The other Barça

Barcelona Sporting Club is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil, known best for its professional football team.

Barcelona was founded on May 1, 1925, by Eutimio Pérez, a Spanish immigrant who named the club after his home city of Barcelona. Since then, Barcelona has become the most popular club in the country. The club holds a long-standing rivalry with Emelec, and matches between the two teams are referred to as "El Clásico del Astillero". The club plays their home matches in Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo, the largest stadium in the country.

Stadium

In 1987, Estadio Monumental opened for the first time. The stadium was the first in Ecuador to have suites, and became the largest in terms of capacity, with space for close to 90,000 fans.

Rivalries

El Clásico del Astillero

El Clásico del Astillero is a match played against Barcelona's old rival Emelec. It was not until 22 August 1943 that the two sides faced each other for the first time, in a Guayaquil League match. Sporting their distinctive yellow jerseys, Los Canarios(Barcelona) defeated El Eléctrico(Emelec) 4–3, with Pedro Villalta scoring a late winner for Barcelona. It was a match that would forever be remembered as The Derby of the Posts due to the number of times that the Emelec forwards struck the woodwork.

In 1948, the local derby received a name of its own in a preview in the newspaper El Universo, becoming known forever more as El Clásico del Astillero (The Shipyard Derby).

In 1990, proved to be a very special year in the history of El Clásico del Astillero, with the two sides facing off in a Copa Libertadores quarter-final second leg on 29 August. Barcelona advanced to the semis after a 1–0 win.

Although Barcelona have failed to win the title since 1997 and Emelec since 2002, it still remains as the most important match in Ecuador and is recognized by FIFA as one of the fiercest football rivalries in the world.

Supporters

Barcelona has the largest fanbase of any team in Ecuador and is the only team in Ecuador that has fans from every city in the country.

When Barcelona plays against other rivalry's in other cities apart from his home stadium in Guayaquil, it seems like Barcelona is the host because of so many followers that show up to the stadium to root for Barcelona.

Barcelona's ultras are known as La Sur Oscura. During home matches, they are located in the southern end of the Estadio Monumental. In Quito Barcelona's Ultras are known as Sur Oscura Quito.