The Comisión de Árbitros published its official referee designations for Jornada 11 of the Apertura 2026 on October 7, and two of the most discussed names in Mexican officiating are missing from the list. Neither Katia Itzel García nor César Ramos was assigned to any of the weekend’s nine matches, days after both found themselves at the center of separate controversies. Marco Antonio Ortiz Nava will officiate Saturday’s Clásico Tapatío between Atlas and Chivas de Guadalajara.
The nine assignments
Friday, October 9: Puebla vs León (Jorge Abraham Camacho Peregrina) and Tigres UANL vs Toluca (Daniel Quintero Huitrón). Saturday, October 10: FC Juárez vs Tijuana (Jesús Rafael López Valle), Querétaro vs Atlante (Joaquín Alberto Vizcarra Armenta), Atlas vs Chivas de Guadalajara (Marco Antonio Ortiz Nava) and Club América vs Monterrey (Óscar Mejía García). Sunday, October 11: Atlético de San Luis vs Santos Laguna (Fernando Hernández Gómez), Pachuca vs Necaxa (Maximiliano Quintero Hernández) and Pumas UNAM vs Cruz Azul (Ismael Rosario López Peñuelas).
The Comisión offered no explanation for either absence.
Why the absences stand out
García was the referee for Toluca vs Cruz Azul. Her official match report omitted the incident involving Willer Ditta, and the Disciplinary Commission subsequently cleared Ditta and issued Mohamed only a warning, unable to act on an incident absent from the referee’s report.
Ramos, a three-time World Cup referee, officiated an amateur exhibition known as the Clásico de la Talacha on October 3. The match ended in a brawl that forced Ramos to take shelter in the locker rooms, and the decision to authorize a top-flight referee for the event drew sharp public criticism, including from former Comisión de Árbitros president Arturo Brizio.
Context matters here. Ramos worked two J1 League matches in Japan in September, so his absence from the Jornada 11 list may have a neutral explanation. And the Comisión has announced no sanction against either referee. Any reading of the omissions as punishment is speculation, not an official decision.
What comes next
Jornada 11 runs from October 9 to October 11, headlined by the Clásico Tapatío on Saturday and Pumas UNAM vs Cruz Azul on Sunday. If the Comisión addresses either omission, this article will be updated.
