Although it has world-class stars, the Mexican league is overtaken by less influential leagues in South America and the world

Liga MX, the most important soccer competition in Mexico, where the most important teams of CONCACAF play, was the twentieth best league in the world in 2017. The IFFHS (International Federation of Football History and Statistics) recently published the list of the strongest leagues and the Mexican is below the Ecuadorian, which is in the seventeenth position; the Israeli is located in the twelfth ,and the Paraguayan was ranked in the ninth.

Why is the league that has won the last ten titles of the Concachampions less competitive than those of Paraguay, Israel, and Ecuador?

On the one hand, the comparison can be made at the level of selections, since Mexico is superior to several of the countries that precede it on the list. Additionally to the aforementioned along with the Russian national team, in the tenth position of the ranking and Cyprus, in the thirteenth, do not pose a great challenge in a possible confrontation. Only Russia is classified to the World Cup, and it is for their benefit as host.

However, the IFFHS does not take IGNORE INTO account the level of national teams when it comes to ranking, it considers the number of teams per league that participate in international competitions and the points they make. Therefore, how is such a winning league of continental competition in North America not above other leagues that on the continental plane are not successful?

The answer lies in the confederation to which a league belongs. The Mexican is the best in Concacaf, that's clear. Nevertheless, until  2017, Mexican teams played the Copa Libertadores, the most important club competition in South America.

From 1998 to 2016, only three teams managed to reach the final: Cruz Azul in 2001, Guadalajara in 2010 and Tigres de la UANL in 2015. None of them won.

Neither America in 2007 nor Pumas de la UNAM in 2005 were teams that reached the final of the Copa Sudamericana, the second most important club tournament in the continent. In fact, only Pachuca has managed to win an international Conmebol competition, when they defeated Colo Colo in the final of the Sudamericana in 2006.

It can be said that the soccer level in South America is more competitive than that of CONCACAF, which explains why there is a Mexican hegemony in international tournaments in North America and why they could not replicate it in Conmebol tournaments.

Even though it is not necessarily relevant, the Mexican national team has reached the Copa America final twice, but lost it to Argentina in 1993 and Colombia in 2001. This is not relevant because national team players do not necessarily play in their local league, but it does illustrate the competitiveness of South American soccer against Mexican.

The reason why Liga MX is 20th in the list of the IFFHS is related with the competitiveness of the confederations. It is no surprise that the Spanish League is the first of the list by fifth consecutive time, followed by the Premier League of England, and the Brazilian league being third. The teams of these leagues have had a good performance in international competitions in 2017, given that the Champions League winner was Spanish, the one of the Europa League was English and that of the Libertadores was Brazilian.

The competitiveness coefficients of Europe and South America are higher than those of North America and the other confederations. It does not matter that a Mexican team brings each market a player equivalent to André-Pierre Gignac and that the Concachampions is won by a Mexican competitor each season, they are simply in an uncompetitive confederation compared to the others.

This would explain why Israel is above, when their clubs compete in Europe and in the Champions League. Also, it  reveals why Paraguay outperforms Mexico in the list, when Olimpia and Cerro Porteño have good campaigns in Libertadores and Sudamericana.

In fact, the 4 times that the Mexican league has been in the top 10 of the IFFHS list was in 2002, 2006, 2007 and 2008, the same years in which their clubs reached stages of direct elimination of South American international tournaments.

In 2002, America reached the semifinals of Libertadores, like Guadalajara in 2006. Pachuca was champion of the Sudamericana in the same year. In 2007, there were six teams in the final stages of both tournaments, three in each, including a runner-up. While in 2008 there were two teams in the phase of direct elimination in Libertadores and two in Sudamericana.

The competitiveness solution for Liga MX seems clear. They should change their confederation, as Australia did when they joined the Asian Football Confederation and left Oceania. This could bring many benefits to the Mexican teams, because they will play against teams with higher level than in North America, and in turn would increase the attractiveness of the Conmebol, which can organize more extensive tournaments and with the stars that the Mexican league and selection brings.

LatinAmerican Post | Iván Parada Hernández
Copy edited by Marcela Peñaloza