Primera División de México
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Primera División de México | |
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 Mexican First Division Clausura 2007 |
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| Sport | Football |
| Founded | 1943 |
| Inaugural season | 1943 |
| No. of teams | 18 |
| Country |  Mexico |
| Current champions | Guadalajara |
| Official website | femexfut.org.mx |
La Primera División del Futbol Méxicano is the premier football championship established by the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (F.M.F.) in the Mexican League System. The league currently consists of eighteen teams. The First Division is a successor of the Liga Mayor that was established in 1943.
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[edit] Amateur era
Prior to the Liga Mayor, football was disputed within geographical regions. The winners of the Primera Fuerza, a local league consisting of teams near and around Mexico City, were considered national champions. There were other regional leagues such as the Liga Veracruzana, Liga Occidental and Liga del Bajío that also had notable clubs. Many club owners were not keen on the idea of establishing a professional league, despite paying players under the table. With the increasing demand of football, there was a sense of urgency to unite all the local amateur leagues in Mexico to progress as a footballing nation. The national league was finally established in 1943.
[edit] Professional era
When the F.M.F. announced the formation of the nation's first professional league, many clubs petitioned to join the newly formed league. The F.M.F. announced that ten clubs would form the Liga Mayor. The first members of the league were founded by six clubs of the Primera Fuerza of Mexico City, two clubs from the Liga Occidental (Western League) and two members from the Liga Veracruzana (Veracruz League).
[edit] Founding members
- Primera Fuerza: América, Asturias, Atlante, España, Marte and Moctezuma
- Liga Occidental: Atlas and Guadalajara
- Liga Veracruzana: A.D. Orizabeño and Veracruz
Expansion was evident as popularity increased. This popularity led to the league expanding the number of team participating. The F.M.F. changed the name of the Liga Mayor in 1950 to Primera División and established the Segunda División (Second Division).
[edit] Reformation
Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, many small clubs faced economic difficulties which were attributed to the lack of international competition by Mexican clubs and an unrewarding league format. As a result of the difficulties suffered by smaller teams, financially affluent Deportivo Guadalajara was able to capture 8 championships within a relatively short time span. Mexican clubs who placed relatively high in the league standings did not have the luxury to participate in prestigious international tournaments (such as the Copa Libertadores or the UEFA Champions League) as many South American and European clubs did. The F.M.F. knew they had to act to regenerate interest to save many of the smaller clubs from bankruptcy and recruit new investors. The F.M.F., along with affluent club owners, were able to attract key investors. As a result, the F.M.F was in a position to host the FIFA World Cup.
[edit] The Mexican League Boom
The 1970 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico was the first World Cup televised on a grand scale. For that one summer, the world looked to Mexico. This set a trend in marketing, recruitment and development. The new stadiums practice facilities built for the World Cup set a path for future events to come. Prior to the World Cup, the Liga Mayor awarded the team with the most points as national champions. The season following the FIFA World Cup, the F.M.F. changed the league format and established a playoff phase to determine the national champion. This was done to regenerate interest and reward teams that placed fairly high in the standings.
[edit] The Playoffs
The birth of the playoffs modernized the league despite the disagreements between the tradionalist and the modernist. Clubs that were near bankruptcy now were able to compete and generate profits. The playoffs have evolved since their inception. Today the 18 teams are divided into 3 groups, with the top teams from each group qualifying for a playoff phase called Liguilla. This playoff phase starts with 8 teams and is played in the "tie" format in two-leg aggregate-score, similar to the quarterfinals and semifinals of the UEFA Champions League.
In 1996, the league decided to split the season into two championships. This measure was done to generate additional revenues to finance the F.M.F.'s lower divisions. The league holds two tournaments per year, first called invierno (winter) and verano (summer), now changed to apertura (opening - running from August to December) and clausura (closing - running from January to May). The change was done to correspond with FIFA's world footballing calendar, which "opens" in July/August and "closes" in April/May of the next year. In total, there is about ten months of action throughout the footballing world, thus in the case of Mexico, Argentina and other countries in South America, a new champion is crowned about every five months, totalling two crowned champions per year. In Europe, the tournament is played as one single championship throughout the year, yielding only one champion per year.
