Mexico Ends Promotion & Relegation: What's at Stake

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Ending Promotion and Relegation Raises Concerns for Mexican Football

Promotion and relegation in Mexican football is gone. Teams hoping to join the first division will now need sufficient financial resources, regardless of whether they win the Apertura or Clausura in the lower division. There is no longer a direct path for smaller clubs to reach the highest level.

This approach follows a model used by MLS, where investors do not have to worry about a club being relegated after they have committed millions of dollars. MLS has succeeded without relegation and has produced many players who now compete in Europe, showing that relegation is not required for a country to develop players capable of moving abroad.

However, Mexico has a different tradition. The former Liga de Ascenso, now called Liga de Expansión, gave young players valuable minutes and opportunities to prove themselves. Those opportunities have become increasingly important because clubs can now field as many as nine foreign players in a starting lineup, compared with four or five in the past. That reduces playing time for young Mexican talent.

Promotion and relegation also brought a different flavor to Mexican football and helped players such as Johan Vasquez and Montes progress toward the national team and European football. Expansion clubs that have developed national team players no longer have a path to compete at the highest level.

For young academy players, the decision can affect motivation. Players who dream of reaching the first division with the club where they developed no longer have that opportunity. Without consequences for poorly performing teams, there is also concern that league standards could decline because clubs have nowhere to fall, regardless of their results.

The change also affects supporters of clubs such as Tampico Madera, Zacatepec and Udeje. Their fans continue following their teams but no longer have the possibility of seeing them earn a place in the first division. Mexican football should reach every region of the country rather than concentrating numerous clubs in places such as Mexico City.

While the closed-league model may work for MLS, promotion and relegation have been important to the culture, traditions, player development and supporters of Mexican football.