Primera Fuerza

This is what the “stadiums” looked like in the pioneering days of football in Mexico. The picture shows the first football field of the Reforma Athletic Club (around 1900)

The Primera Fuerza was from 1902 to 1943 the highest Mexican league in football . Before the introduction of the professional league ( Primera División ) in the 1943/44 season, the Mexican football championship (between 1902/03 and 1942/43) was held on an amateur basis. In this tournament, which was called Primera Fuerza , the following teams took part - in alphabetical order:

All Primera Fuerza teams in alphabetical order

team	Playing times	master
America 1	1917 / 18-1942 / 43	1925, 1926, 1927, 1928
Amicale Française 9	1913/14, 1920/21	---
Asturias	1919 / 20-1942 / 43	1923, 1939
Atlante	1927 / 28-1942 / 43	1932, 1941
Atlas	1921	---
Aurrerá	1923 / 24-1928 / 29	---
British Club 2	1902 / 03-1912 / 13	1908
Deportivo Español 3	1915 / 16-1919 / 20	---
Dep. Internacional	1920/21	---
España	1912 / 13-1929 / 30 1932 / 33-1942 / 43	1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1924, 1930, 1934, 1936, 1940, 1942
España "B"	1916/17	---
España Veracruz	1918 / 19-1919 / 20	---
Euzkadi 4	1938/39	---
Germania 9	1915 / 16-1916 / 17 1918 / 19-1932 / 33	1921
Guadalajara	1921	---
Guerra y Marina 5	1922/23	---
Iberia de Cordoba	1921	---
Junior Club 6	1915 / 16-1917 / 18	---
Leonés	1931 / 32-1932 / 33	---
Luz y Fuerza 7	1921 / 22-1922 / 23	---
Marte	1928 / 29-1932 / 33 1937 / 38-1942 / 43	1929, 1943
Mexico Cricket Club	1902 / 03-1907 / 08	1904
Club México	1910/11, 1912 / 13-1917 / 18 1919 / 20-1929 / 30 1932 / 33-1933 / 34	1913
Moctezuma	1940 / 41-1942 / 43	---
Morelos	1920-1921	---
Necaxa	1923 / 24-1942 / 43	1933, 1935, 1937, 1938
Orizaba	1902 / 03-1903 / 04 1921	1903
Pachuca AC	1902 / 03-1919 / 20 1921	1905, 1918, 1920
Popo Park FC	1909/10, 1910/11 10	---
Puebla AC 8	1904 / 05-1906 / 07	---
Reforma AC 2	1902 / 03-1913 / 14 1921/22, 1923/24	1906, 1907, 1909, 1910 1911, 1912
Rovers FC 2	1912 / 13-1915 / 16	---
Selección Jalisco	1940 / 41-1942 / 43	---
Son-Sin 5	1923/24	---
Sporting Veracruz	1921	---
Sporting	1931 / 32-1932 / 33	---
Tigres 6	1918 / 19-1919 / 20	---
Tranvias 7	1922/23	---

¹The Club América appeared in two of its first seasons as Centro Unión .

²The British Club was founded in 1902 as the successor to the Club Británico founded in 1899. The football pioneer Percy C. Clifford was involved in its creation, he was also involved in the creation of the football department at Reforma AC and, after the foreseeable withdrawal of the British Club's footballers from the Primera Fuerza, was involved in founding Rovers FC .

³ Deportivo Español was founded in 1914 by dissatisfied members of Club España who deliberately avoided the traditional word “club”.

^4thUnder the name Euzkadi - a modification of the Basque name Euskadi for the Basque Country (see Lehendakari ) in use at the time - played a Basque national team that had come to Mexico in 1938 on the run from Franco's henchmen.

