Mexican second division teams appeal to CAS for promotion and relegation reinstatement
MEXICO CITY — Ten of 16 second division teams seeking to reinstate promotion and relegation in Mexico have filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Among the disgruntled is Atlante, a club that was founded in 1918 and has won two league titles but was relegated in 2014.
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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
The 3️⃣ key players behind Cruz Azul's title triumph
Blue cross and their football shone at the Olympic University Stadium and, to celebrate the title of the sky blues, we make a count of the three protagonists of the championship, although three are short... Vicente Sánchez The still coach of Cruz Azul led them to the seventh title of the Concacaf Champions Cup, in a semester of madness for La Máquina after the sudden departure of Martín Anselmi. The incredible thing is that the coach will not continue in command of the sky blues. Ignacio Rivera The captain opened the scoring against Vancouver Whitecaps and also, won his fourth title with the sky blue institution: Liga MX, Champion of Champions, Super Cup of Liga MX and today, the Champions Cup. Ángel Sepúlveda "El Cuate", "El Ángel del Gol"... Sepúlveda was key in tonight's duel, as he was crowned with the sky blues and with a double collaborated in the championship of Cruz Azul. He also became the top scorer of the tournament with nine goals. Advertisement This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here. 📸 VICTOR CRUZ - AFP or licensors
New York Times
29-05-2025
- New York Times
Club World Cup spot at stake as LAFC and Club América battle for $9.55M and more
Are you ready for some football? Or perhaps more appropriately, fútbol? Saturday in Los Angeles, locals LAFC of MLS will face Liga MX giants Club América in the FIFA Club World Cup play-in match. The winner will earn a berth in the tournament that starts in the U.S. a couple of weeks later. This one-leg playoff has been billed as the most expensive game in North American soccer history after FIFA, the sport's global governing body, announced that each participating Concacaf team would receive $9.55 million for taking part in the tournament. So Saturday's winner will leave BMO Stadium with a hefty check as well as a chance to play for the $125 million prize that will go to the tournament's eventual champion. Advertisement Short of dropping the prize money from a helicopter or having the teams walk out onto the field while 'Living in America' blares from the stadium's loudspeakers, FIFA's ongoing fascination with U.S. sports culture will be center-stage Saturday night. The play-in concept is one FIFA has adopted from the North American sports landscape and one that is becoming more prevalent in soccer leagues around the world. The NBA's Play-In Tournament, created during the 2020-2021 season, is the most well-known use of the format in sports, despite its short history. Before that season, eight teams each from the Eastern and Western conferences qualified for the playoffs to decide the NBA's champion. Now, up to 10 per conference are eligible, with the winner of the seventh vs. eighth seed matchup earning a playoff berth, and the loser of that game having the safety net of playing the winner of the ninth vs. 10th game to get in. There are also rumblings that college football's recently debuted 12-team playoff will grow to include up to 16 teams, with the lowest seeds playing their way into the final bracket in the future. FIFA's Club World Cup play-in game in 2025 is much more straightforward. However, with expansion the new norm at FIFA, and considering South American federation Conmebol's hope that the 2030 World Cup finals will include 64 teams, one can't rule out that the Club World Cup will eventually include a four-team play-in tournament. More games mean more revenue, especially for matches with an all-or-nothing carrot — qualification, or elimination. This inaugural 32-team Club World Cup, which is an expanded, four-yearly version of the annual version of the tournament, will be followed next year by a 48-team men's World Cup finals, which will be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. But Saturday night's win-and-you're-in match might actually never be played again. Advertisement FIFA only created the play-in game in a rush after Mexican side Club León was expelled from the tournament in March. León's appeal for reinstatement with the Court of Arbitration for Sport was then unsuccessful. LAFC had lost to León in the 2023 Concacaf Champions Cup final. So, as that competition's runner-up, LAFC was given a lifeline. Club América qualified as the top-ranked Concacaf club not already in the tournament, per the FIFA Club World Cup confederation ratings. The result is an MLS vs. Liga MX match with the highest of stakes. Now, there have been recent meetings between MLS teams and Mexican ones in the Concacaf Champions Cup when a regional trophy was on the line. In fact, less than 24 hours after the Club World Cup play-in game, the Vancouver Whitecaps will face Cruz Azul in Mexico City in that Concacaf competition's 2025 final. Yet, the winner of their match earns $5 million versus the nearly $10 million award FIFA will hand out in Los Angeles this weekend. That follows the recent trend by tournament organizers to increase the prize money up for grabs, thus further incentivizing participating teams. In March, U.S. Soccer announced the total prize money for the U.S. Open Cup would be raised to $1 million. That's a significant increase from the 2024 total purse of $475,000. This year's Open Cup winner will receive a $600,000 prize. Meanwhile, MLS has over $2.5 million in its postseason award budget. The winner of the MLS Cup final earns $300,000. Conmebol made a big splash in 2024 when it announced a $23 million reward for the winner of the Copa Libertadores. The UEFA Champions League winner will earn about $27 million. This season's European final, between Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain, will be played on the day of