Campeonato de Primera Fuerza, later as Liga Mayor, was an amateur association football league in Mexico founded and organized by the unofficial and defunct Federación Mexicana de Football Asociación, later renamed as Federación Central de Fútbol. From 1922 to 1927, it was the governing body of the amateur football in Mexico, after the merger of Liga Mexicana and Liga Nacional. From 1927 to 1943, the league was organized by the current Federación Mexicana de Fútbol.
The league was held 20 editions. The inaugural edition was the 1922–23 season, with Asturias crowned as the first champions. The final edition was the 1942–43 season, with Marte crowned as the last champions.
The league had a total of 18 participating clubs throughout its history, only two clubs played their home matches outside of Mexico City.
Six clubs won the title at least once. Real España was the most successful club with six titles, América and Necaxa with four titles each, Asturias, Atlante and Marte with two titles each.
History Prior to the Liga MX (at that time named Liga Mayor), there was no true national football league in Mexico and all football competitions were held within relatively small geographical regions. The winners of the Liga Mexicana de Football Amateur Association, a local league consisting of teams in and around Mexico City, was the first amateur football league played in Mexico from 1902 to 1922. There were other regional leagues such as the Liga Amateur de Veracruz, Liga Occidental De Jalisco and Liga del Bajío that also had notable clubs. Many club owners were not keen on the idea of establishing a professional league, despite paying players under the table. With the increasing demand for football, there was a sense of urgency to unite all the local amateur leagues in Mexico to progress as a football nation. The first professional national league was officially established in 1943.
The people who pushed football in Mexico were Percy C. Clifford and Robert J. Blackmoore. This brought the rules of play and the first regulatory balls. English Alfred Crowle, who played for Pachuca since 1908, also had considerable influence on the sport. In 1910, Club México is founded, the first team formed by Alfredo B. Cuellar headed Mexican, Jorge Alberto Gomez de Parada and Sierra, then promoted by other foreign colonies: L'Amicale Française in 1911, Rovers FC and Real Club España in 1912, Centro Deportivo Español in 1914, Germania FV in 1915, Catalonia in 1917, Asturias FC in 1918, and CF Aurrerá in 1919.
Club América (at that time called Centro Unión), founded on the union of two Marist College in 1916, was the first important team composed of Mexicans in the capital city and achieved to win four consecutive championships between 1924 and 1928. In 1918, Sinaloa was founded and changed several times its name, first to Lusitania in 1919, then to U-53 in 1920, then to Atlántico in 1921 but due to the colloquial use of that word it was derived to Atlante, whose components were proletarian extraction; their leaders were the Trinidad and Refugio Martinez brothers. While between 1918 and 1920 the teams Cuenta y Administración, Guerra y Marina y Son-Sin resulted in the Club Esparta, which was then rebranded as CD Marte, brilliant team that never became popular, and even in the professional era and would move to Cuernavaca.
Regularly attended clubs outside Mexico City as Pachuca AC, Puebla AC, Veracruz SC, Iberia de Córdoba, Moctezuma de Orizaba, Orizaba AC, Tigres México, España Veracruz, these being the most successful of them, Pachuca was crowned in seasons 1904–05, 1917–18 and 1919–20. In 1920 there was a split in the Mexican amateur league, shortly before the start of the season. Real España and España Veracruz in solidarity with the expulsion of Tigres México, withdrew from the league and founded its own league named Liga Nacional. As this idea went nowhere, Orizaba scheduled a series of friendly matches to remain active, with so many rivals like España Veracruz who was defeated 9–0 on 20 October 1919, or their wins 4–0 and 2–0 against Tigres México, 2–0 on the Río Blanco and the achievements of Copa Alfonso XIII in a three-game series against Reforma and the Copa Elche in two games against Asturias. The power and influence of the Hispanic teams was such that the press of the time chose to cover their sports facilities to those meetings. Spain interference on means, suitable to be published little news about the Liga Mexicana.
The 1920–21 season was played separately with the creation of the Liga Nacional founded by Real Club España and later joined América, Luz y Fuerza, L'Amicale Française and Reforma. Meanwhile, the Liga Mexicana had the participation of Asturias, Deportivo Internacional, Club México, Club Morelos and Germania. Only two seasons were played before both leagues merged to form the first Mexican football federation.
On August 1922, was founded the first football federation in Mexico, the unofficial Federación Mexicana de Football Asociación and later renamed as Federación Central de Fútbol. They immediately created the Campeonato de Primera Fuerza on 28 August 1922. It was considered the first direct antecedent of the current Liga MX. The members of the new league promoted the creation of the first national team, which would dispute its first match in 1923. Tablas de la conclusión del Primera Fuerza con RSSSF.com
The 1930–31 season was suspended after two days, when Asturias, Atlante, Germania, Club Mexico and Marte requested permission to remodel Campo Asturias (not to be confused with the Parque Asturias, built until 1936) which was in poor condition, to make their home games there; to the disagreement of Real España, Necaxa (both who owned their own parks) and América. This coupled with the conflict arose with the Real Federación Española de Fútbol, which had asked the FMF to disable Gaspar Rubio who had signed for Real España. It got to the point of suspension of the three clubs who unsuccessfully tried to make a parallel tournament and the Federation decided to suspend the season to definitively resolve administrative problems. After months of conflict, smoothed asperities and the competition was renamed as Liga Mayor, to organize two competitions: the Campeonato Preferente consisted of six clubs, and the Primera Ordinaria, that served as a promotion division. This competition had durability and grew to cluster up to 16 club.
