Liga MX 2020/21
The 2020/21 season of the Mexican soccer league MX began on Friday, July 24th, 2020 with the match between Club Necaxa and UANL Tigres . The French striker André-Pierre Gignac scored the first goal of the season to lead the Tigres 0-1 in the 13th minute and later also made it 3-0 in the 78th minute. Before the start of the opening game, which was played without a spectator, the many victims of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico were remembered. The Apertura 2020, the first round tournament with the official name Guard1anes 2020 , will end in December 2020 with the not yet finally terminated finals.
Changes
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic , which increasingly affected Mexico in March 2020 , the preseason was canceled prematurely after just 10 match days. The 10th and last matchday was played completely without spectators and the new season will also start without spectators.
The league not only used the premature termination of the preseason to get by without promotions and relegations during the current season change, but also suspended the automatic promotion and relegation between the first and second league for the next 6 years.
At the same time, it changed the format of the league insofar as in future only the 4 best-placed teams from the league round will qualify for the final round, which is held in the play-off process. Places 5 to 12 qualify for a new preliminary qualification round, in which the team in 5th place receives the team in 12th place, 6th place 11th and so on. In only one match each, which is decided on penalties if necessary , the other 4 final round participants are determined, who compete in the usual way from the quarter-finals onwards and backwards.
Due to the lack of promoters and relegators, there is no sport-related change in the teams. Nevertheless, with the Monarcas Morelia, a traditional team is eliminated from the league, which has spent a total of 50 years in the top division and has been continuously represented in the first division for the past 39 years (since the 1981/82 season ). After the sale of their franchise , Mazatlán FC formed a new team that will bring top division football to the baseball city of Mazatlán for the first time in the 2020/21 season .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Apertura 2020 at Soccerway
- ↑ Necaxa vs. Tigres UANL at Soccerway
- ↑ Resumen y goles | Necaxa 0-3 Tigres on YouTube (Spanish)
- ↑ Apertura 2020 schedule (Spanish; PDF file)
- ↑ a b Tom Marshall (ESPN): Liga MX sets July dates for Apertura 2020 with expanded playoffs (English; article from June 10, 2020)
- ↑ Conoce un poco del Mazatlán FC, el nuevo equipo de la Liga MX (Spanish; article from June 2, 2020)