Why Liga MX Ended Promotion and Relegation: What the 2026–27 Rules Mean

Liga MX Has No Promotion or Relegation in 2026–27

The answer for this season is completely clear: no Liga MX club can be relegated in 2026–27, and no Liga de Expansión club can be promoted. A side may finish at the bottom of the top flight without losing its place, while the second-tier champion can win the sporting competition without earning entry to Liga MX. That is the practical effect of Article 35 in the current competition regulations.

What Article 35 says in direct terms

The key wording applies from the 2026–27 season onward and removes sporting movement between the two divisions. It does not create a playoff, a certification-based promotion chance or an exception for a second-tier champion. For supporters following the title race, Liguilla qualification and continental places, the main Liga MX standings still matter every week. The bottom places, however, no longer lead to relegation.

It is safer to describe the system as closed under the 2026–27 rules than to call it permanently closed. The rulebook does not promise a future return, but Mexican football authorities can adopt different regulations in a later season. Fans should therefore separate two questions: what is possible now, and what officials might decide later. Only the first has a firm answer.

The coefficient fines have also disappeared

For several seasons after relegation was suspended, the coefficient table still carried a financial sting. The three worst-ranked clubs were charged MXN 80 million, MXN 47 million and MXN 33 million instead of going down. The coefficient, often called the tabla de cocientes, measured points per match across multiple tournaments and was designed to smooth out a single terrible campaign.

Those Liga MX payments and the associated stabilization-fund mechanism no longer appear in the current top-flight rules. The coefficient calculation remains, but only as a statistic. That distinction matters when a television graphic or football app still displays the table: in 2026–27 it does not decide relegation and it does not trigger the former bottom-three charges.

The result is a sharper change than the suspension introduced in 2020. A club near the foot of the table can still face pressure from supporters, sponsors and ownership, yet there is no automatic sporting or league-imposed financial penalty attached to finishing in the bottom three. The competitive consequences now sit almost entirely at the other end of the table, where clubs chase playoff position, trophies and international qualification.

Why Promotion and Relegation Was Suspended in 2020

Liga MX and the Mexican Football Federation presented the 2020 suspension as a rescue for a second division in serious financial and administrative trouble. COVID-19 pushed the situation into an emergency, but the fault lines were visible earlier: low crowds, unpaid obligations, disappearing projects and champions that could not satisfy the requirements for promotion had already weakened the credibility of the pathway.

The financial rescue plan for the second division

The April 2020 decision replaced Ascenso MX with Liga de Expansión and paused movement between the top two levels for six seasons. Officials approved MXN 60 million to be divided among 12 second-tier clubs for immediate obligations, then described annual support of MXN 240 million, calculated as MXN 20 million for each participating incumbent club. The stated goal was to give clubs enough stability to pay players on time, strengthen their administration and work toward the standards required for top-flight football.

That funding was linked to the coefficient penalties paid by the worst Liga MX teams. The structure was an awkward compromise: the bottom clubs stayed up but financed the division whose champion could not replace them. Fans could still track the old points-per-match measure in the guide to Liga MX standings and the coefficient system, yet the table no longer delivered relegation.

It is tempting to reduce the story to the pandemic because the final vote arrived during the 2020 shutdown. That misses the chronology. Reform discussions and warnings about fragile second-tier finances were already circulating before play stopped. The health crisis damaged matchday income and made the intervention more urgent, but officials were responding to a longer-running problem with the business model.

Certification and unstable clubs had weakened the pathway

Promotion had also stopped being a simple reward for winning. A second-tier club needed an affiliation certificate proving that it met financial, ownership, infrastructure, youth-development and other requirements. Those safeguards had a reasonable purpose: Liga MX did not want a promoted side to arrive without a sustainable payroll, suitable stadium or complete football operation. In practice, too few contenders qualified, so a champion could celebrate a title and still be barred from the top flight.

The 2018 Cafetaleros case became the clearest warning. Cafetaleros de Tapachula won the second-tier competition but lacked the required certification. Lobos BUAP had finished in the relegation position, yet paid MXN 120 million to retain its Liga MX place. The money went to Cafetaleros, turning a sporting prize into compensation while the league lineup stayed effectively closed. Supporters were left asking why a promotion final existed if its winner could not be promoted.

Club instability added to the concern. Projects changed cities or ownership, salary security was uneven and the gap between top-flight revenue and the second division made long-term planning difficult. The 2020 plan tried to build a healthier base before reopening the route. Whether it achieved enough is fiercely debated, but the original rationale was broader than protecting one last-place Liga MX owner: administrators argued that promotion would mean little if the winning club could not survive after earning it.

What the CAS Decision Actually Settled

The Court of Arbitration for Sport settled one narrow dispute: the six-season suspension still covered 2025–26. It did not order Liga MX to restore promotion and relegation in 2026–27. That distinction is the key to understanding why headlines about a “return after 2026” did not become the rule fans see this season.

The six-season suspension included 2025–26

Second-tier clubs argued that the 2019–20 campaign should count as the first of the six suspended seasons. Under that reading, the freeze would have ended after 2024–25 and movement should have returned for 2025–26. The federation counted differently: because the April 2020 agreement referred to the following six seasons, the first was 2020–21 and the last was 2025–26.