the Club World Cup play-in game, a few hours earlier in Munich, Germany. Advertisement Is that a problem for FIFA? And why is LAFC allowed to host the play-in game at its home stadium? Is that home-field advantage? Let's answer those questions. LAFC will enjoy the comfort of its home stadium, but with a sizable contingent of Club América fans in Los Angeles, and throughout the United States, expect the Mexican side's famed yellow strip to be well represented in the stands. LAFC announced Tuesday that the match has sold out the 22,000-capacity arena. FIFA's Club World Cup tournament director Manolo Zubiria told reporters recently that an effort was made to stage the game at a neutral site. Zubiria cited several challenges that led tournament organizers to opt for BMO Stadium. He said that because of Club León's late appeal process, FIFA had to plan ahead in the event a play-in game would be the next alternative. A congested events calendar in the U.S. limited the available stadiums, Zubiria said. The goal, he added, was to play the match in one of the 12 cities hosting Club World Cup games this summer. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., for example, will be the venue for six matches during the tournament. 'We came across multiple challenges, as you can appreciate, trying to put together a football match like this in such a short period of time,' Zubiria told reporters May 16. 'We had no certainty to commit to a stadium that may have had to move other existing events, which was the case across all venues that we spoke to. But also, one of the major challenges we had was the lead-in time or the time that we had to access a building to set up for a soccer match. 'I'm not just talking about the field of play. I'm talking about everything else that we require for a FIFA competition, especially on the technology side, to have to set up VAR and goal-line technology and semiautomated offside.' LAFC co-president and general manager John Thorrington's response was as expected. 'Obviously, we respect the decision. I guess we would say I do know that there's been a number of conversations about the venue and various details about the game that we have stayed completely out of,' Thorrington said. 'And what I would say is, if you go back to our preseason match against América (a 2-1 LAFC win at BMO Stadium in February), it didn't quite feel like a home game in the normal sense for us, given the affinity that and the fan base that they do have locally here in L.A.' Advertisement Club América president of operations Héctor Gonzalez Iñárritu remained diplomatic about the chosen venue but acknowledged the decision was not optimal. 'We know the efforts that FIFA made to find a neutral stadium,' he said. 'We play a lot of games in the U.S. and understand that finding a stadium is not easy. This isn't ideal, but we have to take advantage of the opportunity. Obviously, it would have been best to play at a neutral site. But we know this stadium. We know the people. We know that there will be many more América fans there, plus Mexican fans who will surely root for América.' Inter Milan against PSG will kick off seven hours before the Club World Cup play-in game. In that sense, LAFC and Club América will have a prime-time slot for U.S. viewers, albeit a late one. The Champions League final will start at 3 p.m. ET, and the play-in match will follow at 10:30 p.m. (That start time conversely means the game will be played in the middle of the night for Europeans, which will surely limit interest in it there). However, the Champions League final is a fixture second only to the men's World Cup final in terms of prestige. It's the most important match of the annual soccer calendar across the globe, hands down. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has invited fans to be part of history when the Club World Cup begins. He also claimed the trophy will be the 'most coveted' by clubs and players. That's all scripted speak from Infantino, but there is a brewing feud between FIFA and UEFA, its European equivalent, one that took a significant turn earlier this month during the FIFA Congress in Paraguay. UEFA officials, including the confederation's president Aleksander Ceferin, walked out of the congress after they alleged that Infantino, who was several hours late arriving at the event, had prioritized a trip to the Middle East to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders. The two sides have since calmed the waters, but it is another layer to what has become a controversial tournament. 'It was a challenge to find a date that worked for both teams,' Zubiria said. 'We were also very considerate of everything that was happening. There is a Concacaf Champions Cup final the next day. There's a UEFA Champions League final the same day. But if you look at it the other way, it's also exciting because it gives an opportunity that so much football is happening on the same weekend, and one event will help lead into the other.' The Club World Cup has conjured all sorts of emotions from players, club officials and fans alike. It's set to be played every four years, so this summer's inaugural edition won't be a one-and-done deal. For LAFC and Club América, a golden ticket is at stake. They couldn't care less about all the noise.
Bloomberg
29-05-2025
- Bloomberg
Glory, Not Money, Should Be Mexican Football's Ultimate Goal
When Mexico crowned a new football king on Sunday, the images of the deciding match couldn't have been more emotional: Toluca FC dethroned reigning champions Club América to win the league for the first time in 15 years, as fans erupted in celebration and kids wept in the stands amid fireworks and colorful smoke bombs. Off the pitch, however, Mexico's football league, one of the world's largest by attendance, faces an ironic juxtaposition of great commercial success with mediocre sporting results. While the league is growing in revenue, sponsorships and audiences, the quality of the game and the performance of the national team have been disappointing, in particular the elimination of Mexico in the first round of the 2022 World Cup.
