Barcelona de Guayaquil, with Darío Benedetto in its ranks, was eliminated from the Copa Ecuador due to an unusual regulatory issue. The Ecuadorian club had won 1-0 against Liga de Portoviejo in the round of 16, but a protest from its rival ended up altering the result and left the team out of the tournament. The match was played on August 5, and Barcelona managed to secure the qualification on the pitch. However, during the game, Erick Mendoza, one of the team's reinforcements, entered the field despite having already played this edition of the Copa Ecuador with Delfín. The competition's regulations state that a player cannot represent more than one club during the same tournament phase. Liga de Portoviejo alerted the situation and filed a complaint with the Ecuadorian Football Federation. In this case, Mendoza had already played with Delfín in the 16th round and even scored a goal in the Manta victory, putting his subsequent participation with Barcelona under scrutiny. The 24-year-old forward entered the game in the second half, when Barcelona was already in the lead. At that moment, the coaching staff, led by César Farías -who later left his position and was replaced by the Argentine Pablo Trobbiani- decided to use the player who had recently joined from Delfín. The complaint from Liga de Portoviejo was eventually accepted, and the resolution determined that Barcelona lost the match 3-0 due to an irregular player registration. Thus, the team from Guayaquil was eliminated from the Copa Ecuador despite winning the originally played match. The fall represents another frustration for Barcelona in 2026. The team, with Benedetto at the helm, had already been eliminated from the Copa Libertadores in the group stage and now only maintains the LigaPro as an active competition. To make matters worse, the elimination from the domestic cup did not come from a sporting result, but from a regulatory error that ended up costing the team its qualification.