Wednesday, February 18, 2009

No Soup for U

Last summer LDU Quito won the Copa Libertadores on PKs after a crazy 5-5 aggregate with Brazilian side Fluminese. In so doing they became the first non-Brazil non-Argentine side from CONMEBOL to qualify for the FIFA Club World Cup.

There, they advance to the finals and lost 1-0, ceding Manchester United the first 20% of their seemingly inevitable quintuple that we're never going to hear the end of.

So, the LDU Quito players are doing what any side on top of their region would do: Going on strike. Wait, wha...?

Seems LDU Quito is having cash flow problems and players are reportedly owed wages from December and January, so they are going on strike until they get paid. Says el capitán Luis Fernando Saritama: "At the start of the season there was a promise the club would meet its obligations. We're doing ours by getting results but we're not seeing the same (from the directors)."

Won't play, won't train, won't shag WAGs.

Eh, two out of three ain't bad. They're probably doing nothing but that and X-Box until this is settled.

This isn't the first financial spat the club has faced. Just days after the Copa Lib win coach Carlos Sevilla resigned in a disagreement with club directors over bonus money.

This is kind of a big deal because, well, LDU Quito has a title to defend. They opened their Copa Lib campaign with a 3-2 win over Palmeiras yesterday. And have a match next week against another Brazilian side in Cruzeiro. Says the wire services: "Deportivo would face heavy sanctions if they forfeited the game."

No kidding?

LDU Quito. South American Champions. World Finalists. Broke Ass Ecuadorians.God, South American soccer is crazy.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I already posted this somewhere else, so i'll just copy and paste...

" The story about LDU Quito’s financial problems has some factual inaccuracies in them. First, the club’s captain isn’t Luis Fernando Saritama( who plays for “Sociedad Deportivo Quito”, not LDU Quito ), its Patricio Urrutia. Secondly the Copa Lib. winning coach wasnt Carlos Sevilla, it was Edgardo Bauza. And Thirdly, he wasnt replaced with Ruben Dario Insua, he was replaced with Jorge Fossati.

…….They might have confused Sociedad Deportivo Quito ( who are called Deportivo Quito ) with Liga Deportiva Universitaria (LDU) de Quito. "

Precious Roy said...

Okay, you caught us. We're just making stuff up now. Hey, it worked for Stephen Glass.

Oops... clearly Ecuadorian soccer isn't our forte, but this was all information that was in the story that was carried by Reuters, and picked up by every outlet that I found it in (including the Guardian and the USA Today).

So we totally appreciate the corrections. We're not primary news gatherers, nor do we claim to be. But we do like to be accurate. Generally we're no better than the sources we get the info from.

But again, thanks for the clarification.

Guayaco said...

Wow man just wow check your facts before you attempt to put down a humble club that made history. Deportivo Quito And Liga De Quito are different teams. Its like writing a article "Abu Dhabi-based Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited completed a takeover of Manchester United, and they have signed Robinho from Real Madrid for a a British record transfer fee of £32.5 million" A mistake like that can be more than called attention for.