"Promotion and relegation is what makes the leagues become much more competitive. We can't and shouldn't take the dream out of the minds of kids if they live in cities where there's no professional team." That's Arturo Lomeli, owner of Atlético La Paz, and he's losing the argument.
In April, Liga MX and its 18 clubs announced a breakaway from the Mexican football federation, modelling themselves on the Premier League and LaLiga. But with one critical difference: they want to permanently sever the connection to the division below. No promotion. No relegation. No way in unless you buy an existing licence.
Five years became forever
The backstory matters here. When the COVID-19 pandemic nearly wiped out Mexico's second tier in 2020, the FMF suspended promotion and relegation for five years as a financial stabilisation measure. Fair enough in a crisis. The league was relaunched as Liga Expansión MX, and the plan was always to restore the system by the 2026-27 season — which began July 16.
That window is now closing. Liga MX doesn't want it back at all.
Lomeli, who bought Tampico Madero in 2022 and relocated and rebranded it as Atlético La Paz — a 700-mile move — already took the fight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport alongside five other second-tier clubs. CAS rejected the appeal. It could only recommend the FMF honour its original timetable. It couldn't force Liga MX's hand, and now Liga MX has made its intentions clear anyway.
The breakaway also killed off the compensation payments that Liga MX clubs had been making to Liga Expansión sides in lieu of promotion. So the second tier loses the sporting pathway and the financial bridge simultaneously.
What this means for the competitive picture
Liga MX will push ahead with governance reforms designed to attract foreign investment and grow its profile in the United States — forcing multi-club owners to consolidate to a single holding, and pooling individual broadcast rights into one league-wide deal. The more successful those moves are, the harder the glass ceiling above Liga Expansión becomes.
Mexico had a strong World Cup — El Tri won their group, a 17-year-old in Gilberto Mora gave the country a generational prospect to get excited about, and the round-of-16 clash with England was one of the tournament's defining matches. There's real momentum to build on. But the structural question is who gets to benefit from it.
- Liga MX clubs gain investor appeal and a closed, protected competition
- Liga Expansión clubs lose both sporting ambition and financial subsidy
- Second-tier owners like Lomeli can only re-enter Liga MX by purchasing an existing top-flight licence
- A final vote on the new structure is expected in 2027
Lomeli isn't done fighting. But the odds — and this is one market where the line has moved sharply — are stacked against him. "Football is like life," he says. "You never know." True. But Liga MX's 18 clubs know exactly what they want, and it isn't a trapdoor beneath their feet.
