All of Ecuador's Serie A and Serie B games have been postponed following a strike called by the referees association in opposition to a newly implemented external assessment system.
The Referees Commission of the FEF had previously overlooked the assessment process, however, the FEF reformed the process following public criticism of the standard of officiating. The CNA (National Referees Commision CNA) was established on January 9 2012 to overlook the performance and appointment of referees. The CNA consists of three members, who are selected by the FEF and must not be part of the organisation, and a chairman, who is also appointed by the FEF.
The reform process was initiated by the FEF's vice-president Carlos Villacís at the turn of the year. The vice-president has publicly criticised the quality of Ecuador's match-day officials and insists that external arbitration is necessary to ensure improvements are made. In a formal statement Villacís insisted that "we are not going to accept that when the whole country can see the refereeing is bad and deficient, the acting inspector scores it highly".
In response, the head of the referees association Alfredo Intriago claims Villacís' was not qualified to comment on the state of refereeing "because he has never worn the shirt of the referee". The referees association have opposed moves to exclude them from the assessment process and have objected to Villacís' public criticism.
A meeting was held between Intriago and the FEF on Wednesday and when negotiations broke down the president of the referees association announced the decision to begin an indefinite strike the following day. The FEF have alleged that Intriago for personally initiated the strike, but Intriago insists that he has acted with the support of the associations members.
Luis Chiriboga, the president of the FEF, insists that "the decision is unwarranted" and that Intriago "must bear his responsibility for this measure, which will be reported to CONMEBOL and FIFA".
While there appears to be broad support for Intriago's decision amongst referees, some have spoken out against his willingness to call a strike a few hours before games were due to take place. Carlos Villavicenio, president of the Manabí state's referee's union has opposed the call to strike, despite supporting Intriago's opposition to the changes introduced.
"I know who has taken this decision to stop the tournament, which personally I don't agree with because the issue should be resolved through dialogue" Villavicenio explained.
He continued by suggesting that Intriago had pushed for the strike while various influential members of the union had not been present at Wednesday's meeting. The Manabí preisdent explained, "I don't know which (regional) associations raised this, as far as I know Guayas (president) was not present and the president of Rivers was not, but he (Alfredo Intriago) will have their support". Villavicenio maintains that while he didn't personally back the decision to strike "we are not against this either".
The FEF have announced that all all fixtures up until Wednesday 22nd February have been postponed and with the strike ongoing next weekends fixtures also remain in doubt.
