LIGA MX: Implications of charging the floor to the 3 worst teams

Imagine for a second that you are the Commercial Director of a recognized company; your results depend on the sales of your sellers. That is why you select them, approve them, train them, offer them objective bonuses, promise them that no matter what happens you will not fire them, but yes: the worst 3 salespeople of the year, regardless of the reason, you will charge them floor to be able to continue visiting customers.

And now, facing higher operating costs, they must try to compete the following year against the rest of the vendors who not only did not charge them that right, but also (some) will receive bonuses for productivity.

How likely are the bad sellers next year to be able to compete effectively against them? If they are again part of the 3 worst, do you continue to take away tools to motivate them and deliver better results? Would you even increase their punishment if they reoffend?

Although it seems incredible, this measure was approved by the then president of Liga MX , Enrique Bonilla in exchange for eliminating relegation from the First Division.

Due to their poor results, FC Juárez, Atlas, Atlético de San Luis are the teams that will jointly pay the fine of 120 million pesos to Liga MX (approximately 6 million USD) for having finished in the last three positions of the table of quotients.

How serious is this figure operationally speaking? Javier Salinas, former marketing director of the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) and former director of Monarcas Morelia , estimated that, on average, the teams in the last places of the tournament have an operating expense of between 200 and 300 million pesos. For this reason, a fine of 120 million pesos implies that operating costs immediately increase ~40%, since the fine must be settled in two payments, 10 days after the end of the current tournament (May 14) and 10 days before starting. the next.

All of the 120 million will be allocated to the Liga Expansión MX, which was inaugurated last year to replace Ascenso MX and is intended to be consolidated.

Was this the least regressive measure?

For those teams, the sudden increase in operating expenses will not only prevent them from signing new players, but will cause them to get rid of some of their best members hoping that with a more modest and reduced squad, the following year they will achieve better results:

Atlético San Luis: 120 million pesos (6 million USD)

The Mexican franchise in which Atlético de Madrid invested, has not been able to be constant enough to be able to get out of the percentage problem.

They finished as the worst team in Liga MX and now they will have to pay 6 million USD to LIGA MX. It is expected that said payment will be distributed among its owners according to their level of participation: 51% Atlético de Madrid, 30% of the Payán Family and 19% of some partners of the capital of San Luis Potosí.

According to figures from Transfermarkt, San Luis could sell some of the following items to pay off the debt:

Atlas: 70 million pesos (3.5 million USD)

For this Guard1anes 2021 , the team led by Diego Cocca received great support from Santos, who is also owned by Grupo Orlegi. And now, together with Grupo Salinas, they must analyze whether they complete the full acquisition of the rights of some players such as: Jesús Angulo, Luis Reyes, José Abella, Bryan Garnica, Renato Ibarra, Javier Correa.

Additionally, you could use the following players:

FC Bravos de Ciudad Juárez - 50 million pesos (2.5 million USD)

FC Juárez is the one that has invested the most in reinforcements since it arrived in the First Division . The directive headed by Guillermo Cantú decided to bring Marco Fabián, Andrés Iniestra, Hedgardo Marín, Luis Pavéz, Erick Castillo, among others to seek salvation from the payment of the fine.

For Memo Cantú, the economic punishment for the teams that occupy a place in the percentage table weakens the team's set-up for the following tournaments.

“ We have six or seven teams that have been involved since day one. From my point of view, I do consider that there is a kind of double taxation because the fine, instead of helping all the teams to get out of the bottom of the table, not only us but all of us who are at the bottom, instead of helping us It seems that it harms us. Because in reality you need a greater investment to be able to get out of this situation and when you have a fine for being one of the last places instead of helping harm, "Guillermo Cantú told ESPN last month.

The scarcity of players that FC Juárez has worth more than a million dollars could be a factor against the border board, since they could only use four members of their squad to pay the 50 million pesos , including Darío Lezcano, Gustavo Velazquez and Marco Fabián, Joaquín Esquivel and Ayron del Valle .

Having only five players with a value greater than a million dollars is a dilemma for the managers of the Bravos: sell only an element like Darío Lezcano , a team, or a larger package of players that do not exceed a million dollars, and that Most of them make up the border team.