Mexican Football has spent too long living with a strange contradiction: a pyramid that is supposed to create ambition, but a top flight that has not always rewarded it. That is why Mikel Arriola’s latest comment matters. The FMF president has said the federation is looking for the best way to restore promotion to the Primera División, and that is not a throwaway line. It is a sign that the debate around the structure of the game is still very much alive.
Arriola’s remarks came in Azerbaiyán during the Mundial Sub 15, where he spoke to AS inside an international tournament featuring 189 countries. He was not speaking in abstract terms either. He tied the issue directly to the wider work the FMF is doing on the football pyramid, from primary school level through to the professional game, with 1.3 million players involved each year.
The pyramid is the point
Arriola made it clear that the federation sees this as a long-term structural project, not a quick fix. His line was simple: “Estamos buscando la mejor forma de ascenso en la Primera División.” That is the kind of statement that invites optimism, but it also invites scrutiny. Mexican football has heard versions of this debate before, and the hard part is never declaring ambition. The hard part is making the system actually work.
What makes this more interesting is the scale of the pyramid Arriola described. The FMF is working on a structure that starts at the base and tries to order the route upward between amateur football, the Tercera División profesional, Liga Premier and Liga de Expansión. He also said the federation is looking for the way to include universities, a detail that matters because almost 1,400 universities are part of the wider conversation. In other words, this is not just about one division or one rule. It is about whether Mexican football can finally build a coherent pathway from the bottom to the top.
Arriola even added: “No dejamos de trabajar y de generar recursos.” That line matters because this debate is not only philosophical. It is about infrastructure, organisation and whether the pyramid can be sustained in a way that gives clubs, players and institutions a real route forward.
Why this feels different now
The bigger context is obvious. The abolition of promotion and relegation in Liga MX has left a lingering sense that the system is incomplete. Arriola did not pretend the problem was solved. He pointed instead to ongoing work, and that alone is notable. If the FMF is seriously searching for the best model, then the conversation is moving from complaint to design.
That said, this is still a work in progress, and no one should confuse a hopeful line with a finished reform. But it is significant that the federation president is talking in these terms during a FIFA tournament for 15-year-olds, where the game’s future is very much on display. Arriola described the Sub 15 event in glowing terms, saying it was fantastic to have 189 countries in an official FIFA tournament at that age, and noting that for some players it is their first win in a World Cup setting. That perspective fits the broader argument: if Mexican football wants a stronger future, it needs a system that turns opportunity into progression.
For now, the message is clear. The FMF is still trying to shape the route upward, and promotion remains part of the conversation. In Mexican football, that is not a minor detail. It is the whole point.