At the end of a season, after the apertura and clausura tournaments, one team is relegated to the next lower division, Primera División A, and one team from that division is promoted and takes the place left open by the relegated team. Currently, the relegated team is determined by computing the points-per-game-played ratio for each team, considering all the games played by the team during the last three seasons (six tournaments). The team with the lower ratio is relegated. For teams recently promoted, only the games played since their promotion are considered (two or four tournaments). The team promoted from Primera Division A is the winner of a two-leg match between the champions of the apertura and clausura tournaments of that division. If a team becomes the champion in both tournaments, it is automatically promoted.
[edit] Current teams
[edit] Television
The teams of the Primera, like those of Serie A in Italy have the right to sell their own broadcast rights. What this means in practice is that the league is effectively divided between teams broadcast on Televisa and others broadcast on TV Azteca. The matches of the Televisa teams are shown primarily on Galavisión Saturday afternoons and evenings, with the "big match" shown Sundays on Canal de las Estrellas. All of Television Azteca's matches are on Azteca 13 on Saturday or Sunday afternoons.
The clubs are divided as follows:
Televisa teams:
Television Azteca's teams are:
[edit] Unusual aspects
One unusual aspect of the Primera is that one entity may own more than one team. In fact, the owners of Televisa own three of them: America, Necaxa, and San Luis.
Also, the teams operate on a franchise basis - that is, they pay a fee to the league for the right to operate exclusively in one area. This means that teams may buy and sell spots in the Primera and Primera División A. In fact this has been done on several occasions, most notably by Veracruz.
[edit] Champions
- Further information: Mexican football champions
| Champions | ||||
| Team | Championships | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guadalajara | 11 | |||
| América | 10 | |||
| Cruz Azul, Toluca | 8 | |||
| León, U.N.A.M. | 5 | |||
| Pachuca | 4 | |||
| Necaxa | 3 | |||
| Atlante, Monterrey, Puebla, Santos, UANL, Veracruz, Zacatepec | 2 | |||
| Asturias, Atlas, España, Marte, Morelia, Oro, Tampico, UAG | 1 | |||
[edit] Top Scorers
| All-Time Leading Scorers | ||||
| Rank | Player | Goals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st |  Evanivaldo Castro |
312 Goals | ||
| 2nd | Carlos Hermosillo |
296 Goals | ||
| 3rd |  Jose Cardozo |
249 Goals | ||
| 4th | Jared Borgetti |
226 Goals | ||
| 5th |  Osvaldo Castro |
214 Goals | ||
| 6th | Luis Alves "Zague" |
209 Goals | ||
| 7th | Carlos Perucci |
197 Goals | ||
| 8th | Adalberto Lopez |
196 Goals | ||
| 9th | Sergio Lira |
195 Goals | ||
| 10th | Ricardo Pelaez |
187 Goals | ||
- Further information: Mexican football champions
The Brazilian player Evanivaldo Castro "Cabinho" is the top goalscorer in the Mexican league with 312 goals. Cabinho won eight times the top scorer title (4 with UNAM Pumas and 4 with Atlante.
Jared Borgetti is the best goalscorer still active, with 226 goals. He returned to the Mexican League for the Apertura 2007 Tournament.
[edit] External links
- Official League Website (in Spanish)
- Mexican League Top Goalscorers, Season by Season (in Spanish)
- Spanish Soccer Glossary
| Primera División de México, Apertura 2006 & Clausura 2007 | ||
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Group 1 |
Group 2 |
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| League Levels | ||
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Primera División de México | Primera División A | Segunda División | Tercera División |
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| Miscellaneous | ||
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List of champions | El Clásico (Regiomontano) | InterLiga | SuperLiga |
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