The Mexican Senate’s push to write promotion and relegation into federal law is gathering real momentum. The initiative presented in the Senate on September 23 now has the backing of a majority of senators across party lines, according to legislative sources, though no date has been set for committee discussion or a floor vote.
What happened
The proposal was presented in the Senate by Senator Clemente Castañeda, coordinator of Movimiento Ciudadano. It would reform article 50 of the Ley General de Cultura Física y Deporte to make sporting merit a guiding principle for national sports associations and to require any professional structure with two or more divisions to maintain a permanent promotion and relegation mechanism covering every division, without exception.
Under the initiative, sporting merit would become the principal criterion for deciding which clubs ascend, descend, or remain in a category, and the rules governing those decisions would have to be public, objective, clear, and unchangeable during their term. Federations could still set sporting, administrative, financial, infrastructure, and security requirements, as long as those conditions are objective, reasonable, and proportional.
The initiative is not limited to football. It would apply to every professional sport in Mexico organized in two or more divisions.
The initiative arrived in the Senate with the signatures of legislators from five of the six parliamentary groups, including Senate president Higinio Martínez. Since its presentation, support has grown to a majority of the chamber, with backing from senators of different political forces. No committee review or floor vote has been scheduled yet.
Status and what changed since September 22
When FutnSoccer covered this story on September 22, the initiative had only been announced at the Senate’s “Fuera de Lugar” forum and had not yet been formally presented. It was formally presented to the Senate on September 23 and turned to the legislative process.
Claims circulating that the Senate has already approved the measure are incorrect. The initiative has only been presented. Nothing has been voted on, and no approval has taken place. The material development since the presentation is the breadth of support: what began with signatures from five parliamentary groups now has majority backing across party lines in the upper chamber.
The backdrop is the decision by the Mexican Football Federation to suspend promotion and relegation in 2020 during the pandemic as a temporary measure. That suspension was later made permanent, and the current competition regulations state that Liga MX clubs do not descend and Liga de Expansión clubs do not ascend on sporting merit.
What comes next
The initiative must go through committee review before any discussion and vote in the Senate. No dates have been announced for either step. If the reform is approved and published, federations would have 90 days to adapt their regulations, which would reopen sporting movement between Liga MX and the Liga de Expansión.
Why this is good for Liga MX
A closed league rewards mediocrity. When nothing is at stake at the bottom of the table, clubs can drift through the final weeks of a tournament with nothing to play for, and fans can feel it in the stands and on the screen. A real promotion and relegation system ends that. Every point matters when the last place goes down.
That is the part that should excite supporters the most. A team sitting at the bottom of the table in Jornada 16 would no longer be playing out the string. It would be fighting for its place in the first division, and its opponent would be fighting to send it down or to climb away from danger. Those games become events instead of formalities.
The effect runs in both directions. Clubs in the lower divisions would finally have a genuine reason to build, invest, and play better, because the prize at the end of a great season would be real: a place in Liga MX earned on the field. Young players across the country would have more paths upward, and more cities would have a reason to dream.
None of this is law yet, and the legislative road is still long. But the principle behind the bill is simple and worth supporting. When results on the pitch decide who goes up and who goes down, the football gets better. Better for the sport, better for the fans.
Previously: FutnSoccer covered the initiative when it was announced on September 22.
