Second tier of the football pyramid of professional football league in Mexico
This article is about the Mexican Second tier football division. For the Costa Rican Second tier football division, see Segunda División de Costa Rica.
Ascenso MX was the second tier of professional football in Mexico of the Mexican football league system.[1] The champion of the competition was promoted to Liga MX (top-flight tier). The bottom team was relegated to Liga Premier (the third tier). It was sponsored by BBVA through its Mexican subsidiary BBVA, and was officially known as Ascenso BBVA MX.
Formerly known as Primera División A (First Division A) the league rebranded in 2009 its name and competition format to Liga de Ascenso. It was rebranded in 2012 as Ascenso MX. The major changes: clubs do not need a FMF certification to be promoted and that the competition no longer used group stages.
In 2006, the number of teams increased from 20 to 24, and geographically separated into two groups for preliminary competition (A and B).
In 2009, the major changes were: the name change from Primera División to Liga de Ascenso. The league was reduced to 17 teams and the groups were eliminated. Apertura 2010 had 18 teams participating. In 2012 the league was rebranded as Ascenso MX.[2] In 2013Alebrijes de Oaxaca was the 16th team of Ascenso MX. Alebrijes was partly formed by consolidating Segunda División side Tecamachalco which had won promotion to Ascenso MX in 2012, but did not fulfill infrastructural requirements set by the Mexican Football Federation. In August 2013, Club Zacatepec was promoted to Ascenso MX in place of relegated Pumas Morelos.
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In Ascenso MX editions 2011–2016, no team was relegated to Segunda División de México Liga Premier de Ascenso. On June 6, 2016, returned to relegation to the Segunda División de México Liga Premier de Ascenso for the 2016–17 season. Loros UdeC and Murciélagos F.C. were relegated in the next two seasons. In 2018–19 season, Tampico Madero F.C. finished last in the relegation table, but remained in Ascenso MX after paying a bail.[4]
2020 abolition
On April 13, Liga MX and Ascenso MX President Enrique Bonilla announced the termination of the remainder of the Clausura 2020 season. Two reasons were the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic and the league's lack of financial resources. Its U17 and U20 youth systems and the Liga MX Femenil are also at risk.[5]
Clubs
The 2019–20 season had 14 clubs competing.[6] However, the Clausura 2020 tournament had only 12 teams competing after the dissolution of Potros UAEM and Loros UdeC.