Liga MX, officially as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. The league is contested by 18 participating clubs, the season is divided into two tournaments: Apertura (from July to December) and Clausura (from January to May). The champions of each tournament are decided by a final knockout phase, commonly known as Liguilla. Since 2020, promotion and relegation has been suspended.
Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949), Campeonato de la Rama Profesional de la FMF (1949–1960) and Primera División Profesional de México (1960–2012). The league has been held in 115 editions, the inaugural season in the professional era was played in 1943–44 with Asturias crowned as the first champions.
Liga MX currently ranks first in CONCACAF's league ranking index. According to the IFFHS, it was ranked as the 10th strongest league in the first decade of the 21st century. According to CONCACAF, the league with an average attendance of 25,557 during the 2014–15 season, draws the largest crowds on average of any football league in the Americas.
Twenty-four clubs have been champions at least once. América is the most successful club with sixteen titles, Guadalajara and Toluca with twelve titles each, Cruz Azul with ten titles, Tigres UANL and León with eight titles each.
Contents
History
Precursor amateur leagues
Prior to the beginning of the Liga Mayor in the professional era of Mexican football, there was no national and professional league in Mexico, and all football competitions were held within relatively small geographical regions. In 1902, an amateur association of football supporters known as Asociación de Aficionados de México en la Liga de Football created the first amateur football league in Mexico known as Liga Mexicana de Football Amateur Association, a local league of clubs near and around Mexico City. The league was held from 1902 to 1920, and the inaugural season was contested by five clubs.
In 1920, a separatist league known as Liga Nacional was created by Real Club España, after its withdrawal from the Liga Mexicana in 1919. The league was held for two seasons (1920–21 and 1921–22), and the inaugural season was contested by five clubs.
The Liga Mexicana and the Liga Nacional are considered the two most relevant precursor amateur leagues, but not as direct predecessors of Liga MX. However, other regional and state leagues were also held in the country: Liga Amateur de Jalisco, Liga Amateur de Veracruz, Liga Amateur de Puebla, Liga Amateur del Bajío, Liga Amateur de Hidalgo and Liga Amateur Mexiquense.
Amateur era
In 1922, the Federación de Football Association was founded as the first governing body for Mexican football, after the merger of the Liga Mexicana and the Liga Nacional. Inmediately they created the Campeonato de Primera Fuerza, a local league in Mexico City. The league was held from 1922 to 1943, and the inaugural season was contested by eight clubs, however, all participating clubs were from Mexico City. From 1923 to 1927, the competition was organized by the defunct Federación Central de Fútbol.
Since the 1927–28 season, the league was organized by the current Federación Mexicana de Fútbol officially established in 1927 and also taking control of the competition. In 1931, the FMF renamed the league as Liga Mayor del Distrito Federal, and the first matches outside Mexico City were played in the 1940–41 season with the inclusion of Moctezuma and Selección Jalisco.
Many club owners were keen to remain amateur although they paid players under the table. The increasing interest in football would not thwart a unified professional football system in the country.
Professional era
The professional era of the league was officially established in 1943. The FMF announced the beginning of a true national and professional league, incorporating clubs from other state local leagues. The league was known as Liga Mayor until 1949, and the inaugural season was contested by ten founding clubs: six clubs from the amateur era of the Liga Mayor, two clubs from the Liga Amateur de Jalisco, and two clubs from the Liga Amateur de Veracruz.
The ten founding clubs were: Asociación Deportiva Orizabeña, América, Asturias, Atlante, Atlas, Guadalajara, Veracruz Sporting, Marte, Moctezuma and Real Club España.
For administrative reasons, the Liga Mayor had decided to separate from the FMF, but after several negotiations they were unified again in 1948. This caused different reforms to completely separate and differentiate the profesional league and the amateur branch, due to this the FMF officially renamed the league as Campeonato de la Rama Profesional de la FMF in 1949.
In 1950, another of the new reforms derived was the creation of a second-level professional league for Mexican football, creating the Segunda División Profesional de México. In the 1950–51 season, the first club relegated from the top division was San Sebastián de León and the first club promoted was Zacatepec.
Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, many small clubs faced many economic difficulties which were attributed to the lack of international competition by Mexico's clubs and an unrewarding league format. Consequently, clubs from Mexico that placed high in the league standings could not afford to participate in the overarching continental competitions, such as the Copa Libertadores.
In 1960, after the election of Guillermo Cañedo de la Bárcena as president of the FMF, statutes and regulations of Mexican football were modified. The league was officially renamed as Primera División Profesional de México and also had an autonomous and independent steering committe.
