A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
 | It has been suggested that Liga MX final phase be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since September 2024. |
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| Organising body | Mexican Football Federation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1943, as Primera División |
| Country | Mexico |
| Confederation | CONCACAF |
| Number of teams | 18 |
| Level on pyramid | 1 |
| Relegation to | Liga de Expansión MX (Suspended) |
| Domestic cup(s) | |
| International cup(s) | |
| Current champions | América (15th title) (Clausura 2024) |
| Most championships | América (15 titles) |
| Most appearances | Óscar Pérez (745) |
| Top goalscorer | Evanivaldo Castro (312) |
| TV partners | Domestic Caliente TV Claro[1] ESPN[2] Fox Sports[3] Televisa[4] TV Azteca[5] International OneFootball (Selected matches in selected markets outside of Mexico) |
| Website | www |
| Current: Apertura 2024 | |
The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons,[6] is the top professional football division in Mexico. Formerly known as the Primera División de México (Mexican First Division), it is contested by 18 clubs and is divided into two tournaments – "Apertura" and "Clausura"– which typically run from July to December (the former) and January to May (the latter). The champion of each tournament is decided via a playoff ("Liguilla") system. Since 2020, promotion and relegation has been suspended, which is to last until 2026.
The league currently ranks first in CONCACAF's league ranking index.[7] According to the IFFHS, the Liga MX was ranked as the 10th strongest league in the first decade of the 21st century.[8] 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 and the third largest crowds of any professional sports league in North America, behind only the National Football League and Major League Baseball. It is also the fourth most attended football league in the world behind Germany's Bundesliga, England's Premier League and Spain's La Liga.[9] The Liga MX ranks second in terms of television viewership in the United States, behind the English Premier League.[10]
Club América have won the league a record of 15 times, followed by Guadalajara with 12 titles.[11] In all, twenty-four teams have won the Primera División/Liga MX title at least once.[11]
History
Amateur era
Prior to the Liga Mayor, there was no national football league in Mexico, and football competitions were held within relatively small geographical regions. The winners of the Primera Fuerza, a local league consisting of teams near and around Mexico City, was regarded as the then national competition although there were other regional leagues, such as in Veracruz, Liga Amateur de Puebla the Jalisco and the Liga Amateur del Bajío that had talented clubs. 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 Mexico. The professional national league was established in 1943.[12]
Professional era
The Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (F.M.F.) announcement of the nation's first professional league brought interest from many clubs to join. The F.M.F. announced that 10 clubs would form the Liga Mayor (Major League). The league was founded by six clubs from the Primera Fuerza of Mexico City, two clubs from the Liga Occidental, and two from the Liga Veracruzana.
Founding members
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- Primera Fuerza: América, Asturias, Atlante, Veracruz, Necaxa, and Marte.
- Liga Occidental de Jalisco: Atlas and Guadalajara.
- Liga Amateur de Veracruz: ADO and Moctezuma.
Reformation
Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, many small clubs faced economic difficulties which were attributed to the lack of international competition by Mexico's clubs and an unrewarding league format. Consequently, teams from Mexico that placed high in the league standings could not afford to participate in the overarching continental competitions, such as the Copa Libertadores.
The Mexican league boom
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 F.M.F. changed the league format and established a playoff phase to determine the national champion. This was done to regenerate interest and reward teams that placed fairly high in the standings.
The play-off, called the Liguilla, was played using various formats to determine the champion. The most common format was a straight knock-out between the top eight teams in the table. At other times the league was divided into groups with the top two in each group, often as well as the best 3rd placed teams, qualifying for the play-offs and in some seasons the play-offs themselves involved teams playing in groups with the group winners playing off for the title. The format was changed from season to season to accommodate international club commitments and the schedule of the Mexico national team.
The change in the rules affected teams that traditionally dominated the table, as talented teams that had not performed well in the regular season were able to perform successfully in the play-offs (Cruz Azul in the 1970s, América in the 1980s, and Toluca in the 2000s).
