Last night when Cruz Azul took the field with many young faces to play Necaxa in the preseason cup hosted by TV broadcaster Sky many fans were left wondering where their new signings, Ramiro Carrera and Augusto Lotti were. A big reason why teams even want to participate in preseason tournaments in the first place is to get their pieces playing time with the team. The problem is, in this particular situation that’s not going to be possible.
Lotti and Carrera have already played for Cruz Azul in other preseason games in the last month. This preseason cup though is being sanctioned by Liga MX, and that means that the players playing in the tournament have to have a valid roster spot on their respective teams to take part in the cup just like they would in a regular season game. The window to register international transfers is actually closed until January 4th. That means that technically speaking no team is going to be able to play their new foreign born signings.
Why Is It That Local Players That Moved Can Play In The Tournament?
This is one of the biggest questions that is left to answer. Players that were already playing in LigaMX and changed teams are going to be able to take part in the tournament with their new teams. This is because there’s no need for international transfer papers to arrive at the offices of the Mexican Federation. In order to then validate the participation of that player in LigaMX. That means that we’re going to be able to see, for example, Chivas players like Alejandro Mayorga, and Toño Rodríguez on the pitch during the tournament. Even though they were on other LigaMX teams last season they have a local transfer that can be handled directly by the Mexican federation.
Ochoa Is Still One Of The Players That Could Be Up In The Air
We talked about the Ochoa situation last week. He could be in a spot that is similar to the one that some of these foreign players are in right now. Even though he hasn’t officially changed teams he’s currently not under contract with Club America. At least nothing has been made official or public at this point in time.
Without a contract he should not be allowed to participate. Furthermore, it could be against Ochoa’s own interests to take part in the tournament. If he were to sustain an injury during the cup that could hamper his ability to either resign with Club America or even find another team.
Mexican Clubs Are At Odds With The Federal Government
This whole contract issue comes off the back of a major scandal that seems to be developing behind the scenes of Liga MX. The president of Mexico in his daily press conference leaked phone calls between Pachuca’s former president and owner Jesus Martinez, and then president of Liga MX Decio de Maria. In it Martinez complained about a lack of payment from multiple clubs.
The lack of payment was not the issue though. Martinez explicitly said in the conversation that some of the missed payments were for deals that were brokered under the table. This is a direct admission from a Liga MX team owner that there are in fact deals brokered under the table in Liga MX. This is an issue that doesn’t necessarily impact players all that much. The problem is that the federal government now has a pretext to actively investigate all sorts of monetary activities within Liga MX. This could leave multiple clubs at odds with the Mexican IRS. In Mexico, we’ve seen clubs literally cease to exist for less than what is being talked about in this situation!