The 1970 World Cup held in Mexico was the first World Cup televised on a grand scale. The season following the FIFA World Cup, the FMF changed the league format and established a final knockout phase to determine the champions. This was done to regenerate interest and reward clubs that placed fairly high in the standings.
Competition format
Regular phase
Liga MX uses a single table of 18 clubs that play two short tournaments (Apertura and Clausura) resulting in two champions per season. The season opens with the Apertura from July to December, followed by the Clausura from January to May. This format matches other Latin American schedules and corresponds with FIFA world football calendar, which "opens" in July/August and "closes" in April/May of the next year. The top eight clubs advance to the final knockout phase for each tournament.
From 1996 to 2002, the league followed a schedule consisting of two short tournaments in the season, Invierno and Verano tournaments. From 2002 to 2011, the 18 clubs were divided into three groups of six, with the top two from each group and the two best third-place clubs qualifying for the Liguilla. The clubs played in the same group for each tournament. The qualification phase of the tournament lasted 17 matches, with all clubs playing each other once per tournament in a home and away series over both tournaments.
Final phase
The final phase of each tournament, commonly known as Liguilla, consisting of eight clubs that qualify for the tournament based on regular phase point totals. The clubs are paired according to seeding, with the highest-seeded club playing the lowest-seeded and so on. Each tie is played over two legs with the winner on aggregate score progressing.
The champions are awarded the Liga MX trophy, and the runners-up is awarded a smaller version of the trophy. The start of Liguilla in 1970 modernized the league despite the disagreements between the traditionalists and the modernists. Clubs that were near bankruptcy were now better able to compete and generate profits.
If at least two clubs finish the regular season with an equal number of points, the following criteria are used to break the tie:
Goal difference
Number of goals scored
Number of away goals scored
Head-to-head matchup
Best placed in the general quotient table
Fair play points in all group matches (only one deduction could be applied to a player in a single match)
Yellow card: −1 points
Indirect red card by second yellow card: −3 points
Direct red card: −3 points
Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points
Drawing of lots.
Relegation
Originally at the end of a season, after the Apertura and Clausura tournaments, one club was relegated to the next lower division, Ascenso MX, and one club from that division was promoted and took the place left open by the relegated team. The relegated club was determined by computing the points-per-game-played ratio for each club, considering all the games played by the club during the last three seasons (six short tournaments). The club with the lowest ratio is relegated; if the club that was in last place in the relegation table was among the 12 clubs qualifying for the Liguilla at the end of the Clausura tournament, the 13th place team qualified for the Liguilla instead. For clubs recently promoted, only the games played since their promotion are considered (two or four tournaments). The club promoted from Ascenso MX is the winner of the Campeón de Ascenso, the division's super cup between the Apertura and Clausura champions. If a club became the champions in both tournaments, it was automatically promoted.
Prior to the start of the 2017–18 season, the rules for relegation and promotion changed: if a club wins promotion but does not meet certain Liga MX requirements (e.g. stadium infrastructure and a youth team) the relegated Liga MX club of that season will be obligated to pay the prize money to the Ascenso MX club (MXN$120 million) for winning the promotion playoff, which should be utilized to fulfill necessary requirements for promotion within the next season, and remain in Ascenso MX, and the relegated Liga MX club will remain in the top division. However, if the relegated Liga MX club cannot distribute the prize money to the promoted Ascenso MX club, both clubs will lose their right to play in Liga MX and must play in Ascenso MX the following season.
As of the 2018–19 season, only six clubs met the full requirements to be promoted to Liga MX, those clubs being Atlético San Luis, Atlante, Celaya, Juárez, Sinaloa, and Leones Negros UdeG.
On 16 April 2020, the Ascenso MX was folded due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the lack of financial resources. Liga MX President Enrique Bonilla later announced during a video meeting with the club owners of the league that promotion and relegation would be suspended for six years. During the suspension, the Ascenso MX was replaced with the Liga de Expansión MX although no club from that league will be promoted to Liga MX nor any Liga MX team that performs poorly will be relegated from the Liga MX for the time being.
CONCACAF Champions Cup qualification
Each year, at least six clubs from Liga MX qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, the North American premier club competition; Liga MX itself is guaranteed six spots while teams from the league can earn three more spots via the Leagues Cup with MLS for a maximum of nine spots. Generally, the Apertura and Clausura champions and runners-up, as well as the next best two clubs in the aggregate table, qualify, with the higher ranking champion from the Apertura and Clausura tournaments earning a bye to the Round of 16. Liga MX would implement a formula for ensuring that the Apertura and Clausura had two qualifying clubs should one or more clubs reach the finals of both tournaments, devised when Liga MX sent 4 clubs to North America premier club competition:
If the same two clubs qualify for the finals of both tournaments, those two clubs will qualify along with the non-finalists with the best record in both the Apertura and Clausura.
