The long-running fight over promotion and relegation in Mexican soccer has now reached the country's Senate. Officials announced Monday that a legislative reform aimed at restoring the system will be formally proposed on Tuesday.
The proposal comes from Sen. Clemente Castañeda of the Movimiento Ciudadano party, with backing from representatives of other party leaderships, including Ignacio Mier of the ruling Morena party. Castañeda said the initiative is meant to expressly write sporting merit into the obligations national sports associations must observe, enshrining promotion and relegation 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," Castañeda said.
According to the senator, Liga MX president Francisco Iturbide and Mexican football commissioner Mikel Arriola were both invited to take part but declined. The Associated Press also contacted the Mexican Federation for comment but did not receive a response.
How Mexico got here
Top-flight club owners scrapped promotion and relegation back in April 2020, pointing to financial struggles among second-division sides that the coronavirus pandemic had made worse. The original plan called for a five-year suspension, with the system due to return last year so that a club could go up and another go down at the end of the season that finished this past May.
That reinstatement never happened. Second-division clubs began protesting last year, demanding authorities honor the original agreement, but the Mexican Football Federation said the economic conditions needed for a return still weren't in place.
"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., one of the clubs that has been protesting.
Steep requirements, frustrated investors
Liga MX also introduced tough certification requirements for any second-division team hoping to move up, including a stadium capacity of 30,000 seats -- a bar that not every current top-flight club actually clears.
The lack of promotion has hit newer investors hard. Cancún FC was bought in 2022 by a group that included former Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, on the understanding that promotion would eventually 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 resistance from some second-division owners, Mexican soccer authorities went further this year and removed promotion and relegation from the regulations entirely. Neither the Federation nor Liga MX has explained the decision.
A cautious yes from the top
The owner of Club América, one of Mexico's most influential clubs, said last month he supports bringing the system back, but only under the right conditions.
"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.
Since promotion was formally scrapped, second-division matches have seen open protests -- players standing motionless at kickoff or passing the ball around without attacking, and fans turning up in protest shirts.
"I arrived in Mexico on June 8 under the premise that there would be promotion -- joining Morelia, a team contending for promotion -- but then we were notified that it wasn't happening," said Spanish goalkeeper Roberto Galán. "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."
The pressure has now reached regulators too. Last week, Mexico's National Antitrust Commission opened an investigation into potential monopolistic practices in the Mexican league centered on the absence of promotion and relegation.
