Road to 2027: Why Mexico could be women's football's next big market
Women's football in Mexico is at a crossroads. The Liga MX Femenil is thriving, while the national team has been floundering. What's going on and what happens next? Those that know speak out.
By her own admittance, Mariana Gutiérrez accepts there was some “resistance” when the idea of a professional women’s league - which would mirror the structure of the men’s Liga MX - was mooted in 2016.
Women’s football in Mexico wasn’t in a good place. The national team finished bottom of its group at the 2015 World Cup, with no wins, and there was no professional league in place for its players.
Between 2013 and 2016, national team players were allocated to NWSL clubs, but their level at the time meant a lack of minutes on the field which hurt the national team.
Just over six years on, the Liga MX Femenil is thriving, with the backing of all the men’s teams, record attendances, a new sponsor deal with Nike, big international stars and a crowd culture to match any in the world in the women’s game.
Much of that is down to Gutiérrez, previously the supervisor to the National Amateur Leagues and a former player herself, who was part of a small group who set about creating the new professional league towards the end of 2016.
Since 2019, she has been the Head of the Liga MX Femenil and has seen the league go from strength to strength in that time.
“The main purpose for us is to become a sustainable league…”
“Our governing body is the general assembly of the professional clubs,” she explains. “We are not part of the FA, we are part of a professional league and the league has a governing body. Each competition has a head and I’m the head of the women’s side.”
The idea behind the new women’s league was to replicate the men’s structure. All 18 teams were be required to financially support a women’s team, while there would be two parts to the season, just like the men, with the Apertura running from July to December and Clausura from January to May.
Only 16 clubs took part in the first season back in 2017, with two pulling out for financial reasons, but the league soon reached its quota of 18 teams.
“There were different players at the table,” she adds. “We had big clubs pushing a lot to make this happen. Before it was launched, there was a lot of lobbying and convincing and when we took it to the general assembly it was an anonymous vote.
“We changed the mindset. A lot of clubs knew they would have to spend a lot of money, but now the mindset is they are investing in the game because they see the outcomes. They see when they bring Jenni Hermoso or Charlyn Corral to their club. They see when they play OL Reign, Angel City, Lyon, AC Milan etc.”
Specific rules were put in place to aid the development of the national team. Every player had to be under the age of 23, bar allowing for two overage players, while four had to be under 17.
Every player had to Mexican and initially the league was split into two groups of eight. That has been adapted year on year as the league has grown, but it’s having an effect on the Mexican youth teams, where Gutiérrez points to the under 20 national team beating Germany for the first time. “Some people didn’t understand it, but it’s given us the outcome.”
By the third season, the age limit was raised to 25, six overage players and a full 18-team league. Foreign born Mexican players were allowed, with up to six per team, and a season later the age limit was removed completely, with BBVA expanding their sponsorship across from the men’s league to the women’s league.
By the fifth season, clubs were allowed two foreign players, which has allowed for the arrival of the likes of Spain’s Hermoso, and that is now up to four for the current season, while a new under 17s league has also been launched.
51,211 fans watched Monterrey Rayados vs Tigres UANL in the 2018 final, while last year’s final between Tigres and Club América broke that record by just over a thousand, and 5.3m watched live on TV.
Tigres striker Uchenna Kanu moved to NWSL side Racing Louisville for $150,000 over the current off-season, a record for the league, and Liga MX Femenil is now thriving, with Rayados striker Christina Burkenroad, one of the star players of the league, believing it will soon be the place to be for many players.
“I wanted to play professional soccer, but I wanted to feel like a professional soccer player…”
“I’ve been telling people for like the last year that I think in the next three to five years this will be the league everyone will want to play in,” says American-born Burkenroad.
“Just my personal perspective on how it makes you feel playing in this league and I hope in the next few seasons they allow more foreigners to come in. I think that’s something big for the growth here.”
Burkenroad’s career was at a crossroads playing in the Czech league in Europe before the opportunity opened up for American-Mexicans to play in the Liga MX Femenil.
She received a message from an agent that wasn’t hers offering up the opportunity to set her up with several of the league’s top teams.
“The league only allowed players with Mexican papers and for me that was an interesting concept,” she says. “I looked at all the teams on social media and they were thriving, even just within their own culture.
“This agent set me up with Club América, Tigres and Rayados. All the calls were very professional. The managers and directors had these presentations ready. The vibe I got from Rayados was very family-orientated, a club which wanted to keep pushing and was very focused on growing the women’s side.
“In Prague, we maybe got 200 people a game, absolute maximum, so seeing what the club wanted to do was so cool for me to hear. I wanted to play professional soccer, but I wanted to feel like a professional soccer player and I felt this club could give me that.”
Burkenroad admits not everything was perfect at first and describes their locker room initially as “kind of shit”, but praises the improvements made year on year, with Rayados now having equal access to the men’s facilities, as well as their own new purpose-built locker room and a new modern building.
For Gutiérrez, the challenge is to build on what they have and not only make for a strong league, but a strong national team, with a large restructure happening at the end of last year after Mónica Vergara’s side failed to qualify for the World Cup this summer for a second tournament in succession.
With a record six CONCACAF nations at the tournament, a football-mad country like Mexico not being one of them is viewed as unacceptable within where there are top players, a huge interest from supporters and the right infrastructure to have a thriving national team.
“We signed a 10-year term and we focused on the short-term of the first five years, working with the 18 clubs every single day to make sure we accomplish those objectives,” says Gutiérrez.
“The main purpose for us is to become a sustainable league. We work with the clubs on their needs and adapt them to the strategy because the strategy is always evolving. In 2017 when we started, we had the first teams, but now we have two teams because they each have a youth team. It’s mandatory every club has this, but clubs can have other age groups if they want them. Some clubs have an under 13s team.”
Road to 2027 is one of WFC’s regular in-depth features, looking at nations around the world looking to reach a major tournament, either for the first time or after missing a tournament.
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As part of the restructure of the national teams, former player Andrea Rodebaugh came in last September to become the new Sporting Director of the Women’s National Team Programme, tasked with making the senior team successful again, as well as redeveloping the youth pathway.
Rodebaugh captained the team to the 1999 World Cup, was previously the head coach of Tijuana in 2017 and is well qualified to recreate the success being felt at domestic level on an international stage.
She is brutally honest about the task at hand, despite some of the coaches being removed, including Vergara, being former teammates and friends of hers, calling their CONCACAF tournament last summer “terrible”, and is realistic about the job she has.
“I think there was a legacy left behind of there being only one way to act, be and do…”
“It was the moment Mexico wanted to showcase this new era off the back of a five-year professional league. We had females in charge of every national team and we didn’t qualify, didn’t win one game, didn’t score one goal.
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