If the same club wins both the Apertura and Clausura (facing two different clubs in the finals of each tournament), then the berth reserved for the Clausura champions is passed to the Clausura runners-up and the berth reserved for the Clausura runners-up is passed to the non-finalists with the best record in the Clausura. This occurred most recently in the 2021–22 season (2023 CONCACAF Champions League) when Atlas (2021 Apertura and Clausura 2022 champions), Pachuca (Clausura 2022 runners-up) and León (Apertura 2022 runners-up) were placed in Pot 1, while Tigres (non-finalists with the best record in the Clausura 2022) were placed in Pot 2 (at the time, the pot placings were determined via the CONCACAF Club Index, which ranked the performance of certain spots within the last 5 years). As of the 2022–23 season, the team that wins both the Apertura and Clausura also automatically qualifies for the Round of 16.
If the Apertura runners-up win the Clausura (facing two different clubs in the finals of each tournament), then the berth reserved for the Apertura runners-up is passed to the non-finalists with the best record in the Apertura. This occurred most recently in the 2011–12 season (2012–13 CONCACAF Champions League) when Tigres (Apertura 2011 champions) and Santos Laguna (Apertura 2011 runners-up and Clausura 2012 champions) were placed in Pot A, while Guadalajara (non-finalists with the best record in the Apertura 2011) and Monterrey (Clausura 2012 runners-up) were placed in Pot B (at the time, the champions and runners-up were placed in different pots).
Qualification for previous international competitions
Championship of Central America and Mexico (1959)
Copa Interamericana (1969–1992)
CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup (1991–1995)
Copa Libertadores (1998–2016)
Copa Merconorte (2000–2001)
CONCACAF Giants Cup (2001)
Copa Sudamericana (2005–2008)
Participating clubs
2026–27 season
The 2026–27 Liga MX season has the following 18 participating clubs.
Performances
Notes
Currently in Liga de Expansión MX.
Currently in Liga Premier.
Currently in Liga TDP.
Currently on hiatus.
Defunct.
Media coverage
All Liga MX clubs have the right to sell their own broadcast rights. Televisa, TV Azteca, Imagen Televisión, Claro Sports, Fox Sports, and ESPN have broadcasting rights in México, while ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes, Univision, and Telemundo have the rights in the United States, with FS1/FS2 airing select matches with English commentary.
In previous years, when a club was relegated, the club that was promoted could only negotiate with the company holding the television rights of the relegated club. This agreement was canceled by Liga MX in 2012 when the promotion of Club León caused a television rights dispute with Televisa. Currently, Club León matches are broadcast in Mexico by Fox Sports and other online media sites, and in the United States by Univision (Telemundo from 2013 to 2016).
Telelatino and Fox Sports World formerly hold broadcasting rights in Canada. From 2019–20 until 2021–22, OneSoccer broadcast the league for Canada viewers. Fox Sports is the only network that holds rights to broadcast selected matches in United States and South America. Additionally, Televisa-owned networks Sky Sports and TUDN hold exclusive broadcasting rights over selected matches throughout the regular season, although the majority of the most important ones are broadcast live on the national networks. The coverage also available for Central America viewers.
Most of the Saturday afternoon and evening matches broadcast by Televisa are shown primarily on Gala TV, though Saturday games played by Televisa's club America, are broadcast on Televisa's flagship network, Canal de las Estrellas. However, a blackout policy is usually applied in selected markets where affiliates are forced to air alternate programming during the matches, Sunday noon and afternoon games broadcast by Televisa are shown on Canal de las Estrellas. All of the games broadcast by TV Azteca on Saturday and Sunday are shown on Azteca 13; Friday's matches however are shown on Azteca 7. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (known in Mexico as Fecha Doble or Double Date) matches picked by the national networks are shown on Canal 5 and Azteca 7 and the rest of the matches air on Sky Sports and TDN.
Since 2011, the final match of every season is played on Sunday during prime time, regardless of whether the club used to play local games in another timeslot, in order to capture more television audience during the game. This also prevents most playoff collusion, where one or both clubs already in the Liguilla put in lesser effort to lose or draw, in order to draw a more favorable opponent.
Sponsorship
BBVA México has been the official main sponsor of the league since its rebranding in 2012, hence it is officially known as Liga BBVA MX. In July 2013, the league president Decio De María stated that the money generated from the sponsorship would be divided among the 18 clubs and to be invested in each club's youth teams. Since 1986, the official ball of the league is manufactured by Voit.
Managers
Current managers of Liga MX clubs: