The debate over promotion and relegation in Mexican football has reached the floor of the country’s Senate, where a legislative reform to restore the system is to be proposed on Tuesday. Senator Clemente Castañeda of the Movimiento Ciudadano party is putting the proposal forward, with backing from representatives of other party leaderships, including Ignacio Mier of the ruling Morena party.
Castañeda said the initiative is critical for “expressly incorporating sporting merit among the obligations that national sports associations must observe”, and for ensuring that promotion and relegation are enshrined in Mexican law. “When they closed off the possibility of promotion, they didn’t just change a sporting rule; they also restricted a path for players, staff, and sports projects to grow in a country that needs to open up opportunities,” the senator said.
The senator said the president of Liga MX, Francisco Iturbide, and the commissioner of Mexican football, Mikel Arriola, were invited to take part and declined. The Mexican Federation was contacted for comment and did not respond.
Owners of the Mexican top-flight clubs eliminated promotion and relegation in April 2020, citing financial difficulties among second-division clubs that had been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The suspension was originally set for five years, with the system scheduled for reinstatement last year so that a team could earn promotion and another face relegation at the end of the most recent season, in May of this year. That return never materialised, and from last year several second-division clubs began protesting to demand that the authorities honour the agreement. At the time, the Mexican Football Federation said returning to the system was impossible because the necessary economic conditions did not yet exist.
Not everyone accepted the pandemic explanation. “The whole pandemic thing was a sham; they always knew they were going to permanently shut down promotion and relegation,” said Alberto Castellanos, president of U de G Leones Negros, one of the protesting teams.
Even while the system remained on paper, Liga MX imposed stringent requirements on second-division clubs, mandating a certification process before they could aspire to play in the top tier. Those rules included a venue capacity requirement of 30,000 seats, a standard not even met by all active first-division clubs. The uncertainty also weighed on investors who had bought in expecting the door to reopen: Cancún FC was acquired in 2022 by an investment group led by figures including the former Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow on the premise that promotion would return.
“When we bought the team, we saw great potential, potential that often even Mexicans don’t see, but the current system fosters mediocrity; it’s very sad,” said Giovani Solazzi, the club’s president.
Facing pushback from some second-division owners, Mexican football authorities went further this year and removed promotion and relegation from the regulations altogether. Neither the Federation nor Liga MX provided an explanation for the decision.
There is support for a return at the top of the game. The owner of Club América, one of Mexico’s most powerful clubs and arguably its most influential decision-maker, stated last month that he is in favour of reinstating the system, provided the right conditions are met. “I am in favor of promotion and relegation. Everyone makes comparisons, pointing out that it exists in Spain, England, or Portugal; however, those countries have very solid second divisions, whereas here, we haven’t managed to build that kind of solid second-division league,” he said.
Once promotion was officially scrapped, protests broke out widely during second-division matches. Players responded on the pitch by standing motionless after the opening whistle or passing the ball passively without attacking. Spanish goalkeeper Roberto Galán said he had arrived in Mexico on 8 June under the premise that there would be promotion, joining Morelia, a team contending for promotion, only to be notified that it was not happening. “That’s why we protested and the clubs were sanctioned, but the protests will continue because we have the right to make our voices heard,” he said. Fan groups have also turned up at stadiums wearing protest shirts to voice their discontent.
The second division’s showpiece has illustrated the same point: Celaya and Tapatio met in the 2024 final of the Liga MX second division Apertura, but neither was promoted.
Last week Mexico’s National Antitrust Commission (CNA) launched an investigation into potential monopolistic practices in the Mexican league, centring on the absence of a promotion and relegation system.