The 2022–23 Liga de Expansión MX season was the third professional season of the second-tier football division in Mexico. The season is divided into two championships—the Torneo Apertura and the Torneo Clausura—each in an identical format and each contested by the same eighteen teams. The Apertura tournament began on 24 June 2022. The Clausura tournament will began in January 2023.
Changes from the previous season
The Liga de Expansión MX is a Mexican football league founded in 2020 as part of the Mexican Football Federation's "Stabilization Project", which has the primary objective of rescuing the financially troubled teams from the Ascenso MX and prevent the disappearance of a second-tier league in Mexico, for which there will be no promotion and relegation during the following six years.[1] The project also attempts for Liga MX and former Ascenso MX teams to consolidate stable projects with solid basis, sports-wise and administrative-wise, financially wise and in infrastructure.
On April 5, 2022, Atlante, Atlético Morelia, UAT, U. de G. and Venados applied for promotion certification to restart the promotion and relegation process. The league required four teams to be certified for promotion before reactivating it. On May 13, 2022, Leones Negros was the only team that met all requirements for promotion to Liga MX. Atlético Morelia did not complete the certification process.[3]
On June 1, 2022, the rule that awarded an extra point to teams that won their away matches was abolished.[4]
On June 14, 2022, Durango was accepted as a new member of the league after passing the certification process to join the competition, Durango was the champion of the 2021–22 Serie A de México season.[5]
On November 7, 2022, the league owner's assembly announced the 2023–24 promotion certification process for Liga de Expansión MX teams would begin in January 2023 and would be finalized in May 2023.[6][7]
Source: Liga de Expansión MX Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Number of goals scored away; 5) Head-to-head results between tied teams; 6) Highest relegation coefficient; 7) Fair Play points (C) Champions Notes:
^The Teams ranked from 1st to 4th place qualify to the Liguilla quarter-finals.
^The Teams ranked from 5th to 12th place qualify to the Repechage.
Source: Liga Expansión MX Notes: Only regular season listed 1: Team played Liga Premier – Serie A last season. 2: Team did not play last season. 3: Durango played its match against La Paz behind closed doors.[30] 4: UAT played its match against Atlante behind closed doors.[31] 5: Atlético Morelia played its match against Pumas Tabasco behind closed doors.[32] 6: La Paz played its home game against Tepatitlán behind closed doors.[33] 7: Sonora played its home game against UAT behind closed doors.[34]
Source: Liga de Expansión MX Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Number of goals scored away; 5) Head-to-head results between tied teams; 6) Highest relegation coefficient; 7) Fair Play points Notes:
^The Teams ranked from 1st to 4th place qualify to the Liguilla quarter-finals.
^ abThe Teams ranked from 5th to 12th place qualify to the Repechage.
^The last place team in the coefficient table cannot qualify for the final phase, the 13th place team qualifies in their stead.
The Campeón de Campeones Final is a two-legged playoff between the winners of the Apertura and Clausura tournaments and the Liga de Expansión MX Super cup. The final would not be played if the same team wins both the Apertura and Clausura tournaments. The higher ranked team on the aggregate table for the 2021–22 season will play the second leg at home.
As of the 2020–21 season, the promotion and relegation between Liga MX and Liga de Expansión MX (formerly known as Ascenso MX) was suspended, however, the coefficient table will be used to establish the payment of fines that will be used for the development of the clubs of the silver circuit.[39]
Per Article 24 of the competition regulations, the payment of $MXN3 million from Liga de Expansión clubs will be distributed among the last three positioned in the coefficient table as follows: Last place pays 1.5 million, the penultimate place pays 1 million, and the sixteenth place pays 500 thousand. If any affiliate club or new club from the Liga Premier is ranked in the bottom three at the end of the season, they are exempt from paying any fine and it will not be covered by any other club. Any club that does not pay their corresponding fine, for any reason, will be dissafiliated. The team that finishes last on the table will start the following season with a coefficient of zero. If the last ranked team repeats as the last ranked team in the 2023–24 season coefficient table, they will be fined an additional $MXN1 million.[40]
Rules for fine payment: 1) Fine coefficient; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Head-to-head results between tied teams; 5) Number of goals scored away; 6) Fair Play points
F = Team will have to pay fine indicated
X = Team will have to pay fine, the amount is TBD.
Source: Liga de Expansión
2021–22 accumulated points are not counted towards their relegation coefficient.
Aggregate table
The Aggregate table is a sum of the Apertura 2022 and Clausura 2023 tournament standings. The aggregate table is used to determine seeding for the "Campeón de Campeones" Final.
Source: Liga Expansión MX Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Head-to-head results between tied teams; 5) Number of goals scored away; 6) Highest relegation coefficient; 7) Fair Play points (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated Notes: