paralyzed football worldwide and logically the matches between nations.
Adducing that Egas supposedly presented lower figures (USD 4.5 million) than those that Jordi Cruyff was really going to earn and that they discovered that he would receive USD 6 million, a group of 6 executives (Ángel Murillo, Carlos Galarza, Amílcar Mantilla, Edison Ugalde and Vicente Mantilla), in which Vice President Jaime Estrada was the leader, tried to remove him from his position.
It was thus that after a controversial Board meeting (April 24), the Group of 6 unsuccessfully removed Egas, since although this fact was supposedly validated by a scandalous Congress held on May 1, neither Conmebol nor FIFA they would be recognized as legitimate and the Group of 6 would end up being sanctioned for going against the FEF statutes.
Although Ángel Murillo, Carlos Galarza, Amílcar Mantilla, Edison Ugalde and Vicente Mantilla would rejoin their positions in October after two of the three months that they were imposed as a sanction after their appeal had been accepted, Jaime Estrada, the leader of the Group of 6, would be suspended for 2 years from his duties as a manager due to the scandal.
Already in September the waters would begin to calm in the FEF. With Estrada out of the picture, Gustavo Alfaro would be chosen over Guillermo Almada as the new coach of the National Team. And with the former Boca Juniors coach at the helm of La Tri, people would quickly begin to forget all the scandals, since after losing 1×0 to Argentina in La Bombonera, the National Team would string together three victories in a row (3×2 over Bolivia in La Paz , 4×2 on Uruguay and 6×1 on Colombia, both in Quito) so that people would regain the illusion of seeing their national team play.
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