Mexico National Football Team
World Ranking: 11
GOVERNING BODY:-
Federación Mexicana de Fútbol (Mexican Football Federation)
CAPTAIN:-
Andrés Guardado
COACH:-
Gerardo “Tata” Martino
MOST CAPPED PLAYER:-
Claudio Suárez (177)
TOP SCORER:-
Javier “Chicharito” Hernández
STAR PLAYERS:-
Guillermo Ochoa, Héctor Herrera, Hirving Lozano, Raúl Jiménez, Javier Hernandez
HOME GROUND:-
Estadio Azteca, Mexico City
NICKNAMES:-
El Tri (The Tricolour)
RIVALS:-
USA
WORLD CUP:-
Appearances: 16
Best Result: Quarterfinals (1970, 1986)
GOLD CUP:-
Appearances: 23
Best Result: 11x Champions (1965, 1971, 1977, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2019)
The Mexico national football team represents Mexico in international football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation.
It competes as a member of CONCACAF, which encompasses the countries of North and Central America, and the Caribbean. The team plays its home games at the Estadio Azteca.
Mexico has qualified to sixteen World Cups and has qualified consecutively since 1994, making it one of six countries to do so.
The Mexico national team, along with Brazil are the only two nations to make it out of the group stage over the last seven World Cups.
Mexico played France in the first match of the first World Cup on 13 July 1930. Mexico’s best progression in World Cups has been reaching the quarterfinals in both the 1970 and 1986 World Cups, both of which were staged on Mexican soil.
Mexico is historically the most successful national team in the CONCACAF region, having won eleven confederation titles, including eight CONCACAF Gold Cups and three CONCACAF Championships (the precursor to the Gold Cup), as well as two NAFC Championships, one North American Nations Cup, one CONCACAF Cup and two gold medals of the Central American and Caribbean Games.
It is one of eight nations to have won two of the three most important football tournaments (the World Cup, Confederations Cup, and Summer Olympics), having won the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Mexico is also the only team from CONCACAF to have won an official FIFA competition, winning the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup.
Although Mexico is under the jurisdiction of CONCACAF, the national team was regularly invited to compete in the Copa América from 1993 to 2016, finishing runner-up twice – in 1993 and 2001 – and obtaining the third-place medal on three occasions.
Football in Mexico
Mexico’s most popular sport is football (called fútbol in Mexico).
The top tier leagues in Mexico are Liga MX for the men and the Liga MX Femenil for women.
Football became a professional men’s sport in 1943. Since then, Mexico’s most successful men’s club has been Club América, with thirteen Liga MX titles.
The first women’s professional football league in Mexico was established from the 2017–18 Liga MX Femenil season. It set new world records for attendances at women’s professional football matches.
Antonio Carbajal was the first player to appear in five World Cups, and Hugo Sánchez was named best CONCACAF player of the 20th century by IFFHS.
Mexico’s largest capacity stadiums are Estadio Azteca, Estadio Olímpico Universitario and Estadio Jalisco.
Mexican football league system
The Mexican football league system is organized by the Mexican Football Federation, except for the Liga MX and the Ascenso MX that are organized independently.
The tournaments consist of five levels, male and female professional levels. In addition to having the Copa MX, which is also organized independently to the Femexfut.
Liga MX, known as the Primera División (First Division) before the 2012–13 season, is the highest level of Mexican football and consists of 18 clubs.
Each calendar year is split into two short tournaments, the Apertura (Opening) and the Clausura (Closing).
In each short tournament, a club plays the other 17 clubs once. The home team switches, depending on the current short tournament.
A new champion is crowned for each short tournament through a playoff system consisting of eight teams. The top eight clubs qualify for the playoffs.
The clubs are arranged before each round so that the highest seeded team remaining always plays the lowest seed remaining. The clubs play in a two-legged tie, with one match occurring at each club’s home ground, and whichever club has the better aggregate score advances.
If the two clubs are tied on aggregate and away goals after both legs in the quarterfinals and semifinals, the higher seed advances automatically.
In the finals, if the two clubs are tied after both legs, two 15-minute halves of extra time are added. If the clubs are still tied after extra time the champion is determined by a penalty shootout.
One club is relegated to Ascenso MX each year (two short tournaments). To determine the club to be relegated, the ratio of points to games is kept for each team.
The club that has the worst points to games ratio over the previous three years (six short tournaments) is relegated to Ascenso MX.
It is organized by the Mexican Football Federation and consists of four levels.
- Liga MX (18 clubs)
- Liga de Expansión MX (18 clubs)
- Liga Premier de México (29 clubs) (2 groups)
- Liga TDP, 196 clubs (14 groups)
Liga MX
The Liga MX (Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons with BBVA through its Mexican subsidiary BBVA México), is the top professional football division of the Mexican football league system.
Administered by the Mexican Football Federation, the league comprises 18 clubs with plans to add 2 more teams.
The season has two tournaments: Apertura, which starts in the summer, and Clausura, which starts in the winter.
The first 4 teams in the table at the end of the regular phase of the tournament qualify to the liguilla (“mini-league”, or “playoff”), while the next 8 teams qualify for another playoff that determines the next 4 liguilla spots.
The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in all of America.
According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, the league currently ranks 20th worldwide and was ranked as the 10th strongest league in the first decade of the 21st century (2001–2010).
It is the fourth most attended football league in the world behind Germany’s Bundesliga, England’s Premier League and Spain’s La Liga.
Of the 56 teams to have competed in the league, América has won the title 13 times, followed by Guadalajara (12), Toluca (10), Cruz Azul (9), León (8), UANL and UNAM (7).
The current league champions are Cruz Azul, winners of the Guardianes 2021 tournament.
Liga de Expansión MX
The Liga de Expansión MX, also known as Liga de Desarrollo (Liga BBVA Expansión MX for sponsorship reasons), is a Mexican professional football league founded in 2020.
It was established as part of the Mexican Football Federation’s “Stabilization Project”, which has the primary objective of rescuing the financially troubled teams from the Ascenso MX and prevent the disappearance of a second-tier league in Mexico, for which there will be no promotion and relegation during the following six seasons.
The project also attempts for Liga MX and former Ascenso MX teams to consolidate stable projects with strong administration, finances, and infrastructure.
Liga Premier de México
The Liga Premier is the third tier of football in Mexico within the Mexican football league system that governs Serie A and Serie B leagues/group competitions.
They compete from the fall to spring each season, promotion and relegation between each group, and promotion to Liga de Expansión MX and relegation to Liga TDP within the league system.
Currently, the league has 29 clubs split into two groups. The winners of the Liga Premier get promoted to the second division, which is known as the Liga de Expansion.
Teams that finish at the bottom are relegated to the Liga TDP.
Liga TDP
The Liga TDP is Mexico’s fourth tier in the Mexican League System.
The Liga TDP is divided into 14 groups.
The 14 groups consist of teams who are eligible to play in the liguilla ascenso for two promotion spots.
Teams that are affiliated with teams in the Liga MX, Liga de Expansión MX and Liga Premier, are not eligible for promotion.
However, they will play in a sixteen team affiliate playoff tournament for the entire season.