⁵In post-revolutionary Mexico, the military was present in all areas of society, so it should come as no surprise that a team soon appeared in the football league that played under the auspices of the Guerra y Marina Secretariat (War and Navy). General Aguirre was an ardent supporter of football and therefore supported a team that (with the inclusion in the FMF in 1921) the name of the above. Regiment received: Guerra y Marina . According to the new statutes of the republic that came into force two years later, which forbade a team to appear under the name of an official institution, the team was renamed Son-Sin ; an abbreviation for the combination of the two states of Sonora and Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico, from which most of the founding members and players of the early years came. Due to a rebellion, General Aguirre was sent to Guaymas and the team disappeared at the end of the 1923/24 season. After his return to the capital, General Aguirre reactivated the football scene and again founded a team that has now been accepted into the FMF under the name Club Marte .

^6thThe junior club's football department, founded in 1915, was renamed Tigres in 1918 .

^7thThe teams Luz y Fuerza (light and power) of the energy supply companies and Tranvias (trams) of the transport companies were both brought into being by the engineer WH Frasser . They were merged into Club Necaxa after just one year .

^8thThe Puebla AC was founded in 1895 as a tennis club and is not related to the Puebla FC, which was founded in 1944 .

⁹Some teams represent or represented corresponding ethnic groups. The Amicale Française , founded in 1911, was the team of the French colony, all España and Español teams belonged of course to the Spanish colony (this also included CF Asturias, which, however, mainly consisted of immigrants from the state of Asturias in northwestern Spain) and the one founded in 1915 Germania - which incidentally received the nickname Los Fúnebres (the corpses) because of its strange jerseys - the team of the German colony. There were also Basque teams (Aurrerá and Euzkadi), English clubs (British Club, Reforma and Rovers) and a team founded by Scots (Orizaba).

¹⁰In the 1910/11 season as a syndicate with the British Club .

All champions and cup winners during the amateur era in Mexico

The Orizaba AC team became Mexico's first football champion in 1902/03 (club founder Duncan Macomish sits on the far left)

The Reforma AC team (here a photo from the 1909/10 season) developed into Mexico's first series champions

Club España (here a photo from 1916) was the most successful club in the Primera Fuerza

season	master	Trainer	Cup winners
1902/03	Orizaba AC	Duncan Macomish	not carried out
1903/04	Mexico Cricket Club	Claude M. Butlin	not carried out
1904/05	Pachuca AC	Charles Grenfell	not carried out
1905/06	Reforma AC	TR Phillips	not carried out
1906/07	Reforma AC	TR Phillips	not carried out
1907/08	British Club	Percy Clifford	Pachuca AC
1908/09	Reforma AC	TR Phillips	Reforma AC
1909/10	Reforma AC	TR Phillips	Reforma AC
1910/11	Reforma AC	TR Phillips	British Club
1911/12	Reforma AC	TR Phillips	Pachuca AC
1912/13	Club México	Antonio Sierra	not carried out 1
1913/14	España	Francisco G. Ubieta	Club México
1914/15	España	Francisco G. Ubieta	España
1915/16	España	Francisco Arias	Rovers FC
1916/17	España	Francisco Arias	España
1917/18	Pachuca AC	William Penguely	España
1918/19	España	Francisco Arias	España
1919/20 2	España ( Nac ) Pachuca AC ( Mex )	Francisco Arias Alfred C. Crowle	not carried out
1920/21 2	España ( Nac ) Germania ( Mex )		Club México
1921/22	España		Asturias
1922/23	Asturias	Gerald Brown	Asturias
1923/24	España	Fred Spiksley	Asturias
1924/25	America	Rafael Garza Gutiérrez	Necaxa
1925/26	America	Rafael Garza Gutiérrez	Necaxa
1926/27	America	Percy Clifford	not carried out
1927/28	America	Percy Clifford	not carried out
1928/29	Marte	Servando Vargas	not carried out
1929/30	España	Emérico Pozsonyi	not carried out
1930/31	not carried out		not carried out
1931/32	Atlante		not carried out
1932/33	Necaxa		Necaxa
1933/34	España		Asturias
1934/35	Necaxa	Ernst Pauler	not carried out
1935/36	España		Necaxa
1936/37	Necaxa	Siegfried Roth	Asturias
1937/38	Necaxa	Siegfried Roth	America
1938/39	Asturias		Asturias
1939/40	España		Asturias
1940/41	Atlante	Luis Grocz	Asturias
1941/42	España		Atlante
1942/43	Marte		Moctezuma

¹According to information from the worldwide recognized RSSSF website , the cup competition was not held in the 1912/13 season. But there are also sources that credit Rovers FC with their 1912/13 cup win.

