Overview

• Eight Liga de Expansión MX teams—Atlético Morelia, Cancún, La Paz, Leones Negros, Venados, Tepatitlán, Alebrijes and Mineros—issued a joint statement on July 22 announcing they will no longer participate in the FMF’s certification process for promotion.
• They accuse the federation’s certification model of functioning as a lock rather than a merit-based filter by imposing opaque technical, financial and sporting benchmarks.
• The clubs highlight the absence of appeal mechanisms, discretionary application of rules and a Certification Committee that missed its 2024 meeting and again delayed its 2025 session until after the season had begun.
• Seven other expansion teams—Tlaxcala, Irapuato and Tampico Madero as invited clubs, Dorados and Tapatío under multiproperty restrictions, and Cimarrones and Celaya frozen by league decision—remain structurally ineligible for certification.
• The eight clubs have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to challenge the FMF’s certification criteria and seek reinstatement of automatic promotion.