🚨🔴⚪️ AS Monaco have reached verbal agreement for Mexican midfielder Erik Lira, here we go!
€8m fee plus €3m add-ons to Cruz Azul with 20% sell-on clause.
Final step needed: AS Monaco to free an extra spot then deal proceeds to signatures stage.
We’ve been told for nearly a century that we aren’t Mexican enough, and maybe even longer that we aren’t American enough.
“Ni de aquí ni de allá.”
But when it comes to taking our money, we gladly belong.
Mexican football needs our help.
Instead of restoring promotion and relegation, the Mexican Football Federation has announced that there will be no promotion or relegation going forward.
The process has been driven by commercial interests and conflicts of interest rather than by what is best for Mexican football.
After years of promises that promotion would return, those promises have not been kept.
It's unfair to the many clubs, players and supporters in Mexico's lower divisions.
This should be the moment to strengthen the football pyramid, not close it.
Mexican football has enormous potential. The national team has just enjoyed one of its best World Cups, a talented new generation is emerging, stadiums are full of passionate supporters, and football is deeply rooted in the country's culture.
A few years ago, the Mexican Football Federation suspended promotion and relegation, arguing that clubs needed greater financial stability after the COVID-19 pandemic. The measure was presented as temporary, with the promise that promotion would return once second-division clubs had become stronger financially and institutionally.
During that period, clubs were told they would receive financial support, improve their infrastructure, strengthen their youth academies and work towards a certification process that would allow them to earn promotion to Liga MX.
That promise has not been fulfilled.
The consequences go far beyond the clubs themselves. Thousands of players now see their pathway to the top division blocked, regardless of their performances. Historic clubs with passionate fan bases have no sporting route to Liga MX, even if they win the league. Supporters are losing hope because their teams can no longer dream of reaching the highest level through sporting merit.
The issue is also financial. According to the clubs involved, Liga de Expansión teams receive only a tiny fraction of the television revenue earned by Liga MX clubs. They also argue that they do not receive a share of key commercial revenues generated by Mexican football, making it even harder to close the financial gap that is then used to justify keeping promotion closed.
The certification process was also criticised by the clubs, who argue that the final decision depended on a voting committee that included Liga MX representatives, creating what they believe to be a conflict of interest.
Several clubs have already taken their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), arguing that access to the top division should continue to be determined by sporting merit.
If you care about football, please help make this story heard.
Promotion and relegation are more than just a competition format. They represent hope, ambition and opportunity for every player, coach, club and supporter.
Football should reward sporting merit. Every club should have the right to dream of reaching the top division by earning it on the pitch.
🚨🤯 This happened today in the match between Mineros and Correcaminos in Liga de Expansión.
The players REFUSED TO PLAY during the opening minute of their game in PROTEST against the elimination of promotion/relegation in Mexico.
Bring PRO/REL back. ✊🏼
A 7-game tournament somehow erased 8 months of club football yet Messi still won the 2010 Ballon d'Or with 0 wc goals robbing Iniesta.
The corruption is comical atp.
Thierry and Zlatan saying they wouldn't have become soccer players because of the costs of the American youth system, then seeing Lalas say it's a great system because it makes a lot of money for some people really sums it all up nicely
Btw lalas supporting the current system is basically proof that it doesn’t work. Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic would never have had the money to pay for the American system. So we are stuck with players like Lalas and Pulisic as a result of this exclusion.
🚨Zlatan Ibrahimović on Spain eliminating Portugal from the FIFA World Cup:
🗣️ “Portugal should be ashamed of that performance. Not because they lost to Spain, but because they never played like a team that wanted to win. They had Cristiano Ronaldo on the pitch, one of the greatest goalscorers football has ever seen, yet they spent most of the game passing sideways, backwards and taking the easy option. If you are going to start Ronaldo, then have the courage to play for him. Instead, they looked selfish, predictable and completely out of ideas.
Bruno Fernandes is one of the most talented creators in football, but talent means nothing if you don’t use it correctly. Too many times he looked for another pass instead of putting the ball where it hurts defenders. Ronaldo was making runs, asking for crosses, waiting inside the box, and the service never came. What is the point of having the best finisher if you refuse to feed him? That is not football intelligence.
Spain deserve enormous credit because they kept believing until the very end. They moved the ball with patience, controlled the rhythm and waited for Portugal to make one mistake. Mikel Merino punished them when the moment arrived. That is the difference between a team with a clear identity and a team full of individuals trying to solve everything on their own.
Portugal did not lose because Cristiano Ronaldo was on the pitch. They lost because they never adapted to the players they had. They lacked imagination, they lacked bravery and, above all, they lacked unity. Football rewards teams that think together. Tonight Spain thought together. Portugal thought separately. That’s why one nation is celebrating, and the other is going home.”