Club Necaxa, founded by members of Compañía de Luz y Fuerza del Centro, was an unforgettable dynasty in the decade 1930–40 known as the "11 brothers"; the first team to win promotion, won four league titles and the Copa México twice, becoming the first "Campeonísimo" in Mexico. Among the ranks of the "11 brothers" also arises a top Mexican football legends: Horacio Casarín.
In the 1931–32 season, Veracruz SC were invited and also played the following season, although all their matches were played in Mexico City. In the 1938–39 season, CD Euzkadi was included when it was formed because the Basque Country national football team was refused permission by FIFA to play with affiliated teams. In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the first Basque President José Antonio Aguirre, had decided to send a Basque football club abroad in order to raise funds for the civil war that was taking place in Spain. When their homeland was captured by their enemies the players dared not return home. The Basques, under the name Club Deportivo Euzkadi, were allowed into the league and developed a fierce rivalry with traditional all Hispanic teams (Real España and Asturias) and despite winning 13 of the 17 games played, they came out of the tournament as runners-up to Asturias. At the end of the season, the team disbanded and the players became part of the Liga Mayor teams or other leagues. Lista de los Duenos de México con RSSSF.com
The 1940–41 season was the first with matches played outside of Mexico City, after Selección Jalisco and Moctezuma de Orizaba joined the league. Selección Jalisco formed by elements of Guadalajara, Atlas, Nacional, y Oro. This team had played a series of friendly matches between 1926 and 1930 as part of promotional tours by Liga Occidental de Jalisco.
Liga Mexicana de Football Amateur Association Liga Mexicana de Football Amateur Association was an amateur association football league in Mexico founded and organized by the Asociación de Aficionados de México en la Liga de Football (), formed by football fans and company workers in 1902. The league merged with the Liga Nacional in 1921.
The league was held 18 editions. The inaugural edition was the 1902–03 season, with Orizaba crowned as the first champions. The final edition was the 1920–21 season, with Germania crowned as the last champions.
It was entirely an amateur league, as it was only played by football fans and foreign immigrant workers in their spare time. It had a total of 22 participating clubs throughout its history, although mostly clubs from Mexico City. The five founding clubs of the league were: British Club, Mexico Cricket Club, Orizaba, Pachuca and Reforma.
Seven clubs won the title at least once. Reforma was the most successful club with six titles, España with five titles and Pachuca with three titles.
+Participating clubsClubYears participatingAmérica/Centro Unión1917–1920Asturias1919–1922British Club/British FC/British-Popo1902–1913México1912–1918, 1919–1922Club Morelos1920–21Deportivo Español1915–1917, 1918–1920Deportivo Internacional1920–21España Veracruz1918–1920Germania1915–1917, 1918–1922Iberia de Córdoba1921–22L'Amicale Française1914–15Mexico Cricket Club/San Pedro Golf Club/Mexico Country Club1902–1908México FC1907–08Orizaba1902–1904Pachuca1902–1920Popo1909–10Puebla1904–05, 1906–07España1912–1920España "B"1915–1918Reforma1902–1915Rovers1912–1914Junior Club/Tigres México1917–1920 Notes Club América changed its name to Club Centro Unión (1918–1920), between 1920 and 1922 participated in the Liga Nacional. British Club changed its name to British FC (1909–10 and 1911–12 seasons) and then British-Popo (1910–11 season). Iberia de Veracruz joined the league in the 1918–19 season, and changed its name to España Veracruz. Mexico Cricket Club changed its name to San Pedro Golf Club (1904–05 season) and then Mexico Country Club (1905–1907). The current Club de Fútbol Pachuca founded in 1892 as Pachuca Football Club and changed its name to Pachuca Athletic Club in 1895. Founded in 1892 as Puebla Football Club and changed its name to Puebla Athletic Club in 1894. It has no relation with Club Puebla, which was founded in 1944. Junior Club changed its name to Tigres México in 1918.
+ResultsEd.YearChampionsResult Manager1OrizabaReforma Duncan Macomish21903–04Mexico Cricket ClubReforma Claude M. Butlin31904–05PachucaBritish Club Charles Grenfell41905–06Reforma ACMexico Country Club Thomas R. Phillips51906–07ReformaBritish Club Thomas R. Phillips61907–08British ClubMéxico FC Percy Clifford71908–09ReformaPachuca Thomas R. Phillips81909–10ReformaPopo Thomas R. Phillips91910–11ReformaPachuca Thomas R. Phillips101911–12Reforma3–0Pachuca Thomas R. Phillips111912–13MéxicoPachuca Antonio Sierra121913–14EspañaRovers Francisco G. Ubierta131914–15EspañaPachuca Francisco G. Ubierta141915–16EspañaPachuca Francisco Arias151916–17EspañaPachuca Francisco G. Ubierta161917–18PachucaDeportivo Español William Penguely171918–19EspañaCentro Unión Francisco Arias181919–20PachucaGermania Alfred C. Crowle—1920–21AsturiasDeportivo Internacional Gerald Brown—GermaniaAsturias Richard Obert Notes Annulled seasons due to the separation of the league into Liga Mexicana and Liga Nacional.