Football leagues around the world: Liga MX
Football is a truly global sport, played and followed passionately in every corner of the world. While elite competitions like the Premier League, LaLiga, 1. Bundesliga, and Serie A often dominate the headlines, football thrives in countless other countries — many of which are rapidly gaining prominence.
This year’s FIFA Club World Cup offered a glimpse into the growing strength of the lesser-known leagues. And so, we’ve decided to launch a special series in which we put the spotlight on leagues from around the globe.
Here, we take a look at the topmost tier of Mexican men’s professional club football: Liga MX.
History
Liga MX was once known as Liga Mayor (1943–49) and the Primera División de México (1949–2012) before getting its current name. Because of its current sponsorship deal with Spanish financial institution BBVA’s Mexican division, since 2013 the league has officially been known as “Liga BBVA MX”.
Before Liga Mayor, there was no football league in Mexico. Amateur football clubs from different parts of the country participated in small competitions until the Mexican Football Federation announced the nation’s first professional league with ten clubs.
The ten founding clubs were: Club América, Asturias Football Club, Atlante Fútbol Club, Real Club España, Club Deportivo Marte, Atlas Fútbol Club, Club Deportivo Guadalajara, Club Deportivo Albinegros de Orizaba, Club Deportivo Veracruz, and Unión Deportiva Moctezuma de Orizaba.
However, the league didn’t prosper due to economic difficulties and an unrewarding format. Of its founding members, only Atlas, Club América, Guadalajara (known around the world as Chivas), and Necaxa still compete in Liga MX today. Atlante and Veracruz play in Mexico’s lower divisions, while the remaining four clubs were dissolved.
It was the FIFA World Cup held in Mexico in 1970 that reformed Mexican football, as the popularity of the sport grew due to the event being televised on a huge scale. The Mexican Football Federation modified the league format to regenerate interest. The final league phase, called Liguilla, was played using different formats, such as straight knockout rounds between the top eight, or two groups of four, with the top two qualifying for the playoffs.
The Liguilla format used to be changed every season, bearing in mind international club commitments and the schedule of the Mexico national team. This helped disrupt the domination of one or two teams and made it a level playing field for other top-performing teams.
Liga MX has gained massive popularity since the introduction of the Liguilla. A host of young, talented players currently shine in the Mexican top flight — such as Luka Romero and Iker Fimbres — alongside former European superstars such as James Rodríguez and Sergio Ramos.
League Format
Liga MX has 18 teams participating in a single table across two phases over the entire season. The first phase runs from July to December and is known as the Apertura, while the second phase runs from January to May and is called the Clausura. There are two champions in Liga MX — one in each phase.
The top ten teams from both phases advance to the final phase of each tournament. The top six teams at the end of the regular phase qualify directly for the Liguilla, while teams placed seventh to tenth qualify for the play-in round that determines the remaining two Liguilla spots. The final eight teams then compete in the play-offs.
Every year, six teams from Liga MX qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup. While Liga MX is guaranteed six spots, teams from the league can earn three more spots via the Leagues Cup matches played against Major League Soccer sides for a maximum of nine spots.
The Apertura and Clausura winners and runners-up, as well as the next best two teams in the aggregate table, all qualify for the Champions Cup, with the higher-ranking champions from Apertura and Clausura earning a bye to the Round of 16.
Promotion and Relegation
In 2020, clubs from Mexico’s top two divisions and the Mexican Football Federation agreed to a six-season suspension of the promotion and relegation system to help stabilise teams after the economic impact of the COVID pandemic. Though the suspension is set to be lifted from the 2025/26 season, with no announcement from the federation, teams from second-tier Liga de Expansión MX are fearful that the top-flight clubs may move to prevent the lifting of the suspension and make Liga MX a closed league.
Before the suspension, this is how promotions and relegations were handled: at the end of a season, after the Apertura and Clausura tournaments, one team would be relegated to the next lower division, while one team from the second tier would take the vacated spot.
Ascenso MX, the previous second tier, had a similar format to Liga MX — featuring a regular season, followed by play-offs, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and a final. The team promoted from Ascenso MX would be decided after a two-legged tie between the Apertura and Clausura champions; if one team won both tournaments, they’d be automatically promoted.
Important Stats
- Club América (Apertura) and Deportivo Toluca FC (Clausura) were the Liga MX winners in the 2024/25 season.
- Club América are the most successful Liga MX outfit with 16 titles, followed by CD Guadalajara with 12 titles and Deportivo Toluca FC with 11.
- Evanivaldo Castro (Cabinho) is the all-time top goalscorer in Liga MX history. He scored a total of 312 goals in 415 appearances over 14 seasons (1974–1988), barring 1986, when he played for Brazilian club Paysandu SC for a year. Cabinho represented multiple clubs in Mexico: Pumas UNAM, Atlante FC, Club León, and Tigres UANL.
- Goalkeeper Óscar Pérez has the most appearances in Liga MX. In a career spanning 26 years, playing mostly with Cruz Azul and CF Pachuca, he played a record 741 games. For his longevity and consistency, he is regarded as one of the all-time great keepers in Mexico.
- Former Argentina attacking midfielder Rubens Sambueza has bagged the most assists in Liga MX — 115 assists in 415 games.
- Argentine goalkeeper Nahuel Guzmán, who plays for Tigres UANL, has the record for the most clean sheets in the Liga MX — with a total of 157 of them in 414 appearances for the Tigres.
- Víctor Mañón (15 years and 217 days) became the youngest player to make an appearance in Liga MX when he made his debut for Pachuca in 2007, while on the other end, Óscar Pérez (45 years and 247 days) holds the record for the oldest player in Liga MX history.