Liga MX
Prior to the start of the 2012–13 season, the organization Liga MX / Ascenso MX was created to replace the Mexican Football Federation as the organizing body of the competition. The league also announced a rebranding, with the introduction of a new logo.[13]
On 20 August 2018, it was announced that Liga MX would begin testing the use of video assistant referee technology.[14] The initial test run will be conducted during under-20 matches played inside senior league stadiums, with live testing across senior Liga MX matches to take place during weeks 13 and 14 of the Apertura tournament. The league will, however, still need final approval from FIFA to fully implement the technology.[15]
Competition format
Regular season tournaments
Liga MX uses a single table of 18 teams that play two annual tournaments (Apertura & Clausura) resulting in two champions per season. The season opens with the apertura tournament (opening tournament- running from July to December) followed by the clausura (closing – running from January to May). This format matches other Latin American schedules and corresponds with FIFA's world footballing calendar, which "opens" in July/August and "closes" in April/May of the next year. The top 12 teams advance to the liguilla for each tournament, with the top 4 teams in the table at the end of the regular phase of the tournament qualifying directly to the liguilla, and the next 8 teams qualifying for the play-in round that determines the next 4 liguilla spots. If one team is in last place in the league's relegation table (see below), that team is replaced by the team that finished 13th in the tournament.
From 1996 to 2002, the league followed a two-tournament schedule with invierno (winter) and verano (summer) tournaments. From 2002 to 2011 the 18 teams were divided into three groups of six with the top two teams from each group and the two best third place teams qualified for the liguilla. The teams played in the same group for each tournament. The qualification phase of the tournament lasted 17 weeks, with all teams playing each other once per tournament in a home and away series over both tournaments.
Playoffs (liguilla)
The liguilla (Spanish for "little league") is the play-off phase of the tournament. This phase starts with the qualifying round, with teams ranked 7–10 playing a single match hosted by the higher seed with the winner decided on the night. After this round, the two teams that have won the round, advance to the quarterfinals against the 2 best teams, while the 3 v. 6 and 4 v. 5 play in two more matchups, with the winner on aggregate score progressing. The Champion team is awarded the First division trophy, and the runner-up is awarded a smaller version of the trophy. The birth of La 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.
Relegation
Originally at the end of a season, after the Apertura and Clausura tournaments, one team is relegated to the next lower division, Ascenso MX, and one team from that division is promoted and takes the place left open by the relegated team. Currently, the relegated team is determined by computing the points-per-game-played ratio for each team, considering all the games played by the team during the last three seasons (six tournaments). The team with the lowest ratio is relegated; if the team that is in last place in the relegation table is among the 12 teams qualifying for the Liguilla at the end of the Clausura tournament, the 13th place team qualifies for the Liguilla instead. For teams recently promoted, only the games played since their promotion are considered (two or four tournaments). The team promoted from Ascenso MX is the winner of a two-leg match between the champions of the Apertura and Clausura tournaments of that division. If a team becomes the champion in both tournaments, it is automatically promoted.
Prior to the start of the 2017–18 season, the rules for relegation and promotion changed: if a team wins promotion but does not meet certain Liga MX requirements (e.g. stadium infrastructure and a youth team) the relegated Liga MX team of that season will be obligated to pay the prize money to the Ascenso MX team (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,[16] and the relegated Liga MX team will remain in the first division. However, if the relegated Liga MX team cannot distribute the prize money to the promoted Ascenso MX team, both teams will lose their right to play in Liga MX and must play in Ascenso MX the following season.[17]
As of the 2018–19 season, only six teams met the full requirements to be promoted to Liga MX, those teams being Atlético San Luis, Atlante, Celaya, Juárez, Sinaloa, and UdeG.[18]
On April 16, 2020, the Ascenso MX, the 2nd division of the Mexican football league system, was folded due to the 2019–20 coronavirus 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.[19][20] During the suspension, the Ascenso MX was replaced with the Liga de Expansión MX although no club from that league will be promoted to the Liga MX nor any Liga MX team that performs poorly will be relegated from the Liga MX for the time being.[21]
CONCACAF Champions Cup qualification
Each year, at least six teams from Liga MX qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, the premier North American 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 winners and runners-up, as well as the next best two teams 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 teams should one or more teams reach the finals of both tournaments, devised when Liga MX sent 4 teams to North America's top club competition:[22]
- If the same two teams qualified for the finals of both tournaments, those two teams will qualify along with the non-finalists with the best record in both the Apertura and Clausura.
