Liga MX

Liga MX is contested by 18 clubs each season. The competition is normally split into two short tournaments per year — the Apertura in the second half of the year and the Clausura in the first half of the following year. Each tournament features a 17-match regular-season phase, where clubs each play the others once, followed by the postseason Liguilla. The two tournaments are independent — each crowns its own champions, and Mexico has two Liga MX champions every calendar year.

Mexico's national professional top division dates back to 1943, when it was launched as the Liga Mayor. The competition was renamed the Primera División de México in 1949 and rebranded to Liga MX in 2012. The short-tournament system began in 1996, initially using the Invierno and Verano names, before the current Apertura and Clausura names were adopted from 2002. The format is widely used across Latin America and gives Mexican football a different rhythm from the single long-season model used in many European leagues.

Each Apertura and Clausura tournament begins with a 17-match regular-season phase. All 18 clubs play each other once during the regular season, with three points awarded for a win and one for a draw. The fixture list is not a standard home-and-away league season; instead, the split calendar means clubs play short campaigns with separate tables, separate knockout stages, and separate champions.

After the regular phase, leading clubs progress to the Liguilla. In recent seasons, the exact route into the Liguilla has changed: some tournaments used a Play-In round for clubs placed seventh to tenth, while the Clausura 2026 tournament returned to a top-eight Liguilla without a Play-In. From the quarter-finals onwards, the Liguilla is played over two-legged ties, including a two-legged final. The Liguilla winners are crowned as the tournament champions.

Liga MX has traditionally used a multi-season averaged points-per-game system to decide relegation, similar to the Argentine system. Under that model, the club with the lowest averaged ratio across the previous six short tournaments are relegated.

Promotion and relegation between Liga MX and the second-tier Liga de Expansión MX were suspended from 2020 through the end of the 2025-26 season. The decision was originally made during the financial disruption of the COVID-19 period. Promotion and relegation are set to return from 2026-27, confirmed by a 2025 Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling, though the exact requirements depend on league rules and club certification.

The calendar split makes the Liga MX season structure distinct from European leagues — Mexican clubs effectively run two short tournaments per football year, with separate champions for each.

Liga MX normally receives six places in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, the region's top continental club competition. Qualification is based on the Apertura and Clausura winners and runners-up, with places adjusted through the aggregate annual table when a club qualify more than once. Liga MX has been one of the strongest leagues in CONCACAF across the modern era: Mexican clubs won 16 consecutive titles in CONCACAF's top club competition from 2006 to 2021, before Seattle Sounders ended that run in 2022.

The Leagues Cup, run jointly with MLS each summer, provides another qualifying route. Its top three finishers qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, with the Leagues Cup winners entering directly at a later stage. Recent editions have been scheduled during the summer, around the early part of the Apertura window, rather than between the Apertura and Clausura tournaments.

Mexican football turned professional in 1943 with the launch of the Liga Mayor, the country's first professional national league. The competition was contested by clubs from Mexico City, Jalisco and Veracruz, with Asturias winning the inaugural 1943-44 season. The competition was renamed the Primera División de México in 1949 and expanded across the following decades as Mexican football grew. Chivas Guadalajara dominated the 1960s, winning seven titles in eight seasons.

The short-tournament system began in 1996, replacing the older single-annual-championship model. The first short tournaments were called Invierno and Verano, with the Apertura and Clausura names adopted from 2002. The change was inspired by similar two-tournament formats in Latin American football and also increased the number of title races and high-profile finals. The competition was rebranded as Liga MX in 2012. In the modern era, Club América have reinforced their place as Mexico's most successful league club, while Toluca, Tigres, Monterrey, Pachuca, Cruz Azul, and others have helped make the short-tournament period more competitive.