CAS accepted the federation’s interpretation after reading the meeting records and the rescue package together. Discussions in early 2020 consistently described a project extending through 2026, and the annual second-tier subsidy was tied to six seasons without promotion. The tribunal also separated the cancelled 2019–20 competition from the later suspension. There was no promotion that spring because the season ended during the pandemic, not because the new six-year measure had already begun.

The operative ruling therefore confirmed 2025–26 as the final season affected by the 2020 agreement. It dismissed the clubs’ appeal for an immediate return during that campaign. That was a defeat for the specific claim in front of the panel, even though the end date also gave clubs a basis for expecting a fresh framework after the moratorium.

CAS did not order a 2026–27 return

The clubs also asked for a declaration that promotion and relegation must operate in 2026–27 under the old competition rules. CAS did not grant that request. The panel said the question went beyond the April 2025 federation decision being appealed, which dealt with the demand to restore movement in 2025–26. An appeal panel cannot expand the case to decide every connected issue that the original decision never addressed.

That is very different from ruling that a closed 2026–27 league is desirable or inevitable. CAS did not evaluate the new Article 35 on its merits because that rule had not been the subject of the appealed decision. It simply declined to write the following season’s format through that case.

For a supporter, the clean reading is simple: the court closed the argument about the old six-season clock, while the federation and league still had to make the next rule. The next rule is now Article 35, summarized at the start of this guide.

What a Closed 2026–27 Liga MX Means for Fans and Clubs

A closed Liga MX does not make every match meaningless, but it removes the league’s strongest consequence from the bottom of the table. The chase for Liguilla seeding, a championship and international qualification still creates real pressure. The club in last place, however, can begin the next season in the same division without paying the old coefficient fine.

The bottom of the table has lost its biggest consequence

For coaches and players, poor results still threaten jobs. For owners, a losing team can reduce ticket demand, sponsorship value and supporter trust. Those are meaningful consequences, but they are not the same as relegation. The sporting system itself no longer transfers a top-flight place from an underperforming club to an ambitious second-tier champion.

That changes how fans read the final weeks. In an open league, a match between the teams in 16th and 18th can carry the same emotional weight as a semifinal because survival is at stake. In 2026–27, the greatest formal rewards are concentrated around Liguilla qualification and the title. Once a struggling side cannot reach those goals, its remaining fixtures offer pride, development and preparation rather than survival.

The effect reaches Liga de Expansión as well. A strong season can still deliver a trophy, local excitement and visibility for players, but it cannot culminate in a place among Mexico’s 18 top-flight clubs. That limits the ultimate sporting promise available to supporters and investors below Liga MX.

Atlante returned through a franchise transaction, not promotion

Atlante’s 2026 comeback captures both the joy and the contradiction. The Potros de Hierro, one of Mexican football’s historic names, returned to Liga MX after 12 years away. Their supporters had every reason to celebrate. Yet the club did not arrive by winning a promotion place on the field.

Liga MX owners approved the transfer of Mazatlán FC’s franchise rights to Atlante. In practical terms, Atlante took the top-flight place through an authorized ownership and affiliation transaction. The league remained at 18 clubs, and no second-tier result triggered the change.

That distinction should not diminish Atlante’s identity or the work that kept the club alive outside the top flight. It does explain the central complaint about a closed system: a historic, well-supported club could find a route back through a transaction, while another champion with an excellent season has no equivalent sporting route. Club membership can still change, but access depends on approval and business structure rather than a published promotion contest.

What Must Happen Before Promotion and Relegation Can Return

Promotion and relegation will return only when Mexican football publishes a new, binding pathway that connects results in both divisions. The expiration of the 2020 suspension was not an automatic switch. Article 35 replaced that temporary arrangement with a current rule that blocks movement, so another formal rule change is now required.

Both divisions need a new binding competition framework

A credible framework must answer basic sporting questions before the season begins. How many clubs go up and down? Does the Liga de Expansión champion earn direct promotion, or is there a Campeón de Campeones series between Apertura and Clausura winners? Is Liga MX relegation decided by one annual table, a multi-season coefficient or a playoff? What happens to the number of teams if a promoted club is ineligible?

Those details cannot be left to a decision after the trophy is won. Clubs need them to set budgets, sign players and sell supporters a competition with clear stakes. Fans need to know that a victory in April means the same thing it meant when the season started. The rules for Liga MX and Liga de Expansión must also fit together; an open door in one document is useless if the other one keeps it locked.

Timing matters as much as wording. A rule change should be published well before the relevant Liga MX calendar begins, with a transition plan for the coefficient record and league size. Nothing officially published for 2026–27 supplies that route.

Club standards must support a real sporting prize

Entry standards are not inherently an enemy of promotion. A promoted club must be able to pay its squad, stage safe matches, meet broadcast and stadium needs and operate the wider football structure expected in the top division. Earlier certification programs examined financial history, a multi-year business plan, infrastructure, ownership, youth development and women’s football. The problem comes when standards are unclear, change late or leave too few clubs eligible for the title to carry a genuine prize.

An older proposal said promotion could reopen when at least four Liga de Expansión clubs were certified and a certified team won the Campeón de Campeones. That statement belongs to the previous framework; it is not a live shortcut around Article 35. Any future version needs fresh publication, transparent assessment dates and enough lead time for clubs to correct shortcomings.

Until those two certainties meet, supporters should treat talk of a return as a proposal rather than a fixture-list fact. The fairest test is simple: before the season starts, can every club and fan explain exactly what a champion wins and what the bottom Liga MX side risks? In 2026–27, the answer remains no promotion and no relegation.