Ecuador will be RCD Espanyol's La Liga World destination

 The fourth of the La Liga World post-season tours has been confirmed, and will star RCD Espanyol in what is their first appearance in the competition. The port of call for the Catalan side will be Ecuador. They will play a friendly match against Barcelona Sporting Club in the city of Guayaquil on 28 May at 7:30 pm local time (2:30 am in Spain), at the Estadio Monumental Banco Pichincha.

The fixture will close out the home club's celebrations to mark their 90th anniversary and is part of the Copa EuroAmericana, an official tournament held since 2013 and organised by DirecTV, and with which La Liga World joins forces.

During the presentation of the match, RCD Espanyol vice-president Albert Garrofé declared: "Having the chance to play in a country like Ecuador, where football is a leading sport, is a great opportunity". Meanwhile, Alfonso Noain, director of the Copa EuroAmericana, expressed his satisfaction at the Barcelona-based side’s involvement in the competition: "We're very happy that they've accepted the invitation and that they are participating in the LFP World Challenge project". Finally, Borja Ezcurra, LFP World Challenge sponsorship manager, thanked the club and DirecTV for their participation and stressed: "La Liga works to further the internationalisation of the teams in the Liga BBVA". 

Currently fifth in the Ecuadorian Serie A, Barcelona Sporting Club boast a record 14 national league titles and have twice been runners-up in the Copa Libertadores. They play their home games at the Estadio Monumental Isidro Romero Carbo, also known as the Estadio Monumental Banco Pichincha. It was officially inaugurated in 1988 and has a capacity of approximately 59,000. This will be the second time that the team plays host to RCD Espanyol in Guayaquil, having also done so back in 1959.

The La Liga World matches are part of the LFP World Challenge programme, which started up last year in order to increase the international projection of the image of Spanish football, spread the values of ‘Brand Spain' and of Spanish companies, and create opportunities with parallel cultural and corporate events.