Mexican football league system

The Mexican football league system is the national football competition system in Mexico. It is organized by the Mexican Football Federation and consists of four levels - it could be argued that there are five levels.

Liga MX

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 to 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 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 kicks from the penalty mark.

League system

A league system is a hierarchy of leagues in a sport, usually with a system of promotion and relegation between consecutive levels of the hierarchy. They are often called pyramids due to their tendency to split into an increasing number of regional divisions the further down the pyramid one descends. League systems are used in a number of sports, especially association football, rugby league and rugby union.

In North America, a similar league system exists, but without promotion or relegation. Most professional sports are divided into major and minor leagues. While baseball and association football (known as soccer in North America) have well-defined pyramid shapes to their minor league hierarchies, ice hockey's professional minor league system is linear, with one league at most of the four levels of the game. Basketball follows a roughly inverted-T-shaped three-level system.

Gridiron football does not operate on a league system, in part because of that sport's reliance on amateur college football for development of future players (other North American sports also recruit players from colleges and universities, but it is far more pervasive in professional football) and in part because the expense and injury risk of the game makes maintaining a minor football league impractical. The indoor American football system can be seen as an informal league system, but there are widespread differences between the indoor and outdoor forms of the game.

The Football League

The Football League is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football. It was the top-level football league in England from its foundation in the 19th century until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form the Premier League. The Football League has been associated with a title sponsor since 1983. As this sponsor has changed over the years the league too has been known by various names.

Since 1995 it has had 72 clubs evenly divided into three divisions, which are known as the Championship, League One, and League Two, with 24 clubs in each division. Promotion and relegation between these divisions is a central feature of the League and is further extended to allow the top Championship clubs to exchange places with the lowest-placed clubs in the Premier League, and the bottom clubs of League Two to switch with the top clubs of the National League, thus integrating the League into the English football league system. Although primarily a competition for English clubs, clubs from Wales, Newport County, Cardiff City and Swansea City, also take part, while in the past Wrexham, Merthyr Town and Aberdare Athletic have been members.

Mexican

Mexican may refer to:

See also

Liga

Liga or LIGA can refer to:

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