The Apertura 2016 Copa MX (officially the Apertura 2016 Copa Corona MX for sponsorship reasons) was the 76th staging of the Copa MX, the 49th staging in the professional era and is the ninth tournament played since the 1996–97 edition.
This tournament began on 19 July 2016 and ended on 2 November 2016.[1] As winners, Querétaro will face the winner of the Clausura 2017 edition in the 2017 Supercopa MX.[2]
The draw for the tournament took place on June 7, 2016, at the Iberostar Cancún in Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico.[1] 24 teams were drawn into eight groups of three, with each group containing one team from each of the three pots.[1]
Clubs in Pot 1 were drawn to be the seed of each group according to the order of their drawing. That is, the first club that was drawn is seed of Group 1, the second drawn is seed of Group 2 and so on and so on.[1] The Liga MX teams in Pot 1 are the best four teams in the Aggregate table who are not participating in the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League.[1] The Ascenso MX teams in Pot 1 are the three best teams in the Clausura 2016 classification table along with the team relegated from Liga MX (Dorados de Sinaloa).[1]
Pot 2 contained Liga MX and Ascenso MX clubs who ended 5–8 in the Aggregate table and Clausura 2016 classification table respectively.[1]
Pot 3 contained Liga MX and Ascenso MX clubs who ended 9–12 in the Aggregate table and Clausura 2016 classification table respectively.[1]
Match was originally scheduled to be played at 18:30 but was delayed due to inclement weather.
Knockout stage
The clubs that advance to this stage will be ranked and seeded 1 to 16 based on performance in the group stage. In case of ties, the same tiebreakers used to rank the runners-up will be used.[9]
All rounds are played in a single game. If a game ends in a draw, it will proceed directly to a penalty shoot-out. The highest seeded club will host each match, regardless of which division each club belongs.[9]
The two best teams of each group will advance to the Knockout stage.[9]
This is the first time the tournament has a Round of 16.[3]
All match times are UTC−06:00 except for matches in Ciudad Juárez (UTC−07:00)
Qualified teams
The winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the group stage qualify for the final stages.