Football
Football is the most popular sport in Ecuador. Its best known professional teams include Barcelona and Emelec from Guayaquil, LDU Quito, Deportivo Quito, and El Nacional from Quito, Olmedo from Riobamba, and Deportivo Cuenca from Cuenca.
The national team's matches are the most watched sporting events in the country. In June 2007, FIFA adopted a resolution, prohibiting international football games at or higher than 2,500m above sea level. Rafael Correa, and his presidential counterparts in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, issued a joint letter of protest against this ruling. Ecuador qualified for the final rounds of both the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup. Ecuador finished ahead of Poland and Costa Rica, to come in second to Germany in Group A, in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Futsal, often referred to as índor, is particularly popular for mass participation.
Read more about this topic: Sport In Ecuador
Famous quotes containing the word football:
“Idon’t enjoy getting knocked about on a football field for other people’s amusement. I enjoy it if I’m being paid a lot for it.”
—David Storey (b. 1933)
“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
“... in the minds of search committees there is the lingering question: Can she manage the football coach?”
—Donna E. Shalala (b. 1941)