Primera División 'A' (Mexico)

The Primera División "A" was the second highest division in Mexican club football for 15 years. It was held for the first time in the 1994/95 season and replaced in its capacity as the second highest division the previous Segunda División , which has existed since 1950/51 and with the introduction of the Primera División "A" was downgraded to the third division. Since the 2009/10 season, the second division has been called the Liga de Ascenso . This league is the official legal successor of the Primera División "A".

History of the Primera División "A"

The Primera División "A" was created in the summer of 1994 when a consortium formed for this purpose - consisting of 15 clubs and supported by the FMF , the Mexican Football Association - acquired the license of the financially troubled first division club Universidad de Guadalajara for a new division to create between first and second division. This “intermediate” league, which has been called Primera División “A” since it was founded, should, through its misleading naming, suggest from a sporting point of view that the teams participating in it are, so to speak, “extended first division”. A pure eyewash, which rather served to sell off licenses. Because this type of license transfers was already common in the Primera División at that time and gave the Football Association of Mexico a profitable source of income, which guaranteed additional income through the creation of another full professional league, disguised as Primera División "A".

The founding members

The 15 founding clubs of the new league were (in order of their sporting performance in the opening season): Atlético Celaya , CF Pachuca , Atlético San Francisco , Real San Luis , Inter de Tijuana , CD Irapuato , CD Marte , UA Querétaro , CF La Piedad , CD Acapulco , CD Zacatepec , Atlético Yucatán , CD Coras de Tepic , Gallos de Aguascalientes and Caimanes de Tabasco .

Constant sizes

In the 15 seasons of its existence under the designation as Primera División "A" (from 1994/95 to 2008/09) more than 80 clubs participated in the league. Very few of them appeared or disappeared for sporting reasons. Rather, the league has been dominated by countless and barely manageable license shifts, renaming and relocations almost from the beginning. Few clubs were able to prove to be permanent fixtures in this mess. The longest were there:

society	Years	Playing times	Notes / recent changes
UAT Correcaminos	14th	1995 / 96-2008 / 09	sporting relegation from the 1st division
Atlético Mexiquense	12	1997 / 98-2008 / 09	Deportivo Toluca farm team
Cruz Azul Hidalgo	11	1995 / 96–2002 / 03, 2006 / 07–2008 / 09	Cruz Azul's farm team
Alacranes de Durango	10	1999 / 00–2008 / 09	athletic promotion from the 3rd division
CD Zacatepec	9.5	1994 / 95-2003 / 04	played Cla 03/04 under a new name, then retired
Club San Luis	9	1994 / 95-2001 / 02, 2004/05	athletic promotion to the 1st division
CD Irapuato	9	1994 / 95–1999 / 00, 02/03, 05/06, 08/09	played in the meantime in the 1st and 3rd league
Querétaro Fútbol Club	9	1997 / 98–2001 / 02, 04 / 05-05 / 06, 07 / 08-08 / 09	sporting relegation from the 1st division
Atlético Yucatán	8th	1994 / 95-2000 / 01, 2002/03	disappeared twice through license sales
Tampico-Madero FC	8th	1995 / 96–1997 / 98, 01/02, 05 / 06-08 / 09	Withdrawal and return through license sales
CF La Piedad	7.5	1994 / 95-2000 / 01, Ape 2002/03	disappeared through license sale to the Celaya Fútbol Club
Real Sociedad de Zacatecas	7th	1996 / 97-2002 / 03	Withdrawal at the end of the 2002/03 season

The mode

The league began in 1994/95 with 15 clubs and grew to 21 clubs by 1997/98. Between 1998/99 and 2005/06 the league was played with 20 teams each. Until then, each team had played twice (once at home and once away) against each other. In the 2006/07 and 2007/08 seasons the league consisted of 24 teams, which were divided into two groups according to regional criteria. In this mode, each team played twice (once at home and once away) against every other team from the same group and once (either at home or away) against the teams from the other group. The increase was due to a decision by the FMF , the Mexican Football Association, according to which since the 2006/07 season every first division team has to maintain a farm team in the second division.

Before the start of the 2008/09 season, the league was once again subjected to profound changes and increased again. At that time it consisted of a total of 27 teams, which were divided into three groups and whose composition changed during the winter break. This means that the Apertura groups were not identical to the Clausura groups. Details can be found in the section below for the 2008/09 season. The teams in a group played each half round (Apertura and Clausura) back and forth games against each other. Encounters with the teams from the other two groups did not take place before the promotion playoffs, for which the best eight teams qualified: the two best-placed teams from the three groups and the two teams with the best points behind them (i.e. either the two best group thirds or even a fourth in the group if he could score more points than the other two thirds in the group).

Analogous to the changes in the top division, two championships have been held each year since the 1996/97 season. The winners of the two competitions played off the promoted team at the end of the season. It should be noted that in the end only clubs certified by the association were eligible for promotion. If a non-certified club had achieved promotion in a sporting way, it would not have been allowed to take advantage of it and instead would have received a prize. In this case, the actual relegated from the Primera División would have had to play two playoffs against the top-ranked certified team of the Primera División “A” (determined using the annual table). If the first division side won, there would have been no promoted or relegated team, and if the second division won, the two clubs would have swapped their league affiliations.

In contrast to the regulated promotion rules, relegation always hit the team with the worst three-year record.

