Mexico's promotion, relegation battle: Clubs in suit allege federation retaliation
The attorneys for the second-division Mexican clubs that filed a claim in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last week against the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) and Liga MX remain committed to their fight to re-incorporate promotion and relegation next season, despite one Liga Expansión club dropping out of the battle.
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Club Atlante, perhaps the most recognized Liga Expansión team along with Club Morelia, removed itself from the appeal process on Monday. That same day, Liga MX held its annual owners meeting in which the CAS claim was expected to be discussed. Several theories about Atlante's sudden retreat have added a new twist to what is expected to be a contentious litigation process.
Complicating matters, despite the Liga Expansión clubs demanding that pro/rel be reinstated next season, FMF has since insisted the mechanism has remained attainable – via a series of criteria – ever since the federation technically halted the process during the COVID-19 pandemic. Attorney Eduardo Carlezzo, whose firm is representing the nine Liga Expansión clubs, also claims that FMF has responded to the suit by retaliating against those involved.
'The clubs are exhausted; they have reached the end of the tunnel,' Carlezzo told The Athletic in a statement on Wednesday. 'Mexican football urgently needs renovation to restore credibility, and last week's actions by the federation show exactly how they have behaved over the years. As soon as we submitted an appeal to CAS, the FMF withheld a monthly payment due to the clubs since 2020 as compensation for being unable to be promoted. This is pure revenge! These are significant sums that will impact some clubs' finances. We are now analyzing all legal actions available to us to fight against these threats.'
On Wednesday, a separate statement reviewed by The Athletic cited conflicts of interest and a 'legal simulation' by the FMF and Liga MX officials, in addition to several chief concerns about the future of promotion and relegation in Mexico.
Those concerns include the influence of multi-club ownership in Mexico and a tendency among Liga MX officials to favor a permanently closed system, similar to MLS. When pro/rel was paused in Mexico due to the pandemic, the FMF created a fund that would help Liga Expansión clubs financially.
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'The FMF General Assembly approved this temporary suspension to protect the economic stability of the clubs,' FMF's secretary general Íñigo Riestra said in response to the CAS claim.
On May 21, the FMF said on its official X account that, 'Promotion remains active through certification. A club will be promoted once at least four clubs are certified at the start of the season and one of them wins the (Liga Expansión) Campeón de Campeones' match.
The requirements that second-division clubs were expected to meet include sporting, infrastructure and administrative improvements that FMF would then review before granting promotion to Liga MX. That certification process is ambiguous, though, per the attorneys representing the nine Liga Expansión clubs.
Coincidentally, Atlante's Estadio Ciudad de Deportes, which does not currently meet the federation's first-division requirements, was used as the home field for Club América during last week's Liga MX final vs. Toluca. América's home stadium, Estadio Azteca, is currently under renovation.
'The 'certification for promotion' argued by the FMF is nothing more than a legal simulation to disguise the fact that there is no real commitment to return promotion and relegation,' the statement reads in part. 'And it scares us that the FMF's Secretary General (Iñigo Riestra) comes out to defend a phantom procedure that has not even been applied this year.'
Riestra countered last week by saying that 'half-truths' had been told and that it was important for the federation to tell its side of the story.
'The competition was suspended during the 2019-2020 season but it wasn't because of this agreement (with Liga Expansión), but rather because of the effects of the pandemic,' Riestra said in a video statement. 'It was the Liga Expansión clubs who requested financial support in order to avoid bankruptcy. … That's why on April 20 of 2020 the federation's general assembly authorized the temporary suspension of promotion and relegation for six seasons.'
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The attorneys for the second-division clubs cite 'a concentration of power' within the hierarchy of the FMF and Liga MX that prevents those clubs from having any real influence over their futures. Liga MX president Mikel Arriola is also a presiding commissioner and executive president of the FMF. Arriola is also the current president of Liga Expansión.
Riestra's brother José, is the former president of Club Atlas, which is owned by Grupo Orlegi, an organization that also owns Liga MX side Santos Laguna. José Riestra is now the head of football of Orlegi Sports, a division of Grupo Orlegi, and one of four multi-club ownership groups in Mexico. That, the nine clubs argue, is 'a conflict of interest that no one seems to question.'
'Multi-ownership is allowed despite being expressly prohibited by Article 5 of its bylaws,' Wednesday's statement reads. 'The FMF statute grants Liga MX the power to define the president of Liga Expansión. Additionally, we do not have the capacity to influence decisions in Mexican Football (when we have) barely 5 percent of votes in the General Assembly.'
The original CAS claim that was filed on May 19 also cited the ongoing debate in Mexico regarding multi-club ownership and its impact on Mexican football.
'The concentration of eight first-division clubs in the hands of four ownership groups represents a significant distortion to the Mexican football ecosystem,' reads the claim. It goes on to allege that multi-owned clubs can be 'incentivized to act in a coordinated manner' to benefit the groups that they represent. This, the claim says, is 'a detriment to fair competition.'
Carlezzo said that the Liga Expansión teams have until Thursday to present their arguments to CAS with the required substantiation. FMF will then be notified by CAS and an official hearing could be scheduled within two to three months.
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