Liga MX president Mikel Arriola has a lot on his mind.
Midway through his third year as boss of Mexico's top division, Arriola is now overseeing a unique moment in the existence of Mexican soccer. Amid an ongoing Leagues Cup that features all Liga MX and MLS clubs for the first time, Arriola spoke with ESPN about the future of the tournament, as well as his efforts to evolve the leagues.
As the 2026 World Cup (co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.) approaches, Arriola opened up about several Liga MX-related topics such as finding ways to transferring more young players to Europe, the future of promotion/relegation, and whether teams will return Conmebol's Copa Libertadores.
Speaking while traveling in the U.S. shortly before the start of the Leagues Cup knockout round, here's what Arriola had to say.
Editor's Note: This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity and content.
Q: Thoughts on the Leagues Cup so far?
Arriola: It has been great, I have been here in the U.S. since the start, since [Inter] Miami against Cruz Azul with [Lionel] Messi, with [Sergio] Busquets. It has been thrilling, exciting. The most important [thing] has been the quality of the matches ... that's the most important because the people have responded, in terms of attendance."
How significant to Liga MX are the Mexican and Mexican-American fanbases that live in the U.S.?
"It's very important because our [Liga MX] teams, the Mexican teams, are teams that generate a lot of nostalgia here in the U.S. Leagues Cup is very important for us in order to incorporate our brands, our teams, our players in this territory, which is very important for us. We have 60 million fans here, so this is strategic for both leagues and obviously we also have the target, both leagues have the target, to generate more fans of other regions, of other origins."
Will Liga MX teams host Leagues Cup matches or is the plan going forward to only host in the U.S. and Canada?
We have a lot of flexibility because the sports committee is led by both leagues. So after we analyze the results of this first year, which are very exciting and important, we could decide. Whatever we decide jointly could be implemented.
How could the Leagues Cup help Liga MX grow?
They are competing against great players, great teams in fantastic cities in the U.S. and they are also viewed by more than 100 countries in the world by means of the [Apple TV] broadcast. The quality of our leagues, of our teams, will grow due to the competition...if that quality grows, the fans will be the winner of the system of this plan because the fans will receive more quality from both sides. This cycle will be a very positive cycle."
Does this point to a unified MLS-Liga MX league? Or is this the extent of the collaboration?
Well, I don't know. If you see the past and the present, now you can see that we have a new league going on [through the Leagues Cup] with 77 games annually. It's like March Madness in basketball, this is the July-August Madness of fútbol. It is unique in the world because you have never seen this kind of competition between any leagues in the world, this is historic.
Will Liga MX centralize assets like MLS, such as jerseys, sponsorships and TV rights?
Of course. We have done it since 2020, 2021. We have centralized several sponsorships.Obviously, the most important asset that we're going to centralize was authorized by our board on May 22 of this year. The teams, the owners authorized the league to centralize TV rights.
So that's going to be, I think, one huge step for Liga MX in order to have similar circumstances in relative terms with MLS and with the European leagues. We will do that and we will change the face of Liga MX.
Is the plan to have centralized TV rights deals that are separate in Mexico, the U.S. and then possibly a global option?
Yes, that's completely right. We're gonna start [preparing], along with the Mexican Federation, because also the national team will renegotiate its TV deal.
The TV rights that are negotiated individually by the [Liga MX] teams are going to be ended by 2028. Before that, we will have to have the structure in order to centralize the TV rights of the teams, in order to generate our first bid in that year or before.
Do you believe that Liga MX should return to the Copa Libertadores?
Well, we are open to whatever alternative there is. As [FMF commissioner] Juan Carlos Rodriguez said, we are open to any invitation, but first we have to receive the invitation by means of Concacaf. Conmebol and Concacaf will have to sit and negotiate. So we are open to whatever alternative in order to continue internationalizing Liga MX.
Any updates on how the "final four" will be selected in the 2024 club competition between Concacaf and CONMEBOL?
We have to hear more details from Concacaf, but the idea is to have the first and second [placed] teams of the Concacaf Champions Cup against the champion of Copa Libertadores and champion of Copa Sudamericana. That is the plan and that will be played next year here in the United States. I think that that's 90% secured that that's going to be the case.
What would you say is the ideal number of Liga MX teams?
I would leave it at 18 right now. We have been working with 18 teams for a long time. I think what we want is to keep generating value in order to increase the value of our teams, and then if that's the case, take decisions regarding expansion.
Is it a worry to see the difficulties for second division [Liga Expansion] teams to gain eligibility to be promoted? Only Atlante are eligible and you need at least four teams to be eligible for promotion to return.
We are working on a historic new model in order to reinforce the capacity of the second division teams, the financial and the sports capacity. A whole new league [called Expansion Sub-23] which is the combination of the under-23 teams of all of our Liga MX teams with the [second division] teams. We will have a 33-team league in order to develop young players, because the idea of this new league is that our under-23 players compete in the environment of [the second division] with foreign players, with older players in very difficult scenarios.
This is the big bet. Doing that we will also reinforce the gameday of [the second division]. We will generate more income for these teams. These teams will, I think, be more strong in order to be eligible for promotion.
When will the new second division begin?
The first day of January of 2024 we'll have this new joint league.
The FMF recently laid out new proposals, which includes a plan to possibly send Liga MX players that are 18+ to Europe for two years. Are Liga MX club owners in full support and approval of this?
Well they have done so in May. The idea is that we have a lot of value in Liga MX and we pay very good salaries. So sometimes our players, local players, choose to stay in Mexico rather than competing in Europe...the possibility of winning matches in the World Cup without European players is lower, so the idea between [FMF commissioner Juan Carlos Rodriguez] and Liga MX is to export more young players from 18 years up to mostly Spanish teams.
The handicap that the Mexican player has is that he has to play as a foreign player in Europe, and that is very difficult. Now we are working with the Spanish Embassy and Spanish government to obtain the nationality during the first two years of the stay of the players. That would be very important in order to reduce the handicap of our players in Europe and generate a systematic export system to Europe in order to help the national team.
How many players per team will be sent and when does that process start?
There's not a fixed amount...what we can see after this approval and implementation, we have seen groups such as Grupo Orlegi [owners of clubs Atlas and Santos Laguna] and [Club America] that have already sent six players to the Sporting Gijon academy. Those are the first six players that are [possibly] going to obtain Spanish nationality.
When chatting with the Spanish Embassy, has there been any way of making the process of nationalization easier?
The general rule states that for Ibero-American persons or people, you could obtain the [Spanish] nationality after two years of residence. What we have agreed with the embassy is that Liga MX will be the promoter [for the players]...so we will file every petition before the Spanish government in order to have this fast-track procedure. The limit is two years and we could do better than that, but that's the new general rule of the Spanish law.
What else can Liga MX do to support young players with opportunities abroad?
Well first is to take this handicap off the player, because when you compare that with other countries that don't have it, you can see the amount of exports that Argentina or Uruguay or Chile or Brazil generate. The other thing is to develop more close relationships with the other clubs in Europe. For instance, [Club] America now is very close to U.K. teams, Chivas have played against Athletic Bilbao in Mexico last month, we had seven teams of Spanish origin during the last three weeks in Mexico.
What we have to do is play more against the Spanish or the Europeans, bring more Europeans here, in order to generate close ties with these clubs and increase the possibility of [transfering] Mexican players by means of these direct relationships between teams. In the last two years, we have signed agreements with Bundesliga, with LaLiga and with Italian Serie A.