- If the same team wins both the Apertura and the Clausura (facing two different teams 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 2022 Clausura champions), Pachuca (2022 Clausura runners-up) and León (2021 Apertura runners-up) were placed in Pot 1, while UANL (non-finalists with the best record in the 2022 Clausura) 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 teams 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 UANL (2011 Apertura champions) and Santos Laguna (2011 Apertura runners-up and 2012 Clausura champions) were placed in Pot A, while Guadalajara (non-finalists with the best record in the 2011 Apertura) and Monterrey (2012 Clausura runners-up) were placed in Pot B (at the time, the champions and runners-up were placed in different pots).
- If the Apertura champions are runners-up of the Clausura (facing two different teams in the finals of each tournament), then the berth reserved for the Clausura runners-up is passed to the non-finalists with the best record in the Clausura. This has not happened since Liga MX began using this qualification procedure.
With Liga MX sending a minimum of six teams to the Champions Cup (Again, Liga MX can send a maximum of nine teams if three Liga MX teams all hold the top three spots in Leagues Cup), these rules still generally apply, although if a team qualifies for the Champions Cup via Liga MX and the Leagues Cup, the spot is given to the next best team in the aggregate table. If a team is the highest ranked tournament champion and also wins the Leagues Cup for that same cycle, both the Apertura and Clausura champions qualify for the Round of 16.
Previous Qualification Tournaments
- Campeonato Centroamericano (1959)
- Copa Interamericana (1968–1991)
- CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup (1991–1998)
- CONCACAF Giants Cup (2001)
- InterLiga (2004–2010)
- Copa Sudamericana (2005–2008)
- SuperLiga (2007–2010)
- Copa Libertadores (1998–2015)
Clubs and champions
2023–24 season
The following 18 clubs will compete in the Liga MX during the 2023–24 season.
| Team | Position in 2023–24 |
First season in top division |
Seasons in top division |
First season of current spell in top division |
Consecutive Seasons in Liga MX |
Top division titles |
Last top division title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| América | 1 | 1943–44 | 108 | 1943–44 | 108 | 15 | Clausura 2024 |
| Atlas | 17 | 105 | 1979–80 | 71 | 3 | Clausura 2022 | |
| Atlético San Luis | 12 | 2019–20 | 7 | 2019–20 | 7 | 0 | - |
| Cruz Azul | 8 | 1964–65 | 87 | 1964–65 | 87 | 9 | Guardianes 2021 |
| Guadalajara | 4 | 1943–44 | 108 | 1943–44 | 108 | 12 | Clausura 2017 |
| Juárez | 16 | 2019–20 | 7 | 2019–20 | 7 | 0 | - |
| León | 9 | 1944–45 | 84 | 2012–13 | 21 | 8 | Guardianes 2020 |
| Mazatlán | 14 | 2020–21 | 5 | 2020–21 | 5 | 0 | - |
| Monterrey | 2 | 1945–46 | 93 | 1960–61 | 91 | 5 | Apertura 2019 |
| Necaxa | 11 | 1951–52 | 78 | 2016–17 | 13 | 3 | Invierno 1998 |
| Pachuca | 7 | 1967–68 | 59 | 1998–99 | 49 | 7 | Apertura 2022 |
| Puebla | 18 | 1944–45 | 88 | 2007–08 | 31 | 2 | 1989–90 |
| Querétaro | 10 | 1990–91 | 37 | 2009–10 | 27 | 0 | - |
| Santos Laguna | 13 | 1988–89 | 61 | 1988–89 | 61 | 6 | Clausura 2018 |
| Tijuana | 15 | 2011–12 | 23 | 2011–12 | 23 | 1 | Apertura 2012 |
| Toluca | 6 | 1953–54 | 98 | 1953–54 | 98 | 10 | Bicentenario 2010 |
| UANL | 3 | 1974–75 | 74 | 1997–98 | 51 | 8 | Clausura 2023 |
| UNAM | 5 | 1962–63 | 89 | 1962–63 | 89 | 7 | Clausura 2011 |
Champions
Bold indicates clubs currently playing in Liga MX.