April 20 – Liga MX’s 18 clubs, meeting via video conference, have suspended promotion and relegation between the top tier and second tier, Ascenso MX, for the next five years.
The announcement, made by Liga MX president Enrique Bonilla, also confirmed that the 2020 Clausura season in Ascenso is officially over and that no champion would be crowned due to the Covid-19 crisis. Bonilla has himself just returned to work having recovered from the disease.
Liga MX remains suspended.
Ascenso MX clubs have been struggling financially in recent seasons with the number of teams in the league having been reduced from 18 to 12. Clubs from the Ascenso had frequently failed to meet the financial guarantees required to move up to the top tier.
The Ascensio teams will now each receive 20 million pesos ($850,000) a year from Liga MX. They will also have new league criteria that will seek to develop and promote young Mexican players.
Detail of how that will work is unclear but one report said that the second division will become a league for U-23 players. Current Liga MX squad rules guaranteeing a number of youth players will be relaxed, said Bonilla.
The news will increase speculation that Liga MX and MLS clubs could build closer competition ties, either through their own Campeones Cup and Leagues Cup, or via a North American Superleague potentially administered by regional governing body Concacaf.
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