²In the seasons 1919/20 and 1920/21, two championship rounds were held each year. One was called the Liga Nacional and was won both times by Club España . The other was called Liga Mexicana and was won by Pachuca in 1920 and Germania in 1921 . Some sources say that the Liga Nacional enjoyed official status while the Liga Mexicana was only unofficial. However, since the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) identifies them as existing side by side, this view is followed here, although doubts remain about the recognition of the championship titles of Pachuca (1920) and Germania (1921).

Top scorer

Percy C. Clifford was one of Mexico's most important football pioneers. He formed three soccer teams and was the top scorer in the Mexican League twice.

season	Surname	team	Gates	Games	Goals / game
1902-03	John Hogg	Orizaba	5	4th	1.25
1903-04	Julio Lacaud	Reforma	4th	8th	0.5
1904-05	Percy Clifford	British Club	5	8th	0.625
1905-06	Charles M. Butlin	Reforma	6th	8th	0.75
1906-07	Percy Clifford	British Club	5	8th	0.625
1907-08	John Hogg	British Club	4th	6th	0.67
1908-09	Jorge Gómez De Parada William Bray	Reforma Pachuca	3 3	4 4	0.75 0.75
1909-10	Robert J. Blackmore	Reforma	4th	6th	0.67
1910-11	Charles M. Butlin Alfred C. Crowle	Reforma Pachuca	2 2	4 4	0.5 0.5
1911-12	John Hogg	British Club	3	4th	0.75
1912-13	Jorge Gomez De Parada	CF México	5	10	0.5
1913-14	Bernardo Rodríguez	España	6th	8th	0.75
1914-15	Alfred C. Crowle	Pachuca	6th	10	0.6
1915-16	Lázaro Ibarreche	España	7th	10	0.7
1916-17	Lázaro Ibarreche	España	6th	10	0.6
1917-18	Lázaro Ibarreche Frederick Williams Horacio Ortiz	España Pachuca Pachuca	5 5 5	10 10 10	0.5 0.5 0.5
1918-19	Lázaro Ibarreche	España	11	12	0.92
1919-20	Lázaro Ibarreche	España	13	16	0.81
1920-21
1921-22
1922-23
1923-24
1924-25	Ernesto Sota	America	10	-	-
1925-26	Kurt Friederich	Germania	11	-	-
1926-27	Pedro Arruza Miguel Ruiz	España Necaxa	13 13	- -	- -
1927-28	Ernesto Sota	America	16	-	-
1928-29	Dionisio "Nicho" Mejía	Atlante	12	-	-
1929-30	Jorge Sota	America	12	-	-
1930-31	No championship			-	-
1931-32	Juan Carreño Julio Lores	Atlante Necaxa	20 20	- -	- -
1932-33	Julio Lores	Necaxa	8th	-	-
1933-34	José Pacheco	Asturias	12	-	-
1934-35	Hilario "Moco" López	Necaxa	17th	-	-
1935-36	Hilario "Moco" López	Necaxa	14th	-	-
1936-37	Hilario "Moco" López	Necaxa	11	-	-
1937-38	Efraín Ruiz	Asturias	13	-	-
1938-39	Miguel Gual	España	20th	-	-
1939-40	Alberto "Caballo" Mendoza	Atlante	15th	-	-
1940-41	Martin Vantolrá	Atlante	17th	14th	1.21
1941-42	Rafael "Tico" Meza	Moctezuma	20th	14th	1.43
1942-43	Manuel Alonso	Marte	17th	14th	1.21

swell

• Final tables of the Primera Fuerza at RSSSF.com
• List of Masters of Mexico at RSSSF.com
• Javier Bañuelos Rentería: Balón a tierra (1896–1932), Editorial Clío, México 1998 ISBN 970-663-022-8
• Carlos Calderón Cardoso: Por amor a la camiseta (1933–1950), Editorial Clío, México 1998 ISBN 970-663-023-6