Ecuador, the South American nation straddling the equator, is represented in international football by the Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol, which governs the national team as well as the domestic club pyramid. The country takes its name from the Spanish word for equator, reflecting its unique geographic position on the western coast of South America, bordered by Colombia to the north and Peru to the east and south.
Ecuadorian club football gained continental recognition in the 2000s when Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito won the Copa Libertadores in 2008, the country's first and only triumph in that competition. The same decade produced further silverware as Ecuadorian sides collected Copa Sudamericana titles in 2009, 2019, and 2022, along with three Recopa Sudamericana crowns in 2009, 2010, and 2023. Liga de Quito also reached the FIFA Club World Cup final in 2008, finishing as runners-up.
Domestically, clubs compete within a structure overseen by 18 provincial football associations, with the top two tiers known as Serie A and Serie B under the umbrella of Primera Categoría, and a third tier called Segunda Categoría.
The national team's identity is shaped by its Andean and Pacific coastal roots, and Ecuadorian football is increasingly recognised on the global stage, with the country having qualified for multiple FIFA World Cups in recent decades. The ongoing contest between clubs from Quito and Guayaquil, the nation's two largest cities, forms the defining regional rivalry in Ecuadorian football.