The previous champions of the Primera División "A"

Since 1996/97, two championships have been played per season and two separate winners (Apertura and Clausura) have been determined. If a team won both tournaments, it was automatically the overall winner and entitled to promotion to the Primera División . If there were two different winners, at the end of the season they played the promotion finals in a round trip.

season	Master / overall winner	Master Apertura	Master Clausura
1994/95	Atlético Celaya	-	-
1995/96	CF Pachuca	-	-
1996/97	UANL Tigres	UANL Tigres	UANL Tigres
1997/98	CF Pachuca	CF Pachuca	Tigrillos de la UNL
1998/99	Unión de Curtidores	Atlético Yucatán	Unión de Curtidores
1999/00	CD Irapuato	CD Irapuato	CD Irapuato
2000/01	CF La Piedad	Aguascalientes	CF La Piedad
2001/02	Club San Luis	CD Veracruz	Club San Luis
2002/03	CD Irapuato	CD Irapuato	Club León
2003/04	Dorados de Sinaloa	Dorados de Sinaloa	Club León
2004/05	Club San Luis	Club San Luis	Querétaro FC
2005/06	Querétaro FC	Puebla FC	Querétaro FC
2006/07	Puebla FC	Puebla FC	Dorados de Sinaloa
2007/08	Indios Cd. Juarez	Indios Cd. Juarez	Club León
2008/09	Querétaro FC	Querétaro FC	Mérida FC

The participants in the 2008/09 season

In the 2008/09 season, the league consisted of 27 teams, which were divided into three groups. The division of the groups was changed during the winter break. H. the composition of the groups in the aperture was not identical to the composition in the clausura.

In the Apertura, the composition was determined according to regional factors: in group 1 there were teams from the western regions of the country, group 2 housed the teams from the north and Socio Águila (a farm team of Club America ) from the capital and group 3 the teams from the south and east of the country as well as from the capital region (except the capital itself). The group classification below gives a detailed overview of the composition of the groups in the Apertura 2008.

In the second half of the season (Clausura) the groups were composed as follows.

• one group consisted of Académicos Guadajalara, Alacranes de Durango, Albinegros de Orizaba (the only new team to replace the Tiburones Rojos Coatzacoalcos team), Cruz Azul Hidalgo, Jaguares de Tapachula, Lobos BUAP, Rayados de Monterrey 1A, Tecos UAG 1A and Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente;
• one group consisted of Indios de Chihuahua, Irapuato, Mérida FC, Petroleros Salamanca, Potros Chetumal, Querétaro, Real Colima, Santos Laguna 1A and Socio Águila;
• one group consisted of Atlético Mexiquense, Dorados de Sinaloa, León, Pumas Morelos, Tampico-Madero, CD Tapatío, UANL-Tigres B, UAT Correcaminos and CD Veracruz.

In contrast to the mixed group membership in the Clausura 2009, the composition of the groups in the Apertura 2008 was determined according to regional aspects:

Group 1

society	place	State	Farm team from	Promotion Certificate
Académicos	Guadalajara	Jalisco	CF Atlas	No
Dorados	Culiacan	Sinaloa	Necaxa	Yes
CD Irapuato	Irapuato	Guanajuato	independent	Yes
Club León	Leon	Guanajuato	independent	Yes
Petroleros	Salamanca	Guanajuato	Club San Luis	No
Real Colima	Colima	Colima	independent	No
CD Tapatío	Guadalajara	Jalisco	CD Guadalajara	No
Tecos UAG 1A	Zapopan	Jalisco	UAG Tecos	No
Club Tijuana	Tijuana	Baja California	independent	Yes

Group 2

society	place	State	Farm team from	Promotion Certificate
Alacranes	Victoria de Durango	Durango	independent	Yes
Indians de Chihuahua	Chihuahua	Chihuahua	Indios Cd. Juarez	No
Querétaro FC	Santiago de Querétaro	Querétaro	independent	Yes
Rayados 1A	Monterrey	Nuevo León	CF Monterrey	No
Santos Laguna 1A	Torreón	Coahuila	Santos Laguna	Yes
Socio Águila FC	Mexico city	Mexico city	Club America	No
Tampico-Madero FC	Tampico	Tamaulipas	independent	No
Tigres B	San Nicolás	Nuevo León	UANL Tigres	No
UAT Correcaminos	Ciudad Victoria	Tamaulipas	independent	Yes

Group 3

society	place	State	Farm team from	Promotion Certificate
Atlético Mexiquense	Toluca de Lerdo 1	México	Deportivo Toluca	Yes
Cruz Azul Hidalgo	Ciudad Cooperativa 2	Hidalgo	CD Cruz Azul	Yes
Jaguares de Chiapas 1A	Tuxtla Gutiérrez	Chiapas	Jaguares de Chiapas	No
Lobos BUAP	Puebla	Puebla	Puebla FC	Yes
Mérida FC	Merida	Yucatan	Monarcas Morelia	Yes
Potros Chetumal	Chetumal	Quintana Roo	CF Atlante	No
Pumas Morelos	Cuernavaca	Morelos	UNAM Pumas	No
Tiburones Rojos	Coatzacoalcos	Veracruz	CF Pachuca	No
CD Veracruz	Veracruz	Veracruz	independent	Yes

Remarks:

1 Atlético Mexiquense occasionally plays its home games in Ixtapan de la Sal , around 60 kilometers south of Toluca , in order to attract more spectators. 2 Ciudad Cooperativa, the former Jasso, is the original home of the CD Cruz Azul, which is now based in Mexico City and is one of the four most popular clubs in the country.

See also

• Primera División 'A' (Mexico) / Statistics
• List of Mexican second division football clubs
• Football in Mexico - Here you can find more information on some second division clubs that don't have separate articles.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ rsssf.com ( Memento of March 7, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) - see note at the end of the 1993/94 season
2. ↑ List of all license postponements up to the 2006/07 season
3. ↑ senorgol.nu ( Memento from March 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ Mexico (Second Level) 2008/09. on rsssf.com
5. ↑ Proof of the group division of the Clausura 2009 ( Memento from March 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ Proof of certified and non-certified clubs ( Memento from June 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive )