The Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) will hear the appeal brought by five Liga de Expansion MX clubs against the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) and Liga MX over the abolition of promotion and relegation on November 18 and 19, 2026, according to the tribunal’s official list of hearings. The hearing will take place in Mexico City.
The case, registered as TAS 2026/A/12590, names Club Universidad de Guadalajara (Leones Negros), Club Atletico La Paz, Club Atletico Morelia, Cancun FC and Mineros de Zacatecas as the appellants, with the FMF and Liga MX as the respondents.
Leones Negros president Alberto Castellanos confirmed the schedule on X on Thursday. “At last, today the TAS hearing dates were published. It will be November 18 and 19 in Mexico City,” he wrote.
TAS confirmed the appeal on August 14, 2026. It challenges the FMF Executive Committee decision written into Article 35 of the 2026-27 competition regulations, under which Liga MX clubs will not be relegated and Expansion clubs will not be promoted.
The federation announced the abolition on July 15, 2026, leaving the purchase of an existing franchise as the only route into the top flight, the path Atlante took in returning this season through the Mazatlan FC franchise.
Promotion and relegation has been suspended since 2020, when the FMF halted the system during the Covid-19 pandemic. An earlier TAS case brought by six Expansion clubs ended in September 2025, with the tribunal upholding the suspension through the 2025-26 season. That outcome left the system set to return in 2026-27, the return the federation then cancelled.
The dispute has already reached the field. Players staged brief protests at the start of the Apertura 2026 season, standing still for the opening minute of matches, and fines the FMF imposed on clubs over the protests were revoked by its Appeals Commission in August.
Two further challenges run in parallel: a Senate initiative presented on September 23, 2026, that would restore promotion and relegation by law, and a fan-led lawsuit with a constitutional hearing set for November 3, 2026.
TAS has not said when it will rule after the hearing, and its hearings are not open to the public unless the parties agree otherwise.
A ruling for the clubs would force the FMF to restore sporting mobility for 2026-27. A ruling against them would lock in the closed model, with a place in Liga MX available only through a franchise purchase.
Neither the FMF nor Liga MX had commented publicly on the hearing dates as of Thursday afternoon. FutnSoccer will update this story when the